The resource-based view within the conversation of strategic management

Includes bibliographical references

Observing the Dimensionality of Our Parent Vacuum

It seems generic to have vacua with lower dimensionality than ours. We consider the possibility that the observable universe originated in a transition from one of these vacua. Such a universe has anisotropic spatial curvature. This may be directly observable through its late-time effects on the CMB if the last period of slow-roll inflation was not too long. These affect the entire sky, leading to correlations which persist up to the highest CMB multipoles, thus allowing a conclusive detection above cosmic variance. Further, this anisotropic curvature causes different dimensions to expand at different rates. This leads to other potentially observable signals including a quadrupolar anisotropy in the CMB which limits the size of the curvature. Conversely, if isotropic curvature is observed it may be evidence that our parent vacuum was at least 3+1 dimensional. Such signals could reveal our history of decompactification, providing evidence for the existence of vastly different vacua.Comment: 30 pages, 2 figures. v2: minor changes to agree with published versio

CO-CREATION: POSITIONING DIFFERENT EXPERIENCES IN THE MULTIDIMENSIONAL SPACE

The idea of co-creation has been applied by managers long before academic researchers started studying co-creation. de Koning, Crul & Wever, 2016 reviewed literature on over fifty models of co-creation and presented four meta-models by synthesizing the literature they reviewed. In our paper, our main focus is to position three different co-creation examples in the co-creation space presented by de Koning et al., 2016 in their meta-models. Our first step is to identify all independent dimensions in each meta-model and develop on multidimensional model of co-creation. Once we have developed the multidimensional model, then we could position the three cases in which we have some in-depth understanding of how co-creation is applied. The first case is the co-creation experience from SAP, the enterprise resource planning software provider and the co-creation efforts with its customers. The second is the experience from those using Adobe software and publishing their own creations. Adobe provides a space for these original creations and share these creations with other Adobe software users. The third case is an example of automobile producers working with their auxiliary suppliers and developing new components or parts which enhance the performance of the new automobile. Our attempt to position these co-creation cases is to understand whether any other additional dimension(s) is (are) required to describe the co-creation space and the spectrum of activities where co-creation takes place. From the experience we gain by applying the multidimensional model, we intend to make contributions in future based on in-depth studies to be conducted based on our learning from this exercise

Temporally variable recurrence regimes of mega-tsunamis in the 6500 years prior to the 2004 Indian Ocean event

The analyses of cores retrieved from three sites near Port Blair (South Andaman) revealed out-of-sequence deposits at various depths. They are identified as previous episodes of tsunami by their sediment characteristics and microfossil content, using the 2004 event deposition as a template. These deposits have median ages of 601 cal. yr BP, 837 cal. yr BP, 1440 cal. yr BP, 3018 cal. yr BP, 3591 cal. yr BP, 4712 cal. yr BP, 5607 cal. yr BP, and 6357 cal. yr BP and are chronologically equivalent of those from the far-field locations in the Indian Ocean region. The distant deposits that are correlated with the South Andaman sites most likely owe their origin to the 2004-type events, as indicated by tsunami simulations in the study region. The long-term record presented here is characterized by an early phase of a quasiperiodic recurrence regime that transitions into a distinct interval of temporally clustered events. The quasiperiodic regime that appears around the mid-Holocene with an inter-event interval of 980 ± 385 years is followed by a sizable quiescent period of 1605 ± 245 years, before being succeeded by a regime of temporally clustered events. The chronology of nine tsunami events in the last 6500 years from the Indian Ocean region, thus implies a nonlinear pattern for the causative earthquakes. As demonstrated in the subduction zones elsewhere, the temporal variability of tsunamigenic great earthquakes is supported by the theoretical models espousing the characteristics of long-term stress recycling processes active within the subduction zones and transfer processes between the lower viscoelastic layer and the upper seismogenic crust

Role of Public Libraries in the Creation of Social Capital: A Study of Northern Nigeria

ABSTRACT Public Libraries play a vital role in the creation and bridging Social Capital. They offer a space for education, socialization and debate, which are open to the members of the society. This paper presents an overview of public libraries in Nigeria and their role, the challenges associated with the activities and programs of Nigerian Public Libraries in the creation of Social Capital. A total of 59 Public Libraries working in 12 State of Library Boards of Northern Nigeria and Federal Capital Abuja has been considered for the pilot study. The analysis has been done by frequency distribution, percentage and cluster analysis. Based on the results of the study, a few suggestions and solutions to overcome the problems in the creation of Social Capital have been listed. This paper is a pilot study of the Doctoral programme by the first author

Impact of COVID-19 lockdown in Tamil Nadu: Benefits and challenges on environment perspective

Prior to COVID-19 lockdown in our country, the air around us was highly polluted due to emission of greenhouse gases for over centuries. Melting of glaciers and rising of the sea levels were evidenced as the alarming signs of Global warming. Environmental degradation was observed rapidly due to depletion and exploitation of natural resources like soil, water and air. But there are few changes observed in the environment after the country’s lockdown due to coronavirus pandemic. The effects of lockdown are also entwined with human and political effects such as uncontrollable public mobility, poor access to health care due to lack of sufficient medical facilities, unemployment, migrants’ crisis, starvation and prevailing poverty. However, apart from sufferings of entire country especially the people by social, economic and psychologic effects in day-to-day life, this lockdown has given to the nature the most optimistic scenarios in environment especially with enhanced air quality, cleaner water and undisturbed pristine forest. The present review brings out the actual picture of the eco-processes that reduced man-made pollution in air and water as well as disposal of domestic or biological waste along with societal implications after imposing lockdown in the state of Tamil Nadu

Impact of histone H4 lysine 20 methylation on 53BP1 responses to chromosomal double strand breaks.

Recruitment of 53BP1 to chromatin flanking double strand breaks (DSBs) requires γH2AX/MDC1/RNF8-dependent ubiquitination of chromatin and interaction of 53BP1 with histone H4 methylated on lysine 20 (H4K20me). Several histone methyltransferases have been implicated in 53BP1 recruitment, but their quantitative contributions to the 53BP1 response are unclear. We have developed a multi-photon laser (MPL) system to target DSBs to subfemtoliter nuclear volumes and used this to mathematically model DSB response kinetics of MDC1 and of 53BP1. In contrast to MDC1, which revealed first order kinetics, the 53BP1 MPL-DSB response is best fitted by a Gompertz growth function. The 53BP1 MPL response shows the expected dependency on MDC1 and RNF8. We determined the impact of altered H4K20 methylation on 53BP1 MPL response kinetics in mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs) lacking key H4K20 histone methyltransferases. This revealed no major requirement for the known H4K20 dimethylases Suv4-20h1 and Suv4-20h2 in 53BP1 recruitment or DSB repair function, but a key role for the H4K20 monomethylase, PR-SET7. The histone methyltransferase MMSET/WHSC1 has recently been implicated in 53BP1 DSB recruitment. We found that WHSC1 homozygous mutant MEFs reveal an alteration in balance of H4K20 methylation patterns; however, 53BP1 DSB responses in these cells appear normal

A new mathematical modelling using Homotopyperturbation method to solve nonlinear equations in enzymatic glucose fuel cells.

For the first time a mathematical modelling of the enzymatic glucose membraneless fuel cell with direct electron transfer has been reported. The niche of this mathematical modelling is the description of the new Homotopy perturbation method to solve the nonlinear differential equations that describes glucose concentration and hydrogen ions respectively. The analytical results of an enzymatic fuel cell should be used, while developing fuel cell, to estimate its various kinetic parameters to attain the highest power value. Our analytical results are compared with limiting case results and satisfactory agreement is noted. The influence of parameters on the concentrations are discusse

Isolation and Characterization of Nodule-Associated Exiguobacterium sp. from the Root Nodules of Fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-graecum) and Their Possible Role in Plant Growth Promotion

One of the ways to increase the competitive survivability of rhizobial biofertilizers and thus achieve better plant growth under such conditions is by modifying the rhizospheric environment or community by addition of nonrhizobial nodule-associated bacteria (NAB) that cause better nodulation and plant growth when coinoculated with rhizobia. A study was performed to investigate the most commonly associated nodule-associated bacteria and the rhizospheric microorganisms associated with the Fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-graecum) plant. Isolation of nonrhizobial isolates from root nodules of Fenugreek was carried out along with the rhizospheric isolates. About 64.7% isolates obtained from Fenugreek nodules were gram-negative coccobacilli, 29.41% were gram-positive bacilli, and all rhizospheric isolates except one were gram-positive bacilli. All the isolates were characterized for their plant growth promoting (PGP) activities. Two of the NAB isolates M2N2c and B1N2b (Exiguobacterium sp.) showed maximum positive PGP features. Those NAB isolates when coinoculated with rhizobial strain—S. meliloti, showed plant growth promotion with respect to increase in plant's root and shoot length, chlorophyll content, nodulation efficiency, and nodule dry weight