Human resource management and learning for innovation: pharmaceuticals in Mexico

This paper investigates the influence of human resource management on learning from internal and external sources of knowledge. Learning for innovation is a key ingredient of catching-up processes. The analysis builds on survey data about pharmaceutical firms in Mexico. Results show that the influence of human resource management is contingent on the knowledge flows and innovation goals pursued by the firm. Practices such as training-- particularly from external partners; and remuneration for performance are conducive to learning for innovation.Learning, R&D, human resource management, pharmaceuticals, Mexico

Formulas for Consumer Price Index at the elementary aggregate - A new proposal from the economic point of view

The price level in the aggregate economy and, more concretely, controlling its changes, has become one of the high-priority objectives within the framework of the regional macroeconomic analysis. Its different evolution could modify the interregional capital and commercial flows, being able to cause strong shocks, and of asymmetric nature, in each economy. The first step to reach this objective is obtaining a trustworthy and comparable measurement of the inflation in the different regions to be compared. The Index Number Theory is then used to calculate Consumer Price Indexes (CPI) the regional level. The calculation of CPI is made, at least, in two phases. In the first one, Elementary Price Index is considered (EPI). In the second and later phases, these EPI are combined, along with weighting information based on household’s expenditure, to obtain CPI for different aggregation levels to the country level. As previous step to the calculation of the IPE and CPI, the set of goods and services has to be defined based on households’ consumption behaviour. These sets are grouped in layers, named elementary aggregates, based on their homogeneity of satisfying consumer’s necessities. The COICOP (Classification Of Individual Consumption by Purpose) has important implications at the time of analyzing the behaviour of the consumer within each elementary aggregate, because of a high possibility of substitution between products. Nevertheless, this possibility diminishes and can get to be null when the goods and services satisfy necessities with very different nature. Whether what is wanted it is to calculate an EPI that correctly reflects the consumer behaviour, the described homogenous character cannot be forgotten, especially if, in addition, we take into account that National Statistics Agencies have no expenditure information available for weighting purposes, only data of prices to calculate EPI. This paper is focussed on analysis of the formula used to obtain the IPE, with the limitations of available information just commented. The election of the formula for the IPE has not been widely studied in the economic literature, being the proposal by Carli in 1764 and Dutot in 1738 [ extracted Reference of OIT (2003), chapter 20, pages 12-13 ] the most often used for practical purposes. Nevertheless, Fisher (1922) had already recommended not using the Carli’s formula because of the bias to the rise that it introduces [Fisher (1922), pages 29-30]. Throughout the 20th century different authors has continued looking for the ideal formula extending possible approaches to the subject: the approach of Divisia, the stochastic approach, the economic approach and the axiomatic approach. The final summary of these studies can be synthesized in "Toward to Dwells Accurate Measure of The Cost of Living” by the Advisory Commission To The Study The Consumer Price Index presented in 1996. This report, also known as Boskin’s Report, suggests the use of geometric mean price indices at the elementary aggregate for the EPI, this formula is attributed to Jevons in 1983 [OIT (2003), chapter 20, pages 12-13 ]. In the present paper, we demonstrate that all usually formulas for the calculation of the IPE are incoherent with the theory of consumer behaviour, in an aggregate characterized by the high level of substitution caused by homogeneity in the consumption purpose. In addition, the formula proposed by Rodriguez, González and Rodriguez (2004), is not only superior from the axiomatic point of view, but also from the economic approach, is the only one that is able to reflect the expected consumer behaviour.

The Creation and Implementation of A Spiritual Mentoring Program for Deployed Sailors and Marines on Board the USS Oak Hill

Purpose The purpose of this dissertation was to create, implement, and evaluate a Mentoring for Spirituality program for deployed sailors and marines on board the amphibious warship USS Oak Hill. This program endeavors to help military personnel grow in their relationship with God and, thus, help them overcome many of the emotional and behavioral problems they experience being away from home. Problem The spiritual lives of many United States Navy/Marine personnel under my chaplaincy direction are affected by long periods away from home. While away from their families and friends, many young sailors and marines often run the risk of being influenced by unscrupulous buddies that may lead to military discipline or poor long- range life choices like drinking, adultery, sexual immorality, divorce, gambling, etc. Also, they also are at risk of experiencing a wide variety of behavioral and emotional problems—depression, loneliness, anxiety, committing rape or physical violence towards a shipmate. These military personnel did not have a meaningful avenue to assist them in coping with these challenges. Method The project examined the biblical principles of spiritual mentoring and how it positively influenced some of the Bible’s main characters. The project also evaluated some of our nation’s leading thinkers on mentoring and how their current views on mentoring added value to our seminar. The Mentoring for Spirituality program has two components. First, the participants and I met four times a week as a group to study a spiritual lesson. Second, I scheduled a two-week rotation plan to personally meet with each individual for mentoring purposes. Studying the nightly lessons together provided the common ground by which my relationship with the proteges would deepen as we met one on one. Results This mentoring program personally blessed me because of the time I spent studying God’s Word and imparting the rich lesson material that paved the way for God to penetrate the minds of the proteges. The long-lasting relationships that I have with many of the proteges will always give me great joy. The project outcome surpassed my expectations and its success gave me renewed energy and satisfaction. Spiritual mentoring will continue to be a priority in my ministry and has reinforced how I interpret the intricacies of spiritual growth and sanctification. As an outcome of this seminar, most of the proteges adopted a more purposeful Christian lifestyle that included a strong commitment to daily studying and applying God’s Word, a willingness to become active in a local church body, meditation and reflection on positive and holy things, and, finally, a plan of action to avert or discourage temptations. Even though evangelism was not the project’s planned purpose, I was pleasantly surprised that twelve of the thirty-two proteges decided to become Seventh-day Adventists. Conclusion I am hoping that the Navy chaplains in the Fleet or local church pastors can use the principles and methodology of this mentoring project. Since my approach to spirituality is patently a Seventh-day Adventist view of sanctification, the curriculum content of this project needs to be adapted so as to reflect the specific faith background of other would-be mentors. This will help them meet the needs of general Protestant and Catholic participants

CONSUMER’S SATISFACTION - EXPLANATORY MODELS

When the first studies related to consumer satisfaction began to appear in the sixties, nobody could imagine protagonism that it would reach with the course of the time. Nowadays not only private sector companies dedicate part from their resources to the study of the degree of satisfaction of their clients, but satisfaction studies are more and more increasing preoccupation in the state sector, therefore works related to the satisfaction of the patients, the contributors or with the tourist destiny can be found. Firstly, a revision of the different models that have been used to explain customer satisfaction level is presented, using the cognitive and the affective-cognitive models. In the first case, human being is looking as a rational being that can process information about the different attributes of the services to form his personal satisfaction. The most useful model within this category is the expectation disconfirmation model. These kind of models explain satisfaction as a function of the degree and direction of the discrepancy between expectation and perceptions. It has evolved all over time resulting in a lot of different approaches. We have also studied the equity model, in which consumer does a benefit-cost analysis not only its owns but from the rest of people who take part in the transaction. Finally, in the affective-cognitive models, human being is seeing like a complex being that is not solely an information processor but experiences feelings and emotions that also influence in their judgments of satisfaction. Secondly, it has been realized an empirical application in which we have used the main variables in the expectation disconfirmation model: perceptions, expectations and discrepancies to estimate some logit models. The tourists who visit Tenerife are classified as satisfied or unsatisfied. Then, we model the probability of each characteristic using tourist’s scores on some destination attributes. Two samples have been used. The first one was obtained at the time of arriving; the second one has been made when leaving the island. Since tourists are not necessary the same in both samples, a statistic inference process has been made to use all the information available. The best model is obtained when expectations and perceptions are used at the same time, so we obtain a 75% of right classification. To sum up, we have found that perceptions are the main subject for the tourist’s satisfaction, although we can’t forget the importance of expectations to complete the model.

Interaction of particles with a cavitation bubble near a solid wall

Hard particle erosion and cavitation damage are two main wear problems that can affect the internal components of hydraulic machinery such as hydraulic turbines or pumps. If both problems synergistically act together, the damage can be more severe and result in high maintenance costs. In this work, a study of the interaction of hard particles and cavitation bubbles is developed to understand their interactive behavior. Experimental tests and numerical simulations using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) were performed. Experimentally, a cavitation bubble was generated with an electric spark near a solid surface, and its interaction with hard particles of different sizes and materials was observed using a high-speed camera. A simplified analytical approach was developed to model the behavior of the particles near the bubble interface during its collapse. Computationally, we simulated an air bubble that grew and collapsed near a solid wall while interacting with one particle near the bubble interface. Several simulations with different conditions were made and validated with the experimental data. The experimental data obtained from particles above the bubble were consistent with the numerical results and analytical study. The particle size, density and position of the particle with respect to the bubble interface strongly affected the maximum velocity of the particles

Re-Evaluating the Relationship Between Economic Development and Self-Employment, at the Macro-Level: A Bayesian Model Averaging Approach

We re-evaluate the relationship between stages of economic development and entrepreneurship, at the macro level. We first conduct a literature review of previous empirical research on cross-country determinants of entrepreneurship in order to put our contribution in perspective. To circumvent problems related to model uncertainty we use Bayesian Model Averaging (BMA) to evaluate the robustness of determinants of economic growth in a new dataset of 117 countries in the 2005-2019 period, allowing fixed effects and investigating the existence of heterogeneity allowing interactions of our focus variable with other regressors. Our empirical analysis then shows that the variation of self-employment rates across countries are mainly determined by variations in the unemployment, the stage of economic development and the variations in labor market frictions. When interactions are taken into account, results confirm that there is a differential effect of labor market frictions in countries with different levels of income. Frictions in labor market may encourage becoming self-employed in richer countries

Multi-axial fatigue strength of structural bolts in slip-critical connections under combined cyclic axial and shear demands

2018 Summer.Includes bibliographical references.High-Strength bolts are used extensively in structures and are regarded as the better option for connections subjected to fatigue as compared to welds and rivets. Studies have shown the superior resistance to fatigue and conclude that it should not be an issue when a bolt is properly pre-tensioned. Nevertheless, a recent application of properly pre-tensioned bolts subjected to shear stress reversals shows extensive fatigue cracking and total severing of up to 50% of the bolts in the connections. Sufficient evidence, based on experimental testing and field observations, exist to suggest the possibility of fully pre-tensioned bolts coming loose due to shear stress reversals. The problem of transverse vibrational loosening of bolts has been extensively researched as well as the issue of bolt fatigue. Only recently have they been considered together although no studies of this interaction have been done on high-strength bolts. Certain mechanisms mark the onset of bolt loosening and fatigue when bolts are subjected to cyclic shear or shear combined with tension. In this study, causes of bolt loosening and fatigue failure of bolted connections are explored. Especially the study pertains to structural bolts that are subjected to cyclic loads in multiple directions with shear reversals, which are typical of mitre gate to pintle socket connections. Certain mechanisms mark the onset of bolt loosening and fatigue when bolts are subjected to cyclic shear or shear combined with tension. The actual mechanisms and limits at which this occurs are explored in the literature and experimentally and recommendations are provided