Should I make or should I buy? Innovation strategies and governance structures in the Italian food sector

This paper analyses the “make or buy” decision of food firms applied to innovation strategy using 389 Italian food firms data from the Unicredit 2007 database. We develop a set of hypothesis from three theoretical perspectives such as transaction cost economics, strategic management and resource-based view. Our paper aims at highlight whether or not different firm’s features can be linked to the decision to make or buy. We found out that these two decisions are positively interlinked. Moreover we also found out that it is difficult to indicate a clear-cut behaviour for the Italian food firms if we refer to making or buying decisions. We discuss these results and use them to bring some interesting outcomes to discuss managerial implications and/or policy interventions in this highly strategic domain

Ternary cluster decay within the liquid drop model

Longitudinal ternary and binary fission barriers of $^{36}$Ar, $^{56}$Ni and $^{252}$Cf nuclei have been determined within a rotational liquid drop model taking into account the nuclear proximity energy. For the light nuclei the heights of the ternary fission barriers become competitive with the binary ones at high angular momenta since the maximum lies at an outer position and has a much higher moment of inertia.Comment: Talk presented at the 9th International Conference on Clustering Aspects of Nuclear Structure and Dynamics (CLUSTERS'07

The Sunflower Moth and its Impact on Cultivated Sunflowers in Eastern South Dakota

Cultivated sunflowers (Helianthus annuus L.) are an increasingly important cash crop in the agricultural economy of South Dakota. Sunflower hectarage increased in South Dakota from an estimated 59,711 ha. In 1975 to approximately 250,900 ha. In 1982 (Anonymous, 1982). Most of the sunflowers are grown in the eastern half of South Dakota, and a large percentage is growing the northeastern quarter of the state (Figure 1). The expanding hectarage has necessitated an increase in insecticide application to control the several insect pests associated with them. It is estimated that 181,900 ha. Were treated with insecticides in 1982 (D. Walgenbach, South Dakota State University, Personal Communication). The objectives of this study were (1) to investigate the potential for using artificial infestations of sunflowers, (2) to collect and identify entomophagous arthropods associated with sunflowers, (3) to investigate the seasonal abundance of the most common predators, and (4) to study the potential predator-prey relationships between the most common predators and the sunflower moth larvae

The Role of Symbolic Form in the Bedtime Nature Stories of Thornton W. Burgess

The task of this research is to examine the epistemological premises inherent in Thornton W. Burgess\u27 nature stories for children as defined by Ernst Cassirer\u27s philosophy of symbolic forms. Its purpose is to identify these premises, examine them in light of Cassirer\u27s philosophy, and explore their relevance to education theory. Burgess holds that children are characterized by their potentiality, that their interest in animals is inherent, that they instinctively sense themselves superior to animals, and that for these reasons it is possible to convey any lesson to the child through the medium of a fact-based animal story. During the course of examination of these premises and the body of Burgess\u27 writings published between 1910 and 1927, two forms of presentation emerge: the mythic and the empirical-scientific. Examination of these trends in terms of Cassirer\u27s philosophy discloses a progressive development of the way in which Burgess presents facts of nature. The resulting derivation of principles of this progression provides guidelines for early childhood literature and education about science and nature

Rotational velocities of A-type stars II. Measurement of vsini in the northern hemisphere

This work is the second part of the set of measurements of vsini for A-type stars, begun by Royer et al. (2002). Spectra of 249 B8 to F2-type stars brighter than V=7 have been collected at Observatoire de Haute-Provence (OHP). Fourier transforms of several line profiles in the range 4200--4600 A are used to derive vsini from the frequency of the first zero. Statistical analysis of the sample indicates that measurement error mainly depends on vsini and this relative error of the rotational velocity is found to be about 5% on average. The systematic shift with respect to standard values from Slettebak et al. (1975), previously found in the first paper, is here confirmed. Comparisons with data from the literature agree with our findings: vsini values from Slettebak et al. are underestimated and the relation between both scales follows a linear law: vsini(new) = 1.03 vsini(old) + 7.7. Finally, these data are combined with those from the previous paper (Royer et al. 2002), together with the catalogue of Abt & Morrell (1995). The resulting sample includes some 2150 stars with homogenized rotational velocities.Comment: 16 pages, includes 13 figures, accepted in A&

FUSE observations of G226-29: First detection of the H_2 quasi-molecular satellite at 1150A

We present new FUV observations of the pulsating DA white dwarf G226-29 obtained with the Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE). This ZZ Ceti star is the brightest one of its class and the coolest white dwarf observed by FUSE. We report the first detection of the broad quasi-molecular collision-induced satellite of Ly-beta at 1150 A, an absorption feature that is due to transitions which take place during close collisions of hydrogen atoms. The physical interpretation of this feature is based on recent progress of the line broadening theory of the far wing of Ly-beta. This predicted feature had never been observed before, even in laboratory spectra.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ Letters; 6 pages, 3 figure

PACS and SPIRE range spectroscopy of cool, evolved stars

Context: At the end of their lives AGB stars are prolific producers of dust and gas. The details of this mass-loss process are still not understood very well. Herschel PACS and SPIRE spectra offer a unique way of investigating properties of AGB stars in general and the mass-loss process in particular. Methods: The HIPE software with the latest calibration is used to process the available PACS and SPIRE spectra of 40 evolved stars. The spectra are convolved with the response curves of the PACS and SPIRE bolometers and compared to the fluxes measured in imaging data of these sources. Custom software is used to identify lines in the spectra, and to determine the central wavelengths and line intensities. Standard molecular line databases are used to associate the observed lines. Because of the limited spectral resolution of the spectrometers several known lines are typically potential counterparts to any observed line. To help identifications the relative contributions in line intensity of the potential counterpart lines are listed for three characteristic temperatures based on LTE calculations and assuming optically thin emission. Result: The following data products are released: the reduced spectra, the lines that are measured in the spectra with wavelength, intensity, potential identifications, and the continuum spectra, i.e. the full spectra with all identified lines removed. As simple examples of how this data can be used in future studies we have fitted the continuum spectra with three power laws and find that the few OH/IR stars seem to have significantly steeper slopes than the other oxygen- and carbon-rich objects in the sample. As another example we constructed rotational diagrams for CO and fitted a two-component model to derive rotational temperatures.Comment: A&A accepte