There is a link between work life balance culture and strategic competitive advantage

This paper suggests a linkage between work-life balance culture and competitive advantage through commitment and firm-specific human resources. The paper argues that a workplace culture supportive of employees balancing their work and non-work lives leads to their commitment to their organisation being higher. Higher commitment leads to a greater willingness to invest in the development of firm specific resources – such as developing certain intra-organisational competencies or idiosyncratic technical competencies. This greater level of firm specific resources then enables the firm to have a stronger competitive advantage. The paper argues theoretically for these relationships, reviewing the relevant empirical and theoretical literature and concludes with suggestions for practice and future research

Frankfurts Position im internationalen Finanzplatzwettbewerb : eine ressourcenorientierte Analyse

Der vorliegende Aufsatz stellt die Vorgehensweise und die wichtigsten Ergebnisse einer internationalen Finanzplatzstudie vor, die im Jahre 1998 im Auftrag des Center for Financial Studies (Frankfurt am Main) durchgeführt wurde. Ziel dieser Studie war es, aus der Analyse wichtiger Finanzplatzressourcen und den Wechselwirkungen zwischen den unterschiedlichen Ressourcen Rückschlüsse auf Frankfurts Position im internationalen Finanzplatzwettbewerb zu ziehen. Aus ressourcenorientierter Sicht (Resource-Based-View) konnte gezeigt werden, daß der Finanzplatz Frankfurt einerseits größere Wettbewerbsnachteile gegenüber den Finanzzentren New York und London aufweist, die kurz- und mittelfristig kaum aufholbar sind. Andererseits besitzt der Finanzplatz Frankfurt Wettbewerbsvorteile gegenüber den Finanzzentren Paris und Tokyo. Diese sind aus der Sicht Frankfurts kurz- bis mittelfristig verteidigbar. Im Gegensatz zu den Wettbewerbsnachteilen Frankfurts im Vergleich zu den angelsächsischen Finanzplätzen fallen die Wettbewerbsvorteile Frankfurts gegenüber Paris und Tokyo aber deutlich geringer aus

Rheological and flow birefringence studies of rod-shaped pigment nanoparticle dispersions

We study rheological and rheo-optical properties of suspensions of anisometric pigment particles in a non-polar fluid. Different rheological regimes from the dilute regime to an orientationally arrested gel state were characterized and compared with existing theoretical models. We demonstrate the intricate flow behaviour in a wide range of volume fractions. A unique combination of the optical properties of the particles results in a giant rheo-optical effect: an unprecedentedly large shear stress-induced birefringence was found in the isotropic range, exhibiting a sharp pre-transitional behaviour

Microscale thermophoresis quantifies biomolecular interactions under previously challenging conditions

Item does not contain fulltextMicroscale thermophoresis (MST) allows for quantitative analysis of protein interactions in free solution and with low sample consumption. The technique is based on thermophoresis, the directed motion of molecules in temperature gradients. Thermophoresis is highly sensitive to all types of binding-induced changes of molecular properties, be it in size, charge, hydration shell or conformation. In an all-optical approach, an infrared laser is used for local heating, and molecule mobility in the temperature gradient is analyzed via fluorescence. In standard MST one binding partner is fluorescently labeled. However, MST can also be performed label-free by exploiting intrinsic protein UV-fluorescence. Despite the high molecular weight ratio, the interaction of small molecules and peptides with proteins is readily accessible by MST. Furthermore, MST assays are highly adaptable to fit to the diverse requirements of different biomolecules, such as membrane proteins to be stabilized in solution. The type of buffer and additives can be chosen freely. Measuring is even possible in complex bioliquids like cell lysate allowing close to in vivo conditions without sample purification. Binding modes that are quantifiable via MST include dimerization, cooperativity and competition. Thus, its flexibility in assay design qualifies MST for analysis of biomolecular interactions in complex experimental settings, which we herein demonstrate by addressing typically challenging types of binding events from various fields of life science

Search for dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks in √s = 13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for weakly interacting massive particle dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks is presented. Final states containing third-generation quarks and miss- ing transverse momentum are considered. The analysis uses 36.1 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at √s = 13 TeV in 2015 and 2016. No significant excess of events above the estimated backgrounds is observed. The results are in- terpreted in the framework of simplified models of spin-0 dark-matter mediators. For colour- neutral spin-0 mediators produced in association with top quarks and decaying into a pair of dark-matter particles, mediator masses below 50 GeV are excluded assuming a dark-matter candidate mass of 1 GeV and unitary couplings. For scalar and pseudoscalar mediators produced in association with bottom quarks, the search sets limits on the production cross- section of 300 times the predicted rate for mediators with masses between 10 and 50 GeV and assuming a dark-matter mass of 1 GeV and unitary coupling. Constraints on colour- charged scalar simplified models are also presented. Assuming a dark-matter particle mass of 35 GeV, mediator particles with mass below 1.1 TeV are excluded for couplings yielding a dark-matter relic density consistent with measurements

TRY plant trait database – enhanced coverage and open access

Plant traits - the morphological, anatomical, physiological, biochemical and phenological characteristics of plants - determine how plants respond to environmental factors, affect other trophic levels, and influence ecosystem properties and their benefits and detriments to people. Plant trait data thus represent the basis for a vast area of research spanning from evolutionary biology, community and functional ecology, to biodiversity conservation, ecosystem and landscape management, restoration, biogeography and earth system modelling. Since its foundation in 2007, the TRY database of plant traits has grown continuously. It now provides unprecedented data coverage under an open access data policy and is the main plant trait database used by the research community worldwide. Increasingly, the TRY database also supports new frontiers of trait‐based plant research, including the identification of data gaps and the subsequent mobilization or measurement of new data. To support this development, in this article we evaluate the extent of the trait data compiled in TRY and analyse emerging patterns of data coverage and representativeness. Best species coverage is achieved for categorical traits - almost complete coverage for ‘plant growth form’. However, most traits relevant for ecology and vegetation modelling are characterized by continuous intraspecific variation and trait–environmental relationships. These traits have to be measured on individual plants in their respective environment. Despite unprecedented data coverage, we observe a humbling lack of completeness and representativeness of these continuous traits in many aspects. We, therefore, conclude that reducing data gaps and biases in the TRY database remains a key challenge and requires a coordinated approach to data mobilization and trait measurements. This can only be achieved in collaboration with other initiatives