Strategic Human Resource Management And Global Expansion Lessons From The Euro Disney Challenges In France

The strategic role of human resource (HR) management should be seen as an integral element of a company’s overall success in accomplishing its mission and business strategy. The paper will demonstrate how the decisions of a company’s HR department are essential for a company’s long-term success. In other words, strategic planning will not be presented solely as a company’s objective, but a human resource imperative as demonstrated through the Euro Disney case. In the case of Euro Disney, strategic HR management was simply missing, which caused the company’s initial strategy not to be successful in Europe. While analyzing the case and what the situation could have been with the exercise of HR’s strategic role, emphasis is placed on the importance of cultural awareness. For the purpose of further clarifying the importance of cultural awareness, a comparison is drawn between the United States and France as some of the most important lessons both for Disney and other multinational enterprises are outlined

Strategic Human Resource Management And Global Expansion Lessons From The Euro Disney Challenges In France

The strategic role of human resource (HR) management should be seen as an integral element of a company’s overall success in accomplishing its mission and business strategy. The paper will demonstrate how the decisions of a company’s HR department are essential for a company’s long-term success. In other words, strategic planning will not be presented solely as a company’s objective, but a human resource imperative as demonstrated through the Euro Disney case. In the case of Euro Disney, strategic HR management was simply missing, which caused the company’s initial strategy not to be successful in Europe. While analyzing the case and what the situation could have been with the exercise of HR’s strategic role, emphasis is placed on the importance of cultural awareness. For the purpose of further clarifying the importance of cultural awareness, a comparison is drawn between the United States and France as some of the most important lessons both for Disney and other multinational enterprises are outlined

Contrasting Nephropathic Responses to Oral Administration of Extract of Cultured Penicillium polonicum in Rat and Primate

Liquid- or solid substrate-cultured Penicillium polonicum administered in feed to rats over several days evokes a histopathological response in kidney involving apoptosis and abnormal mitosis in proximal tubules. The amphoteric toxin is yet only partly characterized, but can be isolated from cultured sporulating biomass in a fraction that is soluble in water and ethanol, and exchangeable on either anion- or cation-exchange resins. After several weeks of treatment renal proximal tubule distortion became striking on account of karyocytomegaly, but even treatment for nearly two years remained asymptomatic. Extract from a batch of solid substrate fermentation of P. polonicum on shredded wheat was incorporated into feed for rats during four consecutive days, and also given as an aqueous solution by oral gavage to a vervet monkey daily for 10 days. Treatment was asymptomatic for both types of animal. Rat response was evident as the typical renal apoptosis and karyomegaly. In contrast there was no such response in the primate; and neither creatinine clearance nor any haematological characteristic or serum component concentration deviated from a control or from historical data for this primate. The contrast is discussed concerning other negative findings for P. polonicum in pigs and hamsters. Renal karyomegaly, as a common rat response to persistent exposure to ochratoxin A, is not known in humans suspected as being exposed to more than the usual trace amounts of dietary ochratoxin A. Therefore the present findings question assumptions that human response to ochratoxin A conforms to that in the rat

CLINICAL AND NEUROIMAGING STUDIES IN PATIENTS WITH ACUTE SPONTANEOUS INTRACEREBRAL HEMORRHAGE.

Objective: To define the prognostic value of clinical and neuroimaging parameters on the 30-th day mortality and clinical outcome after spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage (sICH). Materials and methods: we examined 88 patients with sICH admitted to Neurology Clinic, UMHAT Pleven within 48 hours after clinical symptoms onset. Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) score was used to assess the primary stroke severity; neurological deficit on admission was assessed by National Institute of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS); clinical outcome at discharge was evaluated by modified Rankin Scale (mRS) and by Glasgow Outcome Scale (GOS) on the 30-th day after sICH onset. Hematoma volume was measured by the formula of Kothari: AxBxC/2 in ml. The statistical analysis was performed by SPSS 19.0 and Statgraphics plus 4.1 for Windows. Results: Initial assessment of primary stroke severity and neurological deficit by GCS и NIHSS, hematoma localization and volume were found strongly correlated with the clinical outcome on the 30-th day after the sICH onset. Age and vascular risk factors did not correlate with the clinical outcome. Male patients had better survival on the 30-th day compared with the female ones. Discussion: Neurological deficit on admission, hematoma localization and volume were found reliable predictors of the 30-th day clinical outcome that could serve for early stratification of patients and optimal choice of therapeutic approach

On the origin of solar wind. Alfven waves induced jump of coronal temperature

Absorbtion of Alfven waves is considered to be the main mechanism of heating in the solar corona. It is concluded that the sharp increase of the plasma temperature by two orders of magnitude is related to a self-induced opacity with respect to Alfven waves. The maximal frequency for propagation of Alfven waves is determined by the strongly temperature dependent kinematic viscosity. In such a way the temperature jump is due to absorption of high frequency Alfven waves in a narrow layer above the solar surface. It is calculated that the power per unit area dissipated in this layer due to damping of Alfven waves blows up the plasma and gives birth to the solar wind. A model short wave-length (WKB) evaluation takes into account the 1/f^2 frequency dependance of the transversal magnetic field and velocity spectral densities. Such spectral densities agree with old magnetometric data taken by Voyager 1 and recent theoretical calculations in the framework of Langevin-Burgers MHD. The present theory predicts existence of intensive high frequency MHD Alfven waves in the cold layer beneath the corona. It is briefly discussed how this statement can be checked experimentally. It is demonstrated that the magnitude of the Alfven waves generating random noise and the solar wind velocity can be expressed only in terms of satellite experimental data. It is advocated that investigation of properties of the solar surface as a random driver by optical methods is an important task for future solar physics. Jets of accretion disks are speculated as a special case of the wind from magnetized turbulent plasma.Comment: 4 pages, no figures, minor corrections, final version for EPJ

Design and characterization of superpotent bivalent ligands targeting oxytocin receptor dimers via a channel-like structure

Dimeric/oligomeric states of G-protein coupled receptors have been difficult to target. We report here bivalent ligands consisting of two identical oxytocin-mimetics that induce a three order magnitude boost in G-protein signaling of oxytocin receptors (OTRs) in vitro and a 100- and 40-fold gain in potency in vivo in the social behavior of mice and zebrafish. Through receptor mutagenesis and interference experiments with synthetic peptides mimicking transmembrane helices (TMH), we show that such superpotent behavior follows from the binding of the bivalent ligands to dimeric receptors based on a TMH1-TMH2 interface. Moreover, in this arrangement, only the analogues with a well-defined spacer length (∼25 Å) precisely fit inside a channel-like passage between the two protomers of the dimer. The newly discovered oxytocin bivalent ligands represent a powerful tool for targeting dimeric OTR in neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders and, in general, provide a framework to untangle specific arrangements of G-protein coupled receptor dimers

Four ultra-short period eclipsing M-dwarf binaries in the WFCAM Transit Survey

We report on the discovery of four ultra-short period (P<0.18 days) eclipsing M-dwarf binaries in the WFCAM Transit Survey. Their orbital periods are significantly shorter than of any other known main-sequence binary system, and are all significantly below the sharp period cut-off at P~0.22 days as seen in binaries of earlier type stars. The shortest-period binary consists of two M4 type stars in a P=0.112 day orbit. The binaries are discovered as part of an extensive search for short-period eclipsing systems in over 260,000 stellar lightcurves, including over 10,000 M-dwarfs down to J=18 mag, yielding 25 binaries with P<0.23 days. In a popular paradigm, the evolution of short period binaries of cool main-sequence stars is driven by loss of angular momentum through magnetised winds. In this scheme, the observed P~0.22 day period cut-off is explained as being due to timescales that are too long for lower-mass binaries to decay into tighter orbits. Our discovery of low-mass binaries with significantly shorter orbits implies that either these timescales have been overestimated for M-dwarfs, e.g. due to a higher effective magnetic activity, or that the mechanism for forming these tight M-dwarf binaries is different from that of earlier type main-sequence stars.Comment: 22 pages, 17 figures, 3 tables Accepted for publication in MNRA

Structural analysis and corrosion studies on an ISO 5832-9 biomedical alloy with TiO2 sol–gel layers

The aim of this study was to demonstrate the relationship between the structural and corrosion properties of an ISO 5832-9 biomedical alloy modified with titanium dioxide (TiO2) layers. These layers were obtained via the sol–gel method by acid-catalyzed hydrolysis of titanium isopropoxide in isopropanol solution. To obtain TiO2 layers with different structural properties, the coated samples were annealed at temperatures of 200, 300, 400, 450, 500, 600 and 800 C for 2 h. For all the prepared samples, accelerated corrosion measurements were performed in Tyrode’s physiological solution using electrochemical methods. The most important corrosion parameters were determined: corrosion potential, polarization resistance, corrosion rate, breakdown and repassivation potentials. Corrosion damage was analyzed using scanning electron microscopy. Structural analysis was carried out for selected TiO2 coatings annealed at 200, 400, 600 and 800 C. In addition, the morphology, chemical composition, crystallinity, thickness and density of the deposited TiO2 layers were determined using suitable electron and X-ray measurement methods. It was shown that the structure and character of interactions between substrate and deposited TiO2 layers depended on annealing temperature. All the obtained TiO2 coatings exhibit anticorrosion properties, but these properties are related to the crystalline structure and character of substrate–layer interaction. From the point of view of corrosion, the best TiO2 sol–gel coatings for stainless steel intended for biomedical applications seem to be those obtained at 400 C.This study was supported by Grant No. N N507 501339 of the National Science Centre. The authors wish to express their thanks to J. Borowski (MEDGAL, Poland) for the Rex 734 alloy