Mergers

Using small matched samples of companies which are, and are not, highly involved in acquisition in the period 1986-90, an investigation is mounted to ascertain whether "acquisitiveness" has any impact upon the remuneration of the top directors over and above what one would expect because of the growth in "size". The evidence suggests it does, if returns to share options are included in the measure of remuneration.

1904 Congress of Accountants: National or international?

The International accounting congresses, which are held every five years, are numbered under the assumption that the first such international gathering was the one held in St. Louis in 1904. In this paper, the question is raised whether this 1904 Congress should be called international . There are reasons to believe that the main objective of the congress was to raise the status of the profession in the United States, and that the slight international involvement was little more than window dressing

Fluctuating Elastic Rings: Statics and Dynamics

We study the effects of thermal fluctuations on elastic rings. Analytical expressions are derived for correlation functions of Euler angles, mean square distance between points on the ring contour, radius of gyration, and probability distribution of writhe fluctuations. Since fluctuation amplitudes diverge in the limit of vanishing twist rigidity, twist elasticity is essential for the description of fluctuating rings. We find a crossover from a small scale regime in which the filament behaves as a straight rod, to a large scale regime in which spontaneous curvature is important and twist rigidity affects the spatial configurations of the ring. The fluctuation-dissipation relation between correlation functions of Euler angles and response functions, is used to study the deformation of the ring by external forces. The effects of inertia and dissipation on the relaxation of temporal correlations of writhe fluctuations, are analyzed using Langevin dynamics.Comment: 43 pages, 9 Figure

Dynamics of vortex tangle without mutual friction in superfluid 4^4He

A recent experiment has shown that a tangle of quantized vortices in superfluid $^4$He decayed even at mK temperatures where the normal fluid was negligible and no mutual friction worked. Motivated by this experiment, this work studies numerically the dynamics of the vortex tangle without the mutual friction, thus showing that a self-similar cascade process, whereby large vortex loops break up to smaller ones, proceeds in the vortex tangle and is closely related with its free decay. This cascade process which may be covered with the mutual friction at higher temperatures is just the one at zero temperature Feynman proposed long ago. The full Biot-Savart calculation is made for dilute vortices, while the localized induction approximation is used for a dense tangle. The former finds the elementary scenario: the reconnection of the vortices excites vortex waves along them and makes them kinked, which could be suppressed if the mutual friction worked. The kinked parts reconnect with the vortex they belong to, dividing into small loops. The latter simulation under the localized induction approximation shows that such cascade process actually proceeds self-similarly in a dense tangle and continues to make small vortices. Considering that the vortices of the interatomic size no longer keep the picture of vortex, the cascade process leads to the decay of the vortex line density. The presence of the cascade process is supported also by investigating the classification of the reconnection type and the size distribution of vortices. The decay of the vortex line density is consistent with the solution of the Vinen's equation which was originally derived on the basis of the idea of homogeneous turbulence with the cascade process. The obtained result is compared with the recent Vinen's theory.Comment: 16 pages, 16 figures, submitted to PR

Evaporation of a packet of quantized vorticity

A recent experiment has confirmed the existence of quantized turbulence in superfluid He3-B and suggested that turbulence is inhomogenous and spreads away from the region around the vibrating wire where it is created. To interpret the experiment we study numerically the diffusion of a packet of quantized vortex lines which is initially confined inside a small region of space. We find that reconnections fragment the packet into a gas of small vortex loops which fly away. We determine the time scale of the process and find that it is in order of magnitude agreement with the experiment.Comment: figure 1a,b,c and d, figure2, figure

The earliest dipodomyine heteromyid in North America and the phylogenetic relationships of geomorph rodents

Dipodomyine heteromyids (kangaroo rats and mice) are a diverse group of aridadapted ricochetal rodents of North America. Here, a new genus and species of a large dipodomyine is reported from early Miocene-aged deposits of the John Day Formation in Oregon that represents the earliest record of the subfamily. The taxon is known from a single specimen consisting of a nearly complete skull, dentary, partial pes, and caudal vertebra. The specimen is characterized by a mosaic of ancestral and highly derived cranial features of heteromyids. Specifically, the dental morphology and some cranial characteristics are similar to early heteromyids, but other aspects of morphology, including the exceptionally inflated auditory bullae, are more similar to known dipodomyines. This specimen was included in a phylogenetic analysis comprising 96 characters and the broadest sampling of living and extinct geomorph rodents of any morphological phylogenetic analysis to date. Results support the monophyly of crown-group Heteromyidae exclusive of Geomyidae and place the new taxon within Dipodomyinae. The new heteromyid is the largest known member of the family. Analyses suggest that large body size evolved several times within Heteromyidae. Overall, the morphology of the new heteromyid supports a mosaic evolution of the open-habitat adaptations that characterize kangaroo rats and mice, with the inflation of the auditory bulla appearing early in the group, and bipedality/ricochetal locomotion appearing later. We hypothesize that cooling and drying conditions in the late Oligocene and early Miocene favored adaptations for life in more open habitats, resulting in increased locomotor specialization in this lineage over time from a terrestrial ancestor

Finite temperature molecular dynamics study of unstable stacking fault free energies in silicon

We calculate the free energies of unstable stacking fault (USF) configurations on the glide and shuffle slip planes in silicon as a function of temperature, using the recently developed Environment Dependent Interatomic Potential (EDIP). We employ the molecular dynamics (MD) adiabatic switching method with appropriate periodic boundary conditions and restrictions to atomic motion that guarantee stability and include volume relaxation of the USF configurations perpendicular to the slip plane. Our MD results using the EDIP model agree fairly well with earlier first-principles estimates for the transition from shuffle to glide plane dominance as a function of temperature. We use these results to make contact to brittle-ductile transition models.Comment: 6 pages revtex, 4 figs, 16 refs, to appear in Phys. Rev.

Trichoderma aureoviride: phylogenetic position and characterization

The identity of strains identified as Trichoderma aureoviride/Hypocrea aureoviridis was reconsidered. Trichoderma aureoviride was isolated originally from a specimen identified as H. aureoviridis and thus is H. aureoviridis. The morphological and molecular characters of most strains identified as T. aureoviride differ from those of the ex-type but are more typical of T. harzianum, a member of sect. Pachybasium. Molecular data do not support inclusion of T. aureoviride in sect. Trichoderma, nor was there strong phenotypic similarity between H. aureoviridis and H. rufa. In the ITS phylogeny the T. aureoviride ex-type and other collections of H. aureoviridis form a strongly supported clade that is separate from any other recognized section of Trichoderma. Hypocrea vinosa, which was originally included in the T. aureoviride aggregate species concept, is distinct from T. aureoviride, but closely allied with H. rufa/T. viride. Trichoderma aureoviride/H. aureoviridis is a rare species, restricted to the UK and the Netherlands. We redefine T. aureoviride, limiting it to strains with very slow growth rate, effuse conidiation, and the ITS-1 and 2 sequence type D.Peer Reviewe

The differential recruitment of executive functions during time, number and length perception: An individual differences approach.

Developmental, behavioural and neurological similarities in the processing of different magnitudes (time, number, space) support the existence of a common magnitude processing system (e.g. ATOM; Bueti & Walsh, 2009; Walsh, 2003). It is however unclear whether the recruitment of wider cognitive resources (STM and executive function) during magnitude processing is similar across magnitude domains or domain specific. The current study used an individual differences approach to examine the relationship between STM, executive function and magnitude processing. In two experiments, participants completed number, length and duration bisection tasks to assess magnitude processing and tasks which have been shown to assess STM span and the four key executive component processes identified by Miyake et al. (2000) and Fisk and Sharp (2004) (shifting, inhibition, updating and access). The results suggest that the recruitment of STM and executive resources differed for the different magnitude domains. Duration perception was associated with access, inhibition and STM span. Length processing was associated with updating and number processing was associated with access to semantic memory. For duration and length, greater difficulty in the magnitude judgement task resulted in more relationships to STM and executive function. It is suggested that duration perception may be more demanding of STM and executive resources because it is represented sequentially, unlike length and number which can be represented non-sequentially

Health research systems in change: the case of ‘Push the Pace’ in the National Institute for Health Research

Background Those running well-organised health research systems are likely to be alert for ways in which they might increase the quality of the services they provide and address any problems identified. This is important because the efficiency of the research system can have a major impact on how long it takes for new treatments to be developed and reach patients. This opinion piece reflects on the experience and learning of the United Kingdom-based National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) when it implemented continuous improvement activity to improve its processes. Discussion This paper describes the structure and work of the NIHR and why, despite is successes as a health research system and ongoing local continuous improvement, it believed in the value of an organisation-wide continuous improvement activity. It did this by implementing an approach called ‘Push the Pace’. Initially, the organisation focused on reducing the amount of time it took for research to transition from an early concept to evidence that changes lives. This scrutiny enabled the NIHR to realise further areas of improvement it could make – additional goals were increased transparency, process simplification, and improved customer and stakeholder experience. We discuss our experience of Push the Pace with reference to literature on continuous improvement. Conclusion Continuous improvement is a cycle, an activity that is done constantly and over time, rather than an act or linear activity (such as Push the Pace). We believe that the work of Push the Pace has initiated a strong commitment to a culture of continuous improvement in the NIHR. This is significant because culture change is widely recognised as immensely challenging, particularly in such a large and distributed organisation. However, our biggest challenge will be to enable all staff and stakeholders of the NIHR to participate in the continuous improvement cycle