Distrust And Dominance In Managing Alternative Work Arrangements: A Micro-Analytic Test Of Transaction Cost Theory

Organizations that successfully outsource may see better value-creation in creating a sustainable competitive advantage.  The objectives of this study were threefold:  a) provide a framework for studying the effects of perceived distrust that leads to dominance, b) analyze how opportunism parlays into the concept of dominance, and c) determine if the relationship between outsource partners varies by analyzing transaction characteristics.  Our research shows that firms should take caution to fully understand the effects that contract size has on a firm’s resources.&nbsp

Orographic and convective gravity waves above the Alps and Andes mountains during GPS radio occultation events – a case study

The significant distortions introduced in the measured atmospheric gravity wavelengths by soundings other than in vertical and horizontal directions, are discussed as a function of elevation angle of the sounding path and the gravity waves aspect ratio. Under- or overestimation of real vertical wavelengths during the measurement process depends basically on the value of these two parameters. The consequences of these distortions on the calculation of the energy and vertical flux of horizontal momentum are analyzed and discussed in the context of two experimental limb satellite setups: GPS-LEO radio occultations and TIMED/SABER measurements. Possible discrepancies previously found between the momentum flux calculated from satellite temperature profiles, on site and from model simulations, may, to a certain degree, be attributed to these distortions. A recalculation of previous momentum flux climatologies based on these considerations seems to be a difficult goal.Fil: Hierro, Rodrigo Federico. Universidad Austral. Facultad de Ingeniería. Departamento de Ciencias Básicas; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Steiner, Andrea K.. Universidad de Graz; AustriaFil: de la Torre, Alejandro. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad Austral. Facultad de Ingeniería. Departamento de Ciencias Básicas; ArgentinaFil: Alexander, Pedro Manfredo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Física de Buenos Aires. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Física de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Llamedo Soria, Pablo Martin. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad Austral. Facultad de Ingeniería. Departamento de Ciencias Básicas; ArgentinaFil: Cremades, Pablo Gabriel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales; Argentin

European Stroke Organization Guidelines for the Management of Intracranial Aneurysms and Subarachnoid Haemorrhage

Peer reviewe

The Theory of the Interleaving Distance on Multidimensional Persistence Modules

In 2009, Chazal et al. introduced $\epsilon$-interleavings of persistence modules. $\epsilon$-interleavings induce a pseudometric $d_I$ on (isomorphism classes of) persistence modules, the interleaving distance. The definitions of $\epsilon$-interleavings and $d_I$ generalize readily to multidimensional persistence modules. In this paper, we develop the theory of multidimensional interleavings, with a view towards applications to topological data analysis. We present four main results. First, we show that on 1-D persistence modules, $d_I$ is equal to the bottleneck distance $d_B$. This result, which first appeared in an earlier preprint of this paper, has since appeared in several other places, and is now known as the isometry theorem. Second, we present a characterization of the $\epsilon$-interleaving relation on multidimensional persistence modules. This expresses transparently the sense in which two $\epsilon$-interleaved modules are algebraically similar. Third, using this characterization, we show that when we define our persistence modules over a prime field, $d_I$ satisfies a universality property. This universality result is the central result of the paper. It says that $d_I$ satisfies a stability property generalizing one which $d_B$ is known to satisfy, and that in addition, if $d$ is any other pseudometric on multidimensional persistence modules satisfying the same stability property, then $d\leq d_I$. We also show that a variant of this universality result holds for $d_B$, over arbitrary fields. Finally, we show that $d_I$ restricts to a metric on isomorphism classes of finitely presented multidimensional persistence modules.Comment: Major revision; exposition improved throughout. To appear in Foundations of Computational Mathematics. 36 page

New Strategies for Initialization and Training of Radial Basis Function Neural Networks

In this paper we proposed two new strategies for initialization and training of Radial Basis Function (RBF) Neural Network. The first approach takes into consideration the "error" between the input vector p of the network and the x-axis, which are the centers of radial functions. The second approach takes into account the "error" between the input vector p and the network output. In order to check the performances of these strategies, we used Brazilian financial market data for the RBF networks training, specifically the adjusted prices of the 10 greater weighted shares in the Bovespa index at the time of data collection - from April 8th , 2009 to October 31th , 2014. The first approach presented a 52% of improvement in the mean squared error (MSE) compared to the standard RBF network, while the improvement for the second approach was 38%. The strategies proved to be consistent for the time series tested, in addition to having a low computational cost. It is proposed that these strategies be improved by testing them with the Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm

Classification of Abandoned Areas for Solar Energy Projects Using Artificial Intelligence and Quantum Mechanics

The increasing demand for energy has intensified recently, requiring alternative sources to fossil fuels, which have become economically and environmentally unfeasible. On the other hand, the increasing land occupation in recent centuries is a growing problem, demanding greater efficiency, particularly in the reuse of abandoned areas, which has become an alternative. An interesting alternative would be installing energy facilities like solar, wind, biomass, and geothermal, in these areas. The objective of this paper is to develop a classification methodology, based on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Quantum Theory (QT), to automatically carry out the classification of abandoned areas suitable for the settlement of these power plants. Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) improved by the hybrid algorithm Quantum-behaved Particle Swarm Optimization (QPSO) together with the Levenberg-Marquardt Algorithm (LMA) were used for the classification task. In terms of Mean Squared Error (MSE), the QPSO-LMA approach achieved a decrease of 19.6% in relation to the classical LMA training with random initial weights. Moreover, the model’s accuracy showed an increase of 7.3% for the QPSO-LMA over the LMA. To validate this new approach, it was also tested on six different datasets available in the UCI Machine Learning Repository and seven classical techniques established in the literature. For the problem of installing photovoltaic plants in abandoned areas, the knowledge acquired with the solar dataset can be extrapolated to other regions

Classification Algorithms in Financial Application: Credit Risk Analysis on Legal Entities

This research aims at analyzing bank credit of legal entity (in non-default, default and temporarily default), for the purpose of assisting the decision made by the analyst of this area. For that, we used Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs), more specifically, the Multilayer Perceptron (MLP) and the Radial Basis Functions (RBF) and, also, the statistical model of Logistic Regression (LR). For the implementation of the ANNs and LR, the softwares MATLAB and SPSS were used, respectively. For the simulations developed 5.432 data with 15 attributes were collected by the experts of the institution bank (called “XYZ”). The results show that the default clients are easily identifiable, but for the nondelinquent clients and for the temporarily defaulters, the techniques had greater difficulty in the discrimination, suggesting that they are no so discriminants. The main contributions of this work are: the analysis of three classes of clients (non-default, default and temporarily default), rather than just two (non-default and default) as is usually done; the coding of variables (attributes) of the company XYZ aiming to maximize the accuracy of the techniques and the use of the one-against all method, little used by the researchers of this research area. This work presents new insights towards research over Credit Risk Assessment showing other possibilities of client classification and codification, allowing different types of studies to take place

INITIAL SPROUT GROWTH OF POTATO SEED MINITUBERS UNDER SALT STRESS

Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) is a major crop worldwide and the tuber yield of currently used cultivars is strongly reduced at high soil salt levels. The effects of salt stress on early sprout growth of potato plants were investigated using the cultivar Ágata. Potato seed minitubers were planted in 0.4 L pots filled with commercial substrate (Bioplant®), and maintained under greenhouse conditions. A completely randomized design with five treatments and five replications was used. Three days after sprouting, potato plants were exposed to five salinity levels [0 (control), 25, 50, 75 and 100 mmol L–1 of NaCl] for 28 days. Results showed that the exposure of plants to 100 mmol L–1 NaCl reduced the shoot height (72%), shoot dry matter (76%) and root dry matter (75%) of potato plants compared to the NaCl-free control. The length of longest roots was not affected by salinity levels, indicating that inhibition of shoot growth is more severe that of the root. The exposure to high salt concentrations severely restricted the early sprout growth of potato plants. Results of this study stated that salt-stress is a constraint on potato production, and the use of cultivars tolerant to salt stress can be a strategy to achieve high levels of potato tuber yield under salinity conditions

A fresh look at augmenter of liver regeneration in rats.

Augmenter of liver regeneration (ALR) is a hepatotrophic protein originally identified by bioassay in regenerating rat and canine livers following partial hepatectomy and in the hyperplastic livers of weanling rats, but not in resting adult livers. The ALR gene and gene product were subsequently described, but little is known about the cellular/subcellular sites of ALR synthesis in the liver, or about the release and dissemination of the peptide. To obtain this information in rats, we raised antibodies in rabbits against rat ALR for development of an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). ALR concentrations were then determined in intact livers of unaltered weanling and adult rats; in regenerating residual liver after partial hepatectomy; in cultured hepatocytes and nonparenchymal cells (NPCs); and in culture medium and serum. ALR in the various liver cells was localized with immunohistochemistry. In addition, hepatic ALR and ALR mRNA were assayed with Western blotting and reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), respectively. The hepatocyte was the predominant liver cell in which ALR was synthesized and stored; the cultured hepatocytes secreted ALR into the medium in a time-dependent fashion. Contrary to previous belief, the ALR peptide and ALR mRNA were present in comparable concentrations in the hepatocytes of both weanling and resting adult livers, as well as in cultured hepatocytes. A further unexpected finding was that hepatic ALR levels decreased for 12 hours after 70% hepatectomy in adult rats and then rose with no corresponding change in mRNA transcripts. In the meantime, circulating (serum) ALR levels increased up to 12 hours and declined thereafter. Thus, ALR appears to be constitutively expressed in hepatocytes in an inactive form, and released from the cells in an active form by unknown means in response to partial hepatectomy and under other circumstances of liver maturation (as in weanling rats) or regeneration