Looking For Niches In All The Right Places: Designing An MBA Program For The Next Decade

In an over-built, mature industry as is graduate management education it is increasingly important that schools find the right niche at which to target their MBA programs.  However, the literature is largely silent as to how a school might go about the process of finding the right niche for its MBA.  Using gap analysis and data from Occupational Outlook Handbook, we develop a process for identifying future employment trends as a means of identifying promising niches toward which to orient an MBA program.  This is an important exercise for those who design MBA programs, especially in light of the AACSB/International’s current focus upon continuous improvement among its member institutions.  Even if accreditation standards did not require it, the rapidly changing business climate makes continually upgrading MBA programs a necessity

A photometric study of the young open cluster NGC 1220

We present UBV CCD observations obtained in the field of the northern open cluster NGC 1220, for which little information is available. We provide also BV CCD photometry of a field 5$^{\prime}$ northward of NGC 1220 to take into account field star contamination. We argue that NGC 1220 is a young compact open cluster, for which we estimate a core radius in the range $1.5-2.0$ arcmin. We identify 26 likely candidate members with spectral type earlier than $A5$, down to $V_o$=15.00 mag on the basis of the position in the two-colour Diagram and in the Colour Magnitude Diagrams (CMDs). By analyzing the distribution of these stars in the colour-colour and CMDs, we find that NGC 1220 has a reddening E$(B-V)=0.70\pm0.15$ mag, is placed $1800\pm200$ pc distant from the Sun, and has an age of about 60 Myrs. The cluster turns out to be located about 120 pc above the Galactic plane, relatively high with respect to its age.Comment: 7 pages, 8 eps figures, accepted for publication in A&

Unemployment in Greece: Evidence from Greek regions using panel unit root tests

The purpose of the paper is to examine the nature of Greek regional unemployment. The paper contributes to the literature assessing the stochastic properties of Greek unemployment rate in the context of the Greek regions by relying on various univariate and panel unit root tests. In particular, recently developed and more powerful panel unit-root tests that control for structural breaks, heterogeneity and cross-sectional dependence in the panel are employed. The results show that in all cases, after taking into account the fact that regional unemployment rates in Greece are subject to a structural break, the null hypothesis of a unit root is not rejected, indicating that the Greek regional unemployment series are non-stationary with the presence of a structural break

Patients' continuing use of an online health record:a quantitative evaluation of 14,000 patient years of access data

BACKGROUND: Online access to all or part of their health records is widely demanded by patients and, where provided in form of patient portals, has been substantially used by at least subgroups of patients, particularly those with chronic disease. However, little is reported regarding the longer-term patient use of patient-accessible electronic health record services, which is important in allocating resources. Renal PatientView (RPV) is an established system that gives patients with chronic kidney disease access to live test results and information about their condition and treatment. It is available in most UK renal units with up to 75% of particular patient groups registered in some centers. We have analyzed patient use out to 4 years and investigated factors associated with more persistent use. OBJECTIVE: Our aim was to investigate RPV use by patients over time from initial registration in order to understand which patients choose to access RPV and the endurance of its appeal for different patient groups. METHODS: We analyzed an anonymized extract of the database underlying RPV containing information on patient registration and events including patient access and the arrival of new blood test results or letters that patients might wish to view. RESULTS: At the time of the extract, there were 11,352 patients registered on RPV for 0-42 months (median 17). More than half of registrants became persistent users, logging in a median of 2.0 times each month over post-registration intervals of up to 42 months (median 18.9). Provision of assistance with first logon was strongly associated with becoming a persistent user, even at 3 years. Logons by persistent users occurred around the time of consultations/tests, strongly suggestive of patient engagement. While indices indicative of greater deprivation were the strongest determinants of non-participation, they had negligible influence on drop-out rates among established users. CONCLUSIONS: In this mature patient portal system, a large proportion of patients made regular use of their online health records over protracted periods. The patterns and timing of use indicate strong patient interest in detailed information such as recent test results and clinic letters. Supporting patients through the first steps of establishing access to their online records is associated with much higher rates of long-term use of RPV and likely would increase use of other electronic health records provided for patients with chronic disease

The influence of biological sex and sex hormones on bile acid synthesis and cholesterol homeostasis.

Obesity and elevated serum lipids are associated with a threefold increase in the risk of developing atherosclerosis, a condition that underlies stroke, myocardial infarction, and sudden cardiac death. Strategies that aim to reduce serum cholesterol through modulation of liver enzymes have been successful in decreasing the risk of developing atherosclerosis and reducing mortality. Statins, which inhibit cholesterol biosynthesis in the liver, are considered among the most successful compounds developed for the treatment of cardiovascular disease. However, recent debate surrounding their effectiveness and safety prompts consideration of alternative cholesterol-lowering therapies, including increasing cholesterol catabolism through bile acid (BA) synthesis. Targeting the enzymes that convert cholesterol to BAs represents a promising alternative to other cholesterol-lowering approaches that treat atherosclerosis as well as fatty liver diseases and diabetes mellitus. Compounds that modify the activity of these pathways have been developed; however, there remains a lack of consideration of biological sex. This is necessary in light of strong evidence for sexual dimorphisms not only in the incidence and progression of the diseases they influence but also in the expression and activity of the proteins affected and in the manner in which men and women respond to drugs that modify lipid handling in the liver. A thorough understanding of the enzymes involved in cholesterol catabolism and modulation by biological sex is necessary to maximize their therapeutic potential.</p

The first poverty line? Davies and Eden’s investigation of rural poverty in late 18th-century England

Two important and well-known surveys of the household budgets of the English rural labouring poor were produced by David Davies and Frederick Eden in the 1790s. We revisit these from the point of view of their original rationale — an investigation of the characteristics and extent of poverty in the countryside. We argue that Davies' standard of ‘tolerable comfort’ can lay claim to being the first poverty line based upon the application of a minimum consumption standard to household income. We find that the majority of households fall below this standard, although those in the south of England were worst off, that family size was the largest coefficient and poverty reduced as the age of the first child increased. The incidence of poverty was not highly correlated with the absence of a woman wage earner

A remark on totally smooth renormings

[EN] E. Oja, T. Viil, andD. Werner showed, in Totally smooth renormings, Archiv der Mathematik, 112, 3, (2019), 269-281, that a weakly compactly generated Banach space ( X, center dot) with the property that every linear functional on X has a unique Hahn-Banach extension to the bidual X ** (the so-called Phelps' property U in X **, also known as the Hahn-Banach smoothness property) can be renormed to have the stronger property that for every subspace Y of X, every linear functional on Y has a unique Hahn-Banach extension to X ** (the so-called total smoothness property of the space). We mention here that this result holds in full generality -without any restriction on the space- and in a stronger form, thanks to a result ofM. Raja, On dual locally uniformly rotund norms, Israel Journal of Mathematics 129 (2002), 77-91.Supported by AEI/FEDER (project MTM2017-83262-C2-2-P of Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad), by Fundacion Seneca, Region de Murcia (Grant 19368/PI/14), and Universitat Politecnica de Valencia (A. J. Guirao). Supported by AEI/FEDER (project MTM2017-83262-C2-1-P of Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad) and Universitat Politecnica de Valencia (V. Montesinos). We thank the referees for their work, that neatly improved the original version of this note to its final form.Cobollo, C.; Guirao Sánchez, AJ.; Montesinos Santalucia, V. (2020). A remark on totally smooth renormings. Revista de la Real Academia de Ciencias Exactas Físicas y Naturales Serie A Matemáticas. 114(2):1-4. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13398-020-00831-5S141142Fabian, M., Habala, P., Hájek, P., Montesinos, V., Zizler, V.: Banach space theory: the basis of linear and nonlinear analysis. Springer, New York (2011)Fabian, M., Montesinos, V., Zizler, V.: Smoothness in Banach spaces. Selected problems. Rev. R. Acad. Cien. Ser. A. Mat. RACSAM. 100(1–2), 101–125 (2006)Ferrari, S., Orihuela, J., Raja, M.: Generalized metric properties of spheres and renorming of Banach spaces. Rev. R. Acad. Cienc. Exactas Fis. Natl. Ser. A Math. RACSAM. 113, 2655–2663 (2019)Foguel, S.R.: On a theorem by A. E. Taylor. Proc. Amer. Math. Soc. 9, 325 (1958)Godefroy, G.: Points de Namioka, espaces normants, applications à la théorie isométrique de la dualité. Israel J. Math. 38, 209–220 (1981)Guirao, A.J., Montesinos, V., Zizler, V.: Open Problems in the geometry and analysis of Banach spaces. Springer International Pub, Switzerland (2016)Harmand, P., Werner, D., Werner, W.: M-ideals in Banach spaces and Banach algebras. Lecture notes in math, vol. 1547. Springer, Berlin (1993)Haydon, R.: Locally uniformly rotund norms in Banach spaces and their duals. J. Funct. Anal. 254, 2023–2039 (2008)Oja, E., Viil, T., Werner, D.: Totally smooth renormings. Archiv. der. Mathematik. 112(3), 269–281 (2019)Phelps, R.R.: Uniqueness of Hahn–Banach extensions and unique best approximation. Trans. Amer. Math. Soc. 95, 238–255 (1960)Raja, M.: On dual locally uniformly rotund norms. Israel J. Math. 129, 77–91 (2002)Smith, R.J., Troyanski, S.L.: Renormings of $$C(K)$$ spaces. Rev. R. Acad. Cienc. Exactas Fís. Natl. Ser. A Math. RACSAM 104(2), 375–412 (2010)Sullivan, F.: Geometrical properties determined by the higher duals of a Banach space. Illinois J. Math. 21, 315–331 (1977)Taylor, A.E.: The extension of linear functionals. Duke Math. J. 5, 538–547 (1939

Towards informed and multi-faceted wildlife trade interventions

International trade in wildlife is a key threat to biodiversity conservation. CITES, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, is the primary mechanism for controlling international wildlife trade and seeks to ensure it is sustainable, relying on trade bans and controls. However, there has been little comprehensive review of the effectiveness of CITES. Here, we review typical and atypical approaches taken to regulate wildlife trade in CITES and assert that it boasts few successes. We attribute this to: non-compliance, an over reliance on regulation, lack of knowledge of listed species, ignorance of the reality of market forces, and influence among CITES actors. To more effectively manage trade we argue that interventions need to go beyond regulation and should be multi-faceted, reflecting the complexity of wildlife trade. To inform such interventions we assert an intensive research effort is needed and we outline six key research areas: (1) factors undermining wildlife trade governance at the national level, (2) determining sustainable harvest rates for CITES species, (3) gaining the buy-in of local communities in implementing CITES, (4) supply and demand based market interventions, (5) means of quantifying illicit trade, and (6) political processes and influence within CITES

Impact of age norms and stereotypes on managers' hiring decisions of retirees

Purpose -Our study investigates the role of managers in the re-employment of early retirees and asks what the effect is of managers’ age norms and stereotypes on managers’ employment decisions. Design/methodology/approach- A combination of a factorial study and a survey was conducted. First, information on the age norms and stereotypes was collected. Secondly, profiles of hypothetical retired job applicants were presented to the employers, who were asked to make a specific hiring decision. The information collected during both studies was combined in the analysis and multilevel models were estimated. Findings -The results indicate that higher age norms result in a higher propensity to hire an early retiree. Stereotypes, by contrast, do not influence managers’ decisions. Early retirees’ chances for re-employment are also related to their own circumstances (physical appearance and relevant experience) and organisational forces, as they are hired when organisations face labour force shortages. Research limitation / implications – with the use of vignettes study we deal with hypothetical hiring situation. Originality value- Although the effect of age norms and age stereotypes has been often suggested, not much empirical evidence was presented to support this notion. Our study estimates the effect of age norms and stereotypes on hiring decision. key words: bridge employment; early retirees; age norms; age stereotypes; multilevel models.