A Comparative Analysis In Germany And The United States

Treballs Finals del Màster de Recerca en Empresa, Facultat d'Economia i Empresa, Universitat de Barcelona, Curs: 2016-2017, Tutora: Patricia ElgoibarPurpose – The research aims to analyze how gender impacts the leadership style of top-level business leaders. The study explores how culture affects the relationship between gender and leadership style. Design/methodology/approach – This investigation proposes a quantitative method to collect data through a survey distributed by email to top-level managers of the 500 largest organizations, measured by total revenue, in the United States and Germany. Findings – Expected findings demonstrate that gender does condition leadership style however, culture impacts this relationship as a moderator. Research limitations/implications – A lower than expected total response rate of the survey may project limitations as well as the effect of globalization, and acroeconomic and socioeconòmic characteristics not considered in this research. Originality/value – This paper is expected to provide theoretical and managerial implications by acquiring greater awareness of the relationship between gender and leadership with culture as a moderator. This study provides information for managerial training programs focusing on international management and leadership, specifically for organizations operating between the two cultural settings of Germany and the United States

Numerical Renormalization Group studies of Correlation effects in Phase Coherent Transport through Quantum Dots

This thesis contributes to the field of transport through quantum dots. These devices allow for a controlled study of quantum transport and fundamental physical effects, like the Kondo effect. In this thesis we will focus on dots that are well described by generalized Anderson impurity models, where the discrete levels of the quantum dot are tunnel-coupled to fermionic reservoirs. The model parameters, like level energy and width, can be tuned in experiments. Therefore these systems constitute a valuable arena for testing experiment against theory and vice versa. In order to describe these strongly correlated systems, we employ the numerical renormalization group method. This allows us to address both longstanding questions concerning experimental results and new physical phenomena in these fundamental models. This thesis consists of three major projects. The first and most extensive one is concerned with the phase of the transmission amplitude through a quantum dot. Measurements of many-electron quantum dots with small level spacing reveal universal phase behaviour, a result not fully understood for almost 10 years. Recent experiments have seen that, contrarily, for dots with only a few electrons, i.e. large level spacing, the phase depends on the mesoscopic dot parameters. Analyzing a multi-level Anderson model, we show that the generic feature of the two regimes can be reproduced in the regime of overlapping levels or well separated levels, respectively. Thereby the universal character follows from Fano-type antiresonances of the renormalized single-particle levels. Moderate temperature supports the universal character. In the mesoscopic regime, we also investigate the effect of Kondo correlations on the transmission phase. In a second project we analyze a quantum dot coupled to a superconducting reservoir. In contrast to previous belief, the energy resolution of our method is not restricted by the energy scale of the superconducting gap, leading to new insights into the method. The high resolution allows us to resolve sharp peaks in the spectral function that emerge for a certain regime of parameters. A third project deals with a quantum dot coupled to two independent channels, a system known to exhibit non-Fermi liquid behaviour. We investigate the existence of the non-Fermi liquid regime when driving the system out of the Kondo regime by emptying the dot. We find that the extent of the non-Fermi liquid regime strongly depends on the mechanisms that couple impurity and reservoirs but prevent mixing of the latter

Funding AIDS programmes in the era of shared responsibility:an analysis of domestic spending in 12 low-income and middle-income countries

Background As the incomes of many AIDS-burdened countries grow and donors’ budgets for helping to fi ght the disease tighten, national governments and external funding partners increasingly face the following question: what is the capacity of countries that are highly aff ected by AIDS to fi nance their responses from domestic sources, and how might this aff ect the level of donor support? In this study, we attempt to answer this question. Methods We propose metrics to estimate domestic AIDS fi nancing, using methods related to national prioritisation of health spending, disease burden, and economic growth. We apply these metrics to 12 countries in sub-Saharan Africa with a high prevalence of HIV/AIDS, generating scenarios of possible future domestic expenditure. We compare the results with total AIDS fi nancing requirements to calculate the size of the resulting funding gaps and implications for donors. Findings Nearly all 12 countries studied fall short of the proposed expenditure benchmarks. If they met these benchmarks fully, domestic spending on AIDS would increase by 2·5 times, from US$2·1 billion to$5·1 billion annually, covering 64% of estimated future funding requirements and leaving a gap of around a third of the total $7·9 billion needed. Although upper-middle-income countries, such as Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa, would become fi nancially self-reliant, lower-income countries, such as Mozambique and Ethiopia, would remain heavily dependent on donor funds. Interpretation The proposed metrics could be useful to stimulate further analysis and discussion around domestic spending on AIDS and corresponding donor contributions, and to structure fi nancial agreements between recipient country governments and donors. Coupled with improved resource tracking, such metrics could enhance transparency and accountability for effi cient use of money and maximise the eff ect of available funding to prevent HIV infections and save lives

Microscopic model of critical current noise in Josephson-junction qubits: Subgap resonances and Andreev bound states

We propose a microscopic model of critical current noise in Josephson-junctions based on individual trapping-centers in the tunnel barrier hybridized with electrons in the superconducting leads. We calculate the noise exactly in the limit of no on-site Coulomb repulsion. Our result reveals a noise spectrum that is dramatically different from the usual Lorentzian assumed in simple models. We show that the noise is dominated by sharp subgap resonances associated to the formation of pairs of Andreev bound states, thus providing a possible explanation for the spurious two-level systems (microresonators) observed in Josephson junction qubits [R.W. Simmonds et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 93, 077003 (2004)]. Another implication of our model is that each trapping-center will contribute a sharp dielectric resonance only in the superconducting phase, providing an effective way to validate our results experimentally. We derive an effective Hamiltonian for a qubit interacting with Andreev bound states, establishing a direct connection between phenomenological models and the microscopic parameters of a Fermionic bath.Comment: 11 pages, 8 figure

Monogenic variants in dystonia: an exome-wide sequencing study

Background Dystonia is a clinically and genetically heterogeneous condition that occurs in isolation (isolated dystonia), in combination with other movement disorders (combined dystonia), or in the context of multisymptomatic phenotypes (isolated or combined dystonia with other neurological involvement). However, our understanding of its aetiology is still incomplete. We aimed to elucidate the monogenic causes for the major clinical categories of dystonia. Methods For this exome-wide sequencing study, study participants were identified at 33 movement-disorder and neuropaediatric specialty centres in Austria, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Poland, Slovakia, and Switzerland. Each individual with dystonia was diagnosed in accordance with the dystonia consensus definition. Index cases were eligible for this study if they had no previous genetic diagnosis and no indication of an acquired cause of their illness. The second criterion was not applied to a subset of participants with a working clinical diagnosis of dystonic cerebral palsy. Genomic DNA was extracted from blood of participants and whole-exome sequenced. To find causative variants in known disorder-associated genes, all variants were filtered, and unreported variants were classified according to American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics guidelines. All considered variants were reviewed in expert round-table sessions to validate their clinical significance. Variants that survived filtering and interpretation procedures were defined as diagnostic variants. In the cases that went undiagnosed, candidate dystonia-causing genes were prioritised in a stepwise workflow. Findings We sequenced the exomes of 764 individuals with dystonia and 346 healthy parents who were recruited between June 1, 2015, and July 31, 2019. We identified causative or probable causative variants in 135 (19%) of 728 families, involving 78 distinct monogenic disorders. We observed a larger proportion of individuals with diagnostic variants in those with dystonia (either isolated or combined) with coexisting non-movement disorder-related neurological symptoms (100 [45%] of 222;excepting cases with evidence of perinatal brain injury) than in those with combined (19 [19%] of 98) or isolated (16 [4%] of 388) dystonia. Across all categories of dystonia, 104 (65%) of the 160 detected variants affected genes which are associated with neurodevelopmental disorders. We found diagnostic variants in 11 genes not previously linked to dystonia, and propose a predictive clinical score that could guide the implementation of exome sequencing in routine diagnostics. In cases without perinatal sentinel events, genomic alterations contributed substantively to the diagnosis of dystonic cerebral palsy. In 15 families, we delineated 12 candidate genes. These include IMPDH2, encoding a key purine biosynthetic enzyme, for which robust evidence existed for its involvement in a neurodevelopmental disorder with dystonia. We identified six variants in IMPDH2, collected from four independent cohorts, that were predicted to be deleterious de-novo variants and expected to result in deregulation of purine metabolism. Interpretation In this study, we have determined the role of monogenic variants across the range of dystonic disorders, providing guidance for the introduction of personalised care strategies and fostering follow-up pathophysiological explorations

Impact of Emotional Intelligence, Leadership Traits and Culture on Leadership Style in Hospitality: Propensity of Green Management Practices Implementation

Programa de Doctorat en Empresa[eng] The PhD dissertation aims to investigate the impact of emotional intelligence, leadership traits and culture on leadership style in hospitality and the propensity of green management practices implementation. The entire dissertation focuses on the following five leadership styles, being transformational, transactional, ethical, servant and non-leadership style. The first part the thesis attempts to investigate the impact of gender on leadership styles of leaders in top-level and/or mid-level management positions, specifically in the hospitality sector. Furthermore, the chapter investigates how gender impacts leadership traits of self-confidence and self-assurance and attributes of emotional intelligence being self-awareness of leadership styles employed in the hospitality industry. This chapter will elucidate the impact of gender on leadership styles in the hospitality industry, and the relationship between self-awareness, self-confidence and self-assurance with gender and leadership style. The second part attempts to investigate the influence of culture on leadership styles. Profound knowledge is provided elucidating the relationship of cultural dimensions, emotional intelligence, leadership traits, age, gender and Hofstede’s cultural dimensions country index considering the participants backgrounds with leadership styles. This is an important aspect in today’s frequently international workplace settings due to globalization. Furthermore, the impact of emotional intelligence and leadership traits on leadership style is elaborated on from both, the quantitative and qualitative perspective. In this chapter, the quantitative research has been conducted globally, while eight different cultures are analyzed in the qualitative research segment: Brazilian, Spanish, Argentinian, German, Dominican, Peruvian, U.S. American and Indian. In addition, the participants of the focus group have been employed in the industry for more than half a decade, which despite their nationality has influenced them in their leadership styles and intercultural awareness. The participants indicated that those cultures have also become a part of their leadership traits which affect their leadership positively and resulted in being more successful. The objective of the third part of the thesis is to elucidate the propensity for leaders to adopt a hybrid leadership style in the hospitality industry. The research speaks to the generational differences in form of the impact of age and gender as a composite on leadership style in top-level and/or mid-level managers. This dissertation attempts to create a more comprehensive conceptual framework explaining what hybrid leadership styles are and which hybrid leadership styles are likely to be present in the hospitality industry globally in top-level and/or mid-level managers. In addition, this research contributes to further understanding of the additional phenomenon, investigating the relationships between leadership styles executed and work motivation and job satisfaction of the leaders. While also the influence of leadership style on the relationship between leader and employees through the Leader-Member-Exchange Theory (LMX) is being extrapolated. Ultimately, the influence of leadership style on employee motivation and performance is described. The purpose of the last part of the dissertation is to investigate the correlation between a specific leadership style and the inclination towards green management practice implementation in the hospitality industry. One major research limitation for this chapter was the ambiguity that is associated with green management practices globally. The impact of emotional intelligence, leadership traits, culture, age and gender on leadership style has been studied through previous chapters. This research will expand on the aforementioned variables and their impact on a leader’s inclination towards green management practices implementation in the hospitality industry. The conclusion of the dissertation will weave all the results with the five recognized leadership styles