Strategic interdependence in organizations: Deconglomeration and marketing strategy

Although strategy exists at multiple levels in a firm (corporate, business, and functional), there is a dearth of research in marketing literature that focuses on the dependency among strategy at different levels. The authors address this issue by examining the relationship between deconglomeration and marketing strategy. Deconglomeration refers to the divestiture behavior of a conglomerate firm and the transformation of its business portfolio from one that is largely composed of several unrelated businesses to one composed of fewer and related businesses. Drawing on multiple theoretical perspectives, the authors propose a conceptual model delineating the environmental and organizational drivers of deconglomeration and its outcomes for marketing. The authors suggest that after deconglomeration, (1) a firm can be expected to be more competitor and customer oriented, (2) multimarket contact with competing firms and seller concentration will increase, (3) businesses retained by the firm will be more innovative and place greater emphasis on advertising compared with sales promotion, and (4) the firm\u27s culture may become more externally oriented. Furthermore, the locus of decision making for marketing strategy may shift more toward senior management levels. In summary, changes in a firm\u27s corporate strategy could lead to significant changes in the marketing strategy of its business units

An infrared approach to Reggeization

We present a new approach to Reggeization of gauge amplitudes based on the universal properties of their infrared singularities. Using the "dipole formula", a compact ansatz for all infrared singularities of massless amplitudes, we study Reggeization of singular contributions to high-energy amplitudes for arbitrary color representations, and any logarithmic accuracy. We derive leading-logarithmic Reggeization for general cross-channel color exchanges, and we show that Reggeization breaks down for the imaginary part of the amplitude at next-to-leading logarithms and for the real part at next-to-next-to-leading logarithms. Our formalism applies to multiparticle amplitudes in multi-Regge kinematics, and constrains possible corrections to the dipole formula starting at three loops.Comment: 4 page

The helminth parasite heligmosomoides polygyrus attenuates EAE in an IL-4Rα-dependent manner

Helminth parasites are effective in biasing Th2 immunity and inducing regulatory pathways that minimize excessive inflammation within their hosts, thus allowing chronic infection to occur whilst also suppressing bystander atopic or autoimmune diseases. Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a severe autoimmune disease characterized by inflammatory lesions within the central nervous system; there are very limited therapeutic options for the progressive forms of the disease and none are curative. Here, we used the experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) model to examine if the intestinal helminth Heligmosomoides polygyrus and its excretory/secretory products (HES) are able to suppress inflammatory disease. Mice infected with H. polygyrus at the time of immunization with the peptide used to induce EAE (myelin-oligodendrocyte glycoprotein, pMOG), showed a delay in the onset and peak severity of EAE disease, however, treatment with HES only showed a marginal delay in disease onset. Mice that received H. polygyrus 4 weeks prior to EAE induction were also not significantly protected. H. polygyrus secretes a known TGF-β mimic (Hp-TGM) and simultaneous H. polygyrus infection with pMOG immunization led to a significant expansion of Tregs; however, administering the recombinant Hp-TGM to EAE mice failed to replicate the EAE protection seen during infection, indicating that this may not be central to the disease protecting mechanism. Mice infected with H. polygyrus also showed a systemic Th2 biasing, and restimulating splenocytes with pMOG showed release of pMOG-specific IL-4 as well as suppression of inflammatory IL-17A. Notably, a Th2-skewed response was found only in mice infected with H. polygyrus at the time of EAE induction and not those with a chronic infection. Furthermore, H. polygyrus failed to protect against disease in IL-4Rα−/− mice. Together these results indicate that the EAE disease protective mechanism of H. polygyrus is likely to be predominantly Th2 deviation, and further highlights Th2-biasing as a future therapeutic strategy for MS

Stellar Diameters and Temperatures. I. Main-Sequence A, F, and G Stars

We have executed a survey of nearby, main-sequence A-, F-, and G-type stars with the CHARA Array, successfully measuring the angular diameters of forty-four stars with an average precision of ~1.5%. We present new measures of the bolometric flux, which in turn leads to an empirical determination of the effective temperature for the stars observed. In addition, these CHARA-determined temperatures, radii, and luminosities are fit to Yonsei-Yale model isochrones to constrain the masses and ages of the stars. These results are compared to indirect estimates of these quantities obtained by collecting photometry of the stars and applying them to model atmospheres and evolutionary isochrones. We find that for most cases, the models overestimate the effective temperature by ~1.5%-4% when compared to our directly measured values. The overestimated temperatures and underestimated radii in these works appear to cause an additional offset in the star's surface gravity measurements, which consequently yield higher masses and younger ages, in particular for stars with masses greater than ~1.3 M_☉. Additionally, we compare our measurements to a large sample of eclipsing binary stars, and excellent agreement is seen within both data sets. Finally, we present temperature relations with respect to (B – V) and (V – K) colors as well as spectral type, showing that calibration of effective temperatures with errors ~1% is now possible from interferometric angular diameters of stars

Phase diagram of a Heisenberg spin-Peierls model with quantum phonons

Using a new version of the density-matrix renormalization group we determine the phase diagram of a model of an antiferromagnetic Heisenberg spin chain where the spins interact with quantum phonons. A quantum phase transition from a gapless spin-fluid state to a gapped dimerized phase occurs at a non-zero value of the spin-phonon coupling. The transition is in the same universality class as that of a frustrated spin chain, which the model maps to in the anti-adiabatic limit. We argue that realistic modeling of known spin-Peierls materials should include the effects of quantum phonons.Comment: RevTeX, 5 pages, 3 eps figures included using epsf. Improved theories in adiabatic and non-adiabatic regimes give better agreement with DMRG. This version accepted in Physical Review Letter

Supernova Enrichment of Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxies

(Abridged) Many dwarf galaxies exhibit sub-Solar metallicities, with some star-to-star variation, despite often containing multiple generations of stars. The total metal content in these systems is much less than expected from the heavy element production of massive stars in each episode of star formation. Such a deficiency implies that a substantial fraction of the enriched material has been lost from these small galaxies. Mass ejection from dwarf galaxies may have important consequences for the evolution of the intergalactic medium and for the evolution of massive galaxies, which themselves may have formed via the merger of smaller systems. We report here the results of three-dimensional simulations of the evolution of supernova-enriched gas within dwarf spheroidal galaxies (dSph's), with the aim of determining the retention efficiency of supernova ejecta. We consider two galaxy models, selected to represent opposite ends of the dSph sequence. For each model galaxy we investigate a number of scenarios, ranging from a single supernova in smooth gas distributions to more complex multiple supernovae in highly disturbed gas distributions. The results of these investigations suggest that, for low star-formation efficiencies, it is difficult to completely expel the enriched material from the galaxy. Most of the enriched gas is, however, lost from the core of the galaxy following multiple supernovae, especially if the interstellar medium is already highly disturbed by processes such as photo-ionization and stellar winds. If subsequent star formation occurs predominantly within the core where most of the residual gas is concentrated, then these results could explain the poor self-enrichment efficiency observed in dwarf galaxies.Comment: 29 pages, 10 figures, to appear in Astrophysical Journa

Rectal cancer survival in the United States by race and stage, 2001 to 2009: Findings from the CONCORD-2 study.

BACKGROUND: In the first CONCORD study, 5-year survival for patients with diagnosed with rectal cancer between 1990 and 1994 was <60%, with large racial disparities noted in the majority of participating states. We have updated these findings to 2009 by examining population-based survival by stage of disease at the time of diagnosis, race, and calendar period. METHODS: Data from the CONCORD-2 study were used to compare survival among individuals aged 15 to 99 years who were diagnosed in 37 states encompassing up to 80% of the US population. We estimated net survival up to 5 years after diagnosis correcting for background mortality with state-specific and race-specific life table. Survival estimates were age-standardized with the International Cancer Survival Standard weights. We present survival estimates by race (all, black, and white) for 2001 through 2003 and 2004 through 2009 to account for changes in collecting the data for Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Summary Stage 2000. RESULTS: There was a small increase in 1-year, 3-year, and 5-year net survival between 2001-2003 (84.6%, 70.7%, and 63.2%, respectively), and 2004-2009 (85.1%, 71.5%, and 64.1%, respectively). Black individuals were found to have lower 1-year, 3-year, and 5-year survival than white individuals in both periods; the absolute difference in survival between black and white individuals declined only for 5-year survival. Black patients had lower 5-year survival than whites at each stage at the time of diagnosis in both time periods. CONCLUSIONS: There was little improvement noted in net survival for patients with rectal cancer, with persistent disparities noted between black and white individuals. Additional investigation is needed to identify and implement effective interventions to ensure the consistent and equitable use of high-quality screening, diagnosis, and treatment to improve survival for patients with rectal cancer. Cancer 2017;123:5037-58. Published 2017. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA

Timeline analysis and wavelet multiscale analysis of the AKARI All-Sky Survey at 90 micron

We present a careful analysis of the point source detection limit of the AKARI All-Sky Survey in the WIDE-S 90 $\mu$m band near the North Ecliptic Pole (NEP). Timeline Analysis is used to detect IRAS sources and then a conversion factor is derived to transform the peak timeline signal to the interpolated 90 $\mu$m flux of a source. Combined with a robust noise measurement, the point source flux detection limit at S/N $>5$ for a single detector row is $1.1\pm0.1$ Jy which corresponds to a point source detection limit of the survey of $\sim$0.4 Jy. Wavelet transform offers a multiscale representation of the Time Series Data (TSD). We calculate the continuous wavelet transform of the TSD and then search for significant wavelet coefficients considered as potential source detections. To discriminate real sources from spurious or moving objects, only sources with confirmation are selected. In our multiscale analysis, IRAS sources selected above $4\sigma$ can be identified as the only real sources at the Point Source Scales. We also investigate the correlation between the non-IRAS sources detected in Timeline Analysis and cirrus emission using wavelet transform and contour plots of wavelet power spectrum. It is shown that the non-IRAS sources are most likely to be caused by excessive noise over a large range of spatial scales rather than real extended structures such as cirrus clouds.Comment: 16 pages, 19 figures, 5 tables, accepted for publication in MNRA

Development of a networked photonic‐enabled staring radar testbed for urban surveillance

Urban surveillance of slow-moving small targets such as drones and birds in low to medium airspace using radar presents significant challenges. Detecting, locating and identifying such low observable targets in strong clutter requires both innovation in radar hardware design and optimisation of processing algorithms. To this end, the University of Birmingham (UoB) has set-up a testbed of two L-band staring radars to support performance benchmarking using datasets of target and clutter from realistic urban environment. This testbed is also providing the vehicle to understand how novel radar architectures can enhance radar capabilities. Some of the challenges in installing the radar at the UoB campus are highlighted. Detailed benchmarking results are provided from urban monostatic and bistatic field trials that form the basis for performance comparison against future hardware modification. The solution to the challenge of interfacing the radar to the external oscillators is described and stand-alone bench tests with the candidate oscillators are reported. The testbed provides a valuable capability to undertake detailed analysis of performance of Quantum photonic-enabled radar and allows for its comparison with conventional oscillator technology for surveillance of low observable targets in the presence of urban clutter