An Empirical Examination of the “Rule of Three”: Strategy Implications for Top Management, Marketers, and Investors

This study represents the first empirical examination of the “Rule of Three,” a theory at odds with several popular notions regarding industry structure and business performance, including the positive linear market share–performance relationship. In general, the findings from more than 160 industries support the Rule of Three and provide five main insights: First, there appears to be a prevalent competitive structure for mature industries in which three “generalist” firms control the market. Second, industries that conform to this structure tend to perform better than industries with a fewer or greater number of generalists. Third, both “specialists” and generalists outperform firms that are “stuck in the middle.” Fourth, the performance benefits of market leadership appear to diminish with excessive market share. Fifth, the Rule of Three industry structure and its influence over firm profitability do not appear to be priced appropriately by financial markets. The authors discuss the implications for multiple stakeholders

Opportunities for Non-Degree Executive Education in Taiwan

Few organizations today have remained untouched by globalization. Whether they are in direct competition with multinational businesses or simply experiencing the pressure of operating within a large competitive universe, virtually all firms now operate in a global economy. As a result of this global competition, U.S. and foreign executives alike have been confronted with the need to broaden their conceptualization and understanding of the impacts of these trends. In response to these needs, both universities and independent training organizations have developed innovative programs for executive training and education. Observers predict that demand for this type of education will grow substantially during the next decade, both within the United States and abroad. In anticipation of this demand and in response to the requirements of the global economy, educational institutions of many forms have begun to focus on international opportunities, both in terms of new markets and also in terms of subject material

Ground-based coronagraphy with high-order adaptive optics

We simulate the actions of a coronagraph matched to diffraction-limited adaptive optics (AO) systems on the Calypso 1.2 m, Palomar Hale 5 m and Gemini 8.1 m telescopes, and identify useful parameter ranges for AO coronagraphy on these systems. We model the action of adaptive wavefront correction with a tapered, high-pass filter in spatial frequency rather than a hard low frequency cutoff, and estimate the minimum number of AO channels required to produce sufficient image quality for coronagraphic suppression within a few diffraction widths of a central bright object (as is relevant to e.g., brown dwarf searches near late-type dwarf stars). We explore the effect of varying the occulting image- plane stop size and shape, and examine the trade-off between throughput and suppression of the image halo and Airy rings. We discuss our simulations in the context of results from the 241-channel Palomar Hale AO coronagraph system, and suggest approaches for future AO coronagraphic instruments on large telescopes

Ground-based coronagraphy with high-order adaptive optics

We simulate the actions of a coronagraph matched to diffraction-limited adaptive optics (AO) systems on the Calypso 1.2 m, Palomar Hale 5 m and Gemini 8.1 m telescopes, and identify useful parameter ranges for AO coronagraphy on these systems. We model the action of adaptive wavefront correction with a tapered, high-pass filter in spatial frequency rather than a hard low frequency cutoff, and estimate the minimum number of AO channels required to produce sufficient image quality for coronagraphic suppression within a few diffraction widths of a central bright object (as is relevant to e.g., brown dwarf searches near late-type dwarf stars). We explore the effect of varying the occulting image- plane stop size and shape, and examine the trade-off between throughput and suppression of the image halo and Airy rings. We discuss our simulations in the context of results from the 241-channel Palomar Hale AO coronagraph system, and suggest approaches for future AO coronagraphic instruments on large telescopes

Negative impacts of invasive predators used as biological control agents against the pest snail Lissachatina fulica: the snail Euglandina ‘rosea’ and the flatworm Platydemus manokwari

Since 1955 snails of the Euglandina rosea species complex and Platydemus manokwari flatworms were widely introduced in attempted biological control of giant African snails (Lissachatina fulica) but have been implicated in the mass extinction of Pacific island snails. We review the histories of the 60 introductions and their impacts on L. fulica and native snails. Since 1993 there have been unofficial releases of Euglandina within island groups. Only three official P. manokwari releases took place, but new populations are being recorded at an increasing rate, probably because of accidental introduction. Claims that these predators controlled L. fulica cannot be substantiated; in some cases pest snail declines coincided with predator arrival but concomitant declines occurred elsewhere in the absence of the predator and the declines in some cases were only temporary. In the Hawaiian Islands, although there had been some earlier declines of native snails, the Euglandina impacts on native snails are clear with rapid decline of many endemic Hawaiian Achatinellinae following predator arrival. In the Society Islands, Partulidae tree snail populations remained stable until Euglandina introduction, when declines were extremely rapid with an exact correspondence between predator arrival and tree snail decline. Platydemus manokwari invasion coincides with native snail declines on some islands, notably the Ogasawara Islands of Japan, and its invasion of Florida has led to mass mortality of Liguus spp. tree snails. We conclude that Euglandina and P. manokwari are not effective biocontrol agents, but do have major negative effects on native snail faunas. These predatory snails and flatworms are generalist predators and as such are not suitable for biological control

InnateDB: facilitating systems-level analyses of the mammalian innate immune response

Although considerable progress has been made in dissecting the signaling pathways involved in the innate immune response, it is now apparent that this response can no longer be productively thought of in terms of simple linear pathways. InnateDB (www.innatedb.ca) has been developed to facilitate systems-level analyses that will provide better insight into the complex networks of pathways and interactions that govern the innate immune response. InnateDB is a publicly available, manually curated, integrative biology database of the human and mouse molecules, experimentally verified interactions and pathways involved in innate immunity, along with centralized annotation on the broader human and mouse interactomes. To date, more than 3500 innate immunity-relevant interactions have been contextually annotated through the review of 1000 plus publications. Integrated into InnateDB are novel bioinformatics resources, including network visualization software, pathway analysis, orthologous interaction network construction and the ability to overlay user-supplied gene expression data in an intuitively displayed molecular interaction network and pathway context, which will enable biologists without a computational background to explore their data in a more systems-oriented manner

Clinical utilization of genomics data produced by the international Pseudomonas aeruginosa consortium

The International Pseudomonas aeruginosa Consortium is sequencing over 1000 genomes and building an analysis pipeline for the study of Pseudomonas genome evolution, antibiotic resistance and virulence genes. Metadata, including genomic and phenotypic data for each isolate of the collection, are available through the International Pseudomonas Consortium Database (http://ipcd.ibis.ulaval.ca/). Here, we present our strategy and the results that emerged from the analysis of the first 389 genomes. With as yet unmatched resolution, our results confirm that P. aeruginosa strains can be divided into three major groups that are further divided into subgroups, some not previously reported in the literature. We also provide the first snapshot of P. aeruginosa strain diversity with respect to antibiotic resistance. Our approach will allow us to draw potential links between environmental strains and those implicated in human and animal infections, understand how patients become infected and how the infection evolves over time as well as identify prognostic markers for better evidence-based decisions on patient care

Dimerisation induced formation of the active site and the identification of three metal sites in EAL-phosphodiesterases

The bacterial second messenger cyclic di-3′,5′-guanosine monophosphate (c-di-GMP) is a key regulator of bacterial motility and virulence. As high levels of c-di-GMP are associated with the biofilm lifestyle, c-di-GMP hydrolysing phosphodiesterases (PDEs) have been identified as key targets to aid development of novel strategies to treat chronic infection by exploiting biofilm dispersal. We have studied the EAL signature motif-containing phosphodiesterase domains from the Pseudomonas aeruginosa proteins PA3825 (PA3825EAL) and PA1727 (MucREAL). Different dimerisation interfaces allow us to identify interface independent principles of enzyme regulation. Unlike previously characterised two-metal binding EAL-phosphodiesterases, PA3825EAL in complex with pGpG provides a model for a third metal site. The third metal is positioned to stabilise the negative charge of the 5′-phosphate, and thus three metals could be required for catalysis in analogy to other nucleases. This newly uncovered variation in metal coordination may provide a further level of bacterial PDE regulation