Understanding contextualised rational action - author's response

Understanding contextualised rational action - author's respons

Discontinuity in the Environment, Firm Response and Dynamic Capabilities

This paper identifies and focuses on a specific type of environmental development called discontinuity. Discontinuities in the forms of rapid technological innovations, regulatory reforms, institutional overhauls, and socio-cultural developments are the source of opportunities and threats to the firm. Firm responds to these discontinuities in specific ways in sustaining its existence at different points of time. This paper conceptualizes discontinuity and identifies its natures; explores the possible types of responses by the firm, and their enablers. The capability of sensing, seizing and re-shaping are captured to establish the linkages in the framework of interrelations. It posits a set of propositions based on conceptual development and illustration of two cases.

Minimal SUGRA Model and Collider Signals

The SUSY signals in the dominant stau-neutralino coannihilation region at a 500(800) GeV linear collider are investigated. The region is consistent with the WMAP measurement of the cold dark matter relic density as well as all other current experimental bounds within the mSUGRA framework. The signals are characterized by an existence of very low-energy tau leptons in the final state due to small mass difference between stau_1 and chi_1 (5-15 GeV). We study the accuracy of the mass difference measurement with a 1^deg active mask to reduce a huge SM two-photon background.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, Talk presented at ICHEP04, Aug.16-22, Beijing, China, Numerical typos in Table 5 and 6 are corrected, no changes in figures and in other numerical result

Thoughts on Siponen and Klaarvuniemi’s ‘Demystifying Beliefs about the Natural Sciences in IS’: The way forward

This is a comment on the paper by Siponen and Klaarvuniemi concerning the natural sciences. It argues that many of their points are correct but have been made before, particularly within critical realism. It suggests that the way forward is via a ‘mechanisms’ view of natural (and social) science

An array of simple, fast, and safe approaches to visualizing fine cellular structures in free-hand sections of stem, leaf, and fruit using optical microscopy

A wide array of free-hand-sectioning-based optical microscopy techniques that are simple, safe, and inexpensive, yet allows quick and easy identification of specific cell types and cellular components with unprecedented resolution are presented using leaf (Saintpaulia ionantha and Schefflera actinophylla), stem (Vitis vinifera and V. labruscana), and fruit (Vitis vinifera) tissues.  The objective of this study was to generate contrast and capture high quality cellular images of various plant organs either via infusing basic fuchsin, a xylemic dye into organs or using naturally pigmented organs by employing the classic technique of free-hand sectioning.  Also, images were obtained via post-staining free-hand sections of organs without any dye infusion.  Leaves injected with dye revealed its strikingly regular and hierarchical reticulate venation structure.  The free-hand sections of healthy and water-stressed leaf petioles, and stems and pedicels prepared from organs either infused with basic fuchsin or post-stained with safranin displayed exceptional cellular details.  These included the xylic and phloic transport systems positioned around the central parenchymatous pith, their tissue pattern in each system, and occlusion of xylem vessels by the parenchymatous tissues (tylosis).  The free-hand sections of fruit revealed fine details of its translucent mesocarp embedded with vasculature of varied architecture, and seed morphology.  Free-hand sections of naturally chromated petioles illustrated its internal structure pertaining to anthocyanin accumulating cells and crystals in superb details, and particularly, the most visually spectacular images of trichomes.  Since observations of internal structures of plants constitute the foundations of plant biology, the microscopy techniques illustrated in this study can be of great interest and benefit to both addressing fundamental questions in plant biology and curiosity-driven research