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The long and winding road: Routine creation and replication in multi-site organizations
Prior research on organizational routines in the ‘capabilities’ literature has either studied how new routines are created during an exploratory process of variation and selection or how existing routines are replicated during a phase of exploitation. Few studies have analyzed the life cycle of new routine creation and replication as an integrated process. In an in-depth case study of England’s Highways Agency, this paper shows that the creation and replication of a new routine across multiple sites involves four sequential steps: envisioning, experimenting, entrenching and enacting. We contribute to the capabilities research in two ways: first, by showing how different organizational levels, capabilities and logics (cognitive and behavioural) shape the development of new routines; and second, by identifying how distinct evolutionary cycles of variation and selective retention occur during each step in the process. In contrast with prior research on replication as an exact copy of a template or existing routine, our study focuses on the replication of an entirely new routine (based on novel principles) that is adapted to fit local operational conditions during its large-scale replication across multiple sites. We draw upon insights from adjacent ‘practice research’ and suggest how capabilities and practice studies may complement each other in future research on the evolution of routines
Nonparametric Regression, Confidence Regions and Regularization
In this paper we offer a unified approach to the problem of nonparametric
regression on the unit interval. It is based on a universal, honest and
non-asymptotic confidence region which is defined by a set of linear
inequalities involving the values of the functions at the design points.
Interest will typically centre on certain simplest functions in that region
where simplicity can be defined in terms of shape (number of local extremes,
intervals of convexity/concavity) or smoothness (bounds on derivatives) or a
combination of both. Once some form of regularization has been decided upon the
confidence region can be used to provide honest non-asymptotic confidence
bounds which are less informative but conceptually much simpler
Prospects for improved branching fractions
The experimental uncertainty on the branching fraction \b(\Lambda_c \to p
K^- \pi^+) = (5.0 \pm 1.3)% has not decreased since 1998, despite a much
larger data sample. Uncertainty in this quantity dominates that in many other
quantities, including branching fractions of to other modes,
branching fractions of -flavored baryons, and fragmentation fractions of
charmed and bottom quarks. Here we advocate a lattice QCD calculation of the
form factors in (the case
is simpler as the mass of the lepton can be neglected). Such a calculation
would yield an absolute prediction for the rate for . When combined with the lifetime, it could provide
a calibration for an improved set of branching fractions as long as
the accuracy exceeds about 25%.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, version to be published in Phys.\ Rev.\
Shifts in hexapod diversification and what Haldane could have said
Data on species richness and taxon age are assembled for the extant hexapod orders (insects and their six-legged relatives). Coupled with estimates of phylogenetic relatedness, and simple statistical null models, these data are used to locate where, on the hexapod tree, significant changes in the rate of cladogenesis (speciation-minus-extinction rate) have occurred. Significant differences are found between many successive pairs of sister taxa near the base of the hexapod tree, all of which are attributable to a shift in diversification rate after the origin of the Neoptera (insects with wing flexion) and before the origin of the Holometabola (insects with complete metamorphosis). No other shifts are identifiable amongst supraordinal taxa. Whilst the Coleoptera have probably diversified faster than either of their putative sister lineages, they do not stand out relative to other closely related clades. These results suggest that any Creator had a fondness for a much more inclusive clade than the Coleoptera, definitely as large as the Eumetabola (Holometabola plus bugs and their relatives), and possibly as large as the entire Neoptera. Simultaneous, hence probable causative events are discussed, of which the origin of wing flexion has been the focus of much attention
How typical is the Coma cluster?
Coma is frequently used as the archetype z~0 galaxy cluster to compare higher
redshift work against. It is not clear, however, how representative the Coma
cluster is for galaxy clusters of its mass or X-ray luminosity, and
significantly: recent works have suggested that the galaxy population of Coma
may be in some ways anomolous. In this work, we present a comparison of Coma to
an X-ray selected control sample of clusters. We show that although Coma is
typical against the control sample in terms of its internal kinematics
(substructure and velocity dispersion profile), it has a significantly high
(~3sigma) X-ray temperature set against clusters of comparable mass. By
de-redshifting our control sample cluster galaxies star-formation rates using a
fit to the galaxy main sequence evolution at z < 0.1, we determine that the
typical star-formation rate of Coma galaxies as a function of mass is higher
than for galaxies in our control sample at a confidence level of > 99 per cent.
One way to alleviate this discrepency and bring Coma in-line with the control
sample would be to have the distance to Coma to be slightly lower, perhaps
through a non-negligible peculiar velocity with respect to the Hubble
expansion, but we do not regard this as likely given precision measurements
using a variety of approaches. Therefore in summary, we urge caution in using
Coma as a z~0 baseline cluster in galaxy evolution studies.Comment: accepted for publication in MNRA
The capacity to maintain ion and water homeostasis underlies interspecific variation in Drosophila cold tolerance
Many insects, including Drosophila, succumb to the physiological effects of chilling at temperatures well above those causing freezing. Low temperature causes a loss of extracellular ion and water homeostasis in such insects, and chill injuries accumulate. Using an integrative and comparative approach, we examined the role of ion and water balance in insect chilling susceptibility/ tolerance. The Malpighian tubules (MT), of chill susceptible Drosophila species lost [Na+] and [K+] selectivity at low temperatures, which contributed to a loss of Na+ and water balance and a deleterious increase in extracellular [K+]. By contrast, the tubules of chill tolerant Drosophila species maintained their MT ion selectivity, maintained stable extracellular ion concentrations, and thereby avoided injury. The most tolerant species were able to modulate ion balance while in a cold-induced coma and this ongoing physiological acclimation process allowed some individuals of the tolerant species to recover from chill coma during low temperature exposure. Accordingly, differences in the ability to maintain homeostatic control of water and ion balance at low temperature may explain large parts of the wide intra- and interspecific variation in insect chilling tolerance
Interference between postural control and mental task performance in patients with vestibular disorder and healthy controls
OBJECTIVES - To determine whether interference between postural control and mental task performance in patients with balance system impairment and healthy subjects is due to general capacity limitations, motor control interference, competition for spatial processing resources, or a combination of these.METHOD - Postural stability was assessed in 48 patients with vestibular disorder and 24 healthy controls while they were standing with eyes closed on (a) a stable and (b) a moving platform. Mental task performance was measured by accuracy and reaction time on mental tasks, comprising high and low load, spatial and non-spatial tasks. Interference between balancing and performing mental tasks was assessed by comparing baseline (single task) levels of sway and mental task performance with levels while concurrently balancing and carrying out mental tasks.RESULTS - As the balancing task increased in difficulty, reaction times on both low load mental tasks grew progressively longer and accuracy on both high load tasks declined in patients and controls. Postural sway was essentially unaffected by mental activity in patients and controls.CONCLUSIONS - It is unlikely that dual task interference between balancing and mental activity is due to competition for spatial processing resources, as levels of interference were similar in patients with vestibular disorder and healthy controls, and were also similar for spatial and non-spatial tasks. Moreover, the finding that accuracy declined on the high load tasks when balancing cannot be attributed to motor control interference, as no motor control processing is involved in maintaining accuracy of responses. Therefore, interference between mental activity and postural control can be attributed principally to general capacity limitations, and is hence proportional to the attentional demands of both tasks
Early-type Galaxies in the Cluster Abell 2390 at z=0.23
To examine the evolution of the early-type galaxy population in the rich
cluster Abell 2390 at z=0.23 we have gained spectroscopic data of 51 elliptical
and lenticular galaxies with MOSCA at the 3.5 m telescope on Calar Alto
Observatory. This investigation spans both a broad range in luminosity
(-19.3>M_B>-22.3) and uses a wide field of view of 10'x10', therefore the
environmental dependence of different formation scenarios can be analysed in
detail as a function of radius from the cluster centre. Here we present results
on the surface brightness modelling of galaxies where morphological and
structural information is available in the F814W filter aboard the Hubble Space
Telescope (HST) and investigate for this subsample the evolution of the
Fundamental Plane.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures, to appear in "Carnegie Observatories Astrophysics
Series, Vol. 3: Clusters of Galaxies: Probes of Cosmological Structure and
Galaxy Evolution", ed. J. S. Mulchaey, A. Dressler, and A. Oemler (Pasadena:
Carnegie Observatories,
http://www.ociw.edu/ociw/symposia/series/symposium3/proceedings.html
Eddington limited starbursts in the central 10pc of AGN, and the Torus in NGC1068
We present results from a survey of nearby AGN using the near infrared
adaptive optics integral field spectrograph SINFONI. These data enable us to
probe the distribution and kinematics of the gas and stars at spatial
resolutions as small as 0.085arcsec. We find strong evidence for recent but
short lived starbursts residing in very dense nuclear disks. On scales of less
than 10pc these would have reached Eddington-limited luminosities when active,
perhaps accounting for their short duration. In addition, for NGC1068 at a
resolution of 6pc, we present direct observations of molecular gas close around
the AGN which we identify with the obscuring torus.Comment: Conference proceedings to appear in "The Central Engine of Active
Galactic Nuclei", ed. L. C. Ho and J.-M. Wang (San Francisco: ASP
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