Valuing Strategic Alliances in the Pharmaceutical/Biotechnology Industry

In an era of rapid and changing technological advances, a firm's survival and growth depends on its' ability to introduce products to the market. Since a firm's growth and survival depends on its' ability to develop products and services over time (Penrose, 1959), the question posed by this study is what determines a firm's ability to introduce products to market? In this study, a firm's ability to introduce product to markets are influenced by its' "absorptive capacity" to identify and internalize the resource benefits of its' alliance partners. Such an integrated view is absent in firm level and strategic alliance studies of product development. A conceptual model of firm product introductions is developed and empirically tested. Results generally support the hypotheses of this study.Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

Strange quarks in quenched twisted mass lattice QCD

Two twisted doublets, one containing the up and down quarks and the other containing the strange quark with an SU(2)-flavor partner, are used for studies in the meson sector. The relevant chiral perturbation theory is presented, and quenched QCD simulations (where the partner of the strange quark is not active) are performed. Pseudoscalar meson masses and decay constants are computed; the vector and scalar mesons are also discussed. A comparison is made to the case of an untwisted strange quark, and some effects due to quenching, discretization, and the definition of maximal twist are explored.Comment: 37 pages, 12 figures, accepted for publicatio

Session11: \u3cem\u3eSkip-GCN : A Framework for Hierarchical Graph Representation Learning\u3c/em\u3e

Recently there has been high demand for the representation learning of graphs. Graphs are a complex data structure that contains both topology and features. There are first several domains for graphs, such as infectious disease contact tracing and social media network communications interactions. The literature describes several methods developed that work to represent nodes in an embedding space, allowing for classical techniques to perform node classification and prediction. One such method is the graph convolutional neural network that aggregates the node neighbor’s features to create the embedding. Another method, Walklets, takes advantage of the topological information stored in a graph to create the embedding space. We propose a method that takes advantage of both the feature embeddings and topological by an intersection of the two methods. We first represent information across the entire hierarchy of the network by allowing the graph convolutional network to skip neighbors in its convolutions. Then using multilinear algebra, we can capture correlations across the hierarchies to create our node embeddings by representing our convolutions as a tensor. We can follow up the captured node embeddings by a dense layer to perform node classification or link prediction

Temporal Tensor Factorization for Multidimensional Forecasting

In the era of big data, there is a need for forecasting high-dimensional time series that might be incomplete, sparse, and/or nonstationary. The current research aims to solve this problem for two-dimensional data through a combination of temporal matrix factorization (TMF) and low-rank tensor factorization. From this method, we propose an expansion of TMF to two-dimensional data: temporal tensor factorization (TTF). The current research aims to interpolate missing values via low-rank tensor factorization, which produces a latent space of the original multilinear time series. We then can perform forecasting in the latent space. We present experimental results of the proposed method with other state of the art methods on the Jericho-E-Usage energy dataset

Economic implications of anaerobic digesters on dairy farms in Texas

Historically, air and water have been considered common property resources and, therefore, over utilized as waste receptors. Dairy waste is a leading environmental concern in the North Bosque River watershed in Texas. Changing societal attitudes are forcing dairies and policymakers to balance environmental concerns with farm profitability. Dairies are entering a realm filled with technologies to combat waste concerns. Anaerobic digester technology may play a role in helping dairies balance profit and the environment. Digesters capture methane from livestock waste and transform it into electricity which can be sold to utilities or used on-farm. Because a digester facility is confined, air and water pollution can be reduced. Technological advancement and institutional factor changes allowing the sale of on-farm produced electricity and green power requirements have increased the economic feasibility of digesters. The study of the economic implications of anaerobic digesters for Texas dairies provides producers and policymakers with information to make good decisions concerning adoption and subsidization of this technology. At the beginning of this study, no digesters were operating in Texas. Dairies operating digesters in four states, therefore, were interviewed on-site to provide necessary data. The expected net present value, E(NPV), of a plug-flow digester is negative with and without selling electricity, indicating it should not be constructed based strictly on its financial contribution. At the current electricity-selling price, digesters are less economically feasible than current waste management strategies, lagoons, even after considering potential environmental penalties. However, selling electricity and capturing by-product heat for cost savings makes the digester's E(NPV) less negative than lagoons. The E(NPV) of a covered lagoon digester is positive. This indicates digesters are a potentially feasible waste management strategy. For plug-flow digesters to show a positive E(NPV), the selling price needs to be approximately 82.38% higher than the current price. The breakeven selling price is 12% higher than the current price. Below the breakeven price, lagoons have a larger E(NPV) than plug-flow digesters, therefore making lagoons the preferred waste management strategy. Results suggest changes in rules and technology efficiency make digesters economically competitive with current waste management systems

“Because we have really unique art”: Decolonizing Research with Indigenous Youth Using the Arts

Indigenous communities in Canada share a common history of colonial oppression. As a result, many Indigenous populations are disproportionately burdened with poor health outcomes, including HIV. Conventional public health approaches have not yet been successful in reversing this trend. For this study, a team of community- and university-based researchers came together to imagine new possibilities for health promotion with Indigenous youth. A strengths-based approach was taken that relied on using the energies and talents of Indigenous youth as a leadership resource. Art-making workshops were held in six different Indigenous communities across Canada in which youth could explore the links between community, culture, colonization, and HIV. Twenty artists and more than 85 youth participated in the workshops. Afterwards, youth participants reflected on their experiences in individual in-depth interviews. Youth participants viewed the process of making art as fun, participatory, and empowering; they felt that their art pieces instilled pride, conveyed information, raised awareness, and constituted a tangible achievement. Youth participants found that both the process and products of arts-based methods were important. Findings from this project support the notion that arts-based approaches to the development of HIV-prevention knowledge and Indigenous youth leadership are helping to involve a diverse cross-section of youth in a critical dialogue about health. Arts-based approaches represent one way to assist with decolonization for future generations

Doing memory work with older men: the practicalities, the process, the potential

This article describes the process of setting up and participating in a collective memory work group of older men, with a focus on the making and unmaking of older men and masculinities through age, ageing, gender, gendering, and other intersections. Memory work is located in relation to related but different forms of writing and group work, emphasizing how in this method everyone becomes a writer, an author, a listener, a reader, a discussant, and a commentator. The potential of memory work, both for working with older men, and more generally is outlined. Key issues are: genuine and collective commitment to substantive change, not just at a personal level, but also at wider social/political/cultural levels; willingness to trust in the other members of the group, an issue that may be difficult for some men; and commitment for caring for one another especially in their moments of greatest vulnerability