Reconciling Acemoglu and Sachs: geography, institutions and technology

This paper attempts to reconcile two models for sustainable economic growth in developing countries. I develop an empirical and theoretical case for how the geographic landscape of a country determines the ease with which it can assimilate foreign technologies and establish institutions favorable to economic growth. I explore the threshold between the seemingly conflicting geographic (Sachs et al.) and institutional (Acemoglu et al.) theories, and economic growth. I do this by developing a technologically determinant, intermediate bifurcation where growth shifts from being geographically to institutionally driven after enough technology has been assimilated. My analysis finds that the rate of technological assimilation is determined by the landscape of a country. As the technology level increases, income level converges toward the level of developed countries. After reaching a certain threshold, however, the primary driver of economic growth appears to shift from geography to institutions.Economic Growth, Technology, Geography, Institutions, Bifurcation, Development

SPIRITUALITY IN THE WORK PLACE AND ITS IMPACTS ON THE EFFICIENCY OF MANAGEMENT

In the modern word, successful organizations have undertaken new values and approaches, and due to these values, they have achieved more morality and success. People are also deeply interested in embracing morality, not only in their personal lives, but also in their career and social life. When the society is packed with technology, communication, complication and instability, people show a tendency toward morality to fill the vacuity appeared in their lives, not only within their personal lives, but also within their career life where they spend a part of their time. Encouraging morality in work has some advantages for organizations. Morality at work results in creativity, honesty and trust, self-success, organization, commitment, and better performance of the organization. When someone feels committed to the organization s/he works for is loyal to moral and human values and respects its employees, s/he feels a kind of adaptation with the values of the organization and works for those values. The more a person is committed to morality, the more his/her creativity, mental and spiritual justice, moral and social justice, and managerial and ruling justice will be. People who have values based on theism, believe in the divine origin of the human being and in the afterlife and consider themselves as responsible and answerable before God, their existence society, and the world. This paper, in addition to giving a definition of morality, has studied morality at work from the viewpoint of different theorists, and the essence of morality from the viewpoint of religion, naturalism and existentialism, and its correlation with important managerial and organizational variablesSpirituality, Justice, Naturalism, Religious Viewpoint, Existentialism

A study on ranking the effects of transformational leadership style on organizational agility and mediating role of organizational creativity

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of the components of transformational leadership style on organizational agility and mediating role of organizational creativity in Ilam Gas Refinery located in province of Ilam, Iran. The method of the present study was descriptive and correlational-structural equation modeling. The population of this research included all 400 workers of Ilam gas refinery and the study chose a sample of196 employees. The questionnaire was standardized using Cronbach's alpha; the obtained reliability was 0.90, which indicated the reliability of the questionnaire. At the end, the data was analyzed by LISREL software and structural equation modeling analysis was conducted. The findings showed that transformational leadership style had an effect on organizational agility. In addition, organizational creativity maintained a mediator role on influencing the transformational leadership on organizational agility. The four dimensions of transformational leadership, hopeful influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual encouragement as well as personal considerations also influenced on the agility of organizations

Size- and shape-dependent foreign body immune response to materials implanted in rodents and non-human primates

The efficacy of implanted biomedical devices is often compromised by host recognition and subsequent foreign body responses. Here, we demonstrate the role of the geometry of implanted materials on their biocompatibility in vivo. In rodent and non-human primate animal models, implanted spheres 1.5 mm and above in diameter across a broad spectrum of materials, including hydrogels, ceramics, metals and plastics, significantly abrogated foreign body reactions and fibrosis when compared with smaller spheres. We also show that for encapsulated rat pancreatic islet cells transplanted into streptozotocin-treated diabetic C57BL/6 mice, islets prepared in 1.5-mm alginate capsules were able to restore blood-glucose control for up to 180 days, a period more than five times longer than for transplanted grafts encapsulated within conventionally sized 0.5-mm alginate capsules. Our findings suggest that the in vivo biocompatibility of biomedical devices can be significantly improved simply by tuning their spherical dimensions

Reconciling Acemoglu and Sachs: geography, institutions and technology

This paper attempts to reconcile two models for sustainable economic growth in developing countries. I develop an empirical and theoretical case for how the geographic landscape of a country determines the ease with which it can assimilate foreign technologies and establish institutions favorable to economic growth. I explore the threshold between the seemingly conflicting geographic (Sachs et al.) and institutional (Acemoglu et al.) theories, and economic growth. I do this by developing a technologically determinant, intermediate bifurcation where growth shifts from being geographically to institutionally driven after enough technology has been assimilated. My analysis finds that the rate of technological assimilation is determined by the landscape of a country. As the technology level increases, income level converges toward the level of developed countries. After reaching a certain threshold, however, the primary driver of economic growth appears to shift from geography to institutions

Reconciling Acemoglu and Sachs: geography, institutions and technology

This paper attempts to reconcile two models for sustainable economic growth in developing countries. I develop an empirical and theoretical case for how the geographic landscape of a country determines the ease with which it can assimilate foreign technologies and establish institutions favorable to economic growth. I explore the threshold between the seemingly conflicting geographic (Sachs et al.) and institutional (Acemoglu et al.) theories, and economic growth. I do this by developing a technologically determinant, intermediate bifurcation where growth shifts from being geographically to institutionally driven after enough technology has been assimilated. My analysis finds that the rate of technological assimilation is determined by the landscape of a country. As the technology level increases, income level converges toward the level of developed countries. After reaching a certain threshold, however, the primary driver of economic growth appears to shift from geography to institutions

An Examination and Analysis of Employees' Job Stress in Gas Refinery company of Ilam

  Job stress is a harmful physical and mental response that occurs when job requirements have no correspondences to the capabilities, supports, and individual needs of employee. In addition to having some negative effects on physical and psychological health, it may reduce his efficiency and effectiveness of the organization. Therefore, present study has conducted with the aim of examining and analyzing employees' job stress in gas Refinery Company of Ilam. This study is a descriptive survey, whose population consists of 230 employees working in Ilam gas Refinery Company. Simple random sampling was applied, whose sample size of 140 subjects was obtained using Krejcie and Morgan table. In order to data collecting, the questionnaire provided by researcher was applied, whose validity was confirmed by management experts. Obtained Cronbach Alpha was80% indicating its reliability. In order to examining significance of research questions, t test and explorative factor analysis was applied. Data was analyzed using SPSS. The results of research show that personal and group factors and also out-organizational factors have effect on job stress, but outer-organizational factors had no significant effect on employees' job stress and the level of employees' stress id medium

Real-time Bacterial Detection by Single Cell Based Sensors UsingSynchrotron FTIR Spectromicroscopy

Microarrays of single macrophage cell based sensors weredeveloped and demonstrated for real time bacterium detection bysynchrotron FTIR microscopy. The cells were patterned on gold-SiO2substrates via a surface engineering technique by which the goldelectrodes were immobilized with fibronectin to mediate cell adhesion andthe silicon oxide background were passivated with PEG to resist proteinadsorption and cell adhesion. Cellular morphology and IR spectra ofsingle, double, and triple cells on gold electrodes exposed tolipopolysaccharide (LPS) of different concentrations were compared toreveal the detection capabilities of these biosensors. The single-cellbased sensors were found to generate the most significant IR wave numbervariation and thus provide the highest detection sensitivity. Changes inmorphology and IR spectrum for single cells exposed to LPS were found tobe time- and concentration-dependent and correlated with each other verywell. FTIR spectra from single cell arrays of gold electrodes withsurface area of 25 mu-m2, 100 mu-m2, and 400 mu-m2 were acquired usingboth synchrotron and conventional FTIR spectromicroscopes to study thesensitivity of detection. The results indicated that the developedsingle-cell platform can be used with conventional FTIRspectromicroscopy. This technique provides real-time, label-free, andrapid bacterial detection, and may allow for statistic and highthroughput analyses, and portability

Short Peptides Enhance Single Cell Adhesion and Vi- ability on Microarrays

Abstract Single cell patterning holds important implications for biology, biochemistry, biotechnology, medicine, and bioinformatics. The challenge for single cell patterning is to produce small islands hosting only single cells and retaining their viability for a prolonged period of time. This study demonstrated a surface engineering approach that uses a covalently-bound short peptide as a mediator to pattern cells with improved single cell adhesion and prolonged cellular viability on gold patterned SiO 2 substrates. The underlying hypothesis is that cell adhesion is regulated by the type, availability and stability of effective cell adhesion peptides, and thus covalently bound short peptides would promote cell spreading and thus, single cell adhesion and viability. The effectiveness of this approach and the underlying mechanism for the increased probability of single cell adhesion and prolonged cell viability by short peptides were studied by comparing cellular behavior of human umbilical cord vein endothelial cells on three model surfaces whose gold electrodes were immobilized with fibronectin, physically adsorbed Arg-Glu-Asp-Val-Tyr, and covalently-bound Lys-Arg-Glu-Asp-Val-Tyr, respectively. The surface chemistry and binding properties were characterized by reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Both short peptides were superior to fibronectin in producing adhesion of only single cells, while the covalently bound peptide also reduced apoptosis and necrosis of adhered cells. Controlling cell spreading by peptide binding domains to regulate apoptosis and viability represents a fundamental mechanism in cell-materials interaction and provides an effective strategy in engineering arrays of single cells