To own or not to own: How ownership impacts user innovation-An empirical study

User innovation studies have mainly concentrated on markets in which users purchase products and, thus, both own and control the acquired good. However, users also use products that they do not own, in which case ownership and control are separated. Property rights theory predicts that the separation of ownership and control is a user innovation barrier. When innovating, users need to accommodate an additional actor: the owner. Separation of ownership and control thus induces uncertainty and complexity in the user innovation process, increasing users' costs to innovate. The results of hierarchical regression analyses of data from 743 German rowers show that separation of ownership and control negatively impacts user innovativeness. Use experience positively moderates this relationship with regard to idea generation, but negatively with regard to idea realization. To remedy the negative impact, we propose approaches to manufacturers that employ co-creation-based innovation strategies (e.g. grant back clauses in use contracts).This is the accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Elsevier at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0166497214001588

Life cycle-based environmental impacts of energy system transformation strategies for Germany: Are climate and environmental protection conflicting goals?

In the development of climate-friendly energy system transformation strategies it is often ignored that environmental protection encompasses more than climate protection alone. There is therefore a risk of developing transformation strategies whose climate friendliness comes at the expense of higher other environmental impacts. Consequently, an assessment of environmental impacts of energy system transformation strategies is required if undesired environmental side effects of the energy system transformation are to be avoided and transformation strategies are to be developed that are both climate and environmentally friendly. In this paper, ten structurally different transformation strategies for the German energy system were re-modeled (in a harmonized manner). Five of these scenarios describe pathways for a reduction of direct, energy related CO$_2$ emissions by 80%, the other five by 95%. Life cycle-based environmental impacts of the scenarios were assessed by coupling the scenario results with data from a life cycle inventory database focusing on energy and transport technologies. The results show that the transformation to a climate-friendly energy system reduces environmental impacts in many impact categories. However, exceptions occur with respect to the consumption of mineral resources, land use and certain human health indicators, which could increase with decreasing CO$_2$ emissions. The comparison of environmental impacts of moderately ambitious strategies (80% CO$_2$ reduction) with very ambitious strategies (95% CO$_2$ reduction) shows that there is a risk of increasing environmental impacts with increasing climate protection, although very ambitious strategies do not necessarily come along with higher environmental impacts than moderately ambitious strategies. A reduction of environmental impacts could be achieved by a moderate and – as far as possible – direct electrification of heat and transport, a balanced technology mix for electricity generation, by reducing the number and size of passenger cars and by reducing the environmental impacts from the construction of these vehicles

Atropselective syntheses of (-) and (+) rugulotrosin A utilizing point-to-axial chirality transfer

Chiral, dimeric natural products containing complex structures and interesting biological properties have inspired chemists and biologists for decades. A seven-step total synthesis of the axially chiral, dimeric tetrahydroxanthone natural product rugulotrosin A is described. The synthesis employs a one-pot Suzuki coupling/dimerization to generate the requisite 2,2'-biaryl linkage. Highly selective point-to-axial chirality transfer was achieved using palladium catalysis with achiral phosphine ligands. Single X-ray crystal diffraction data were obtained to confirm both the atropisomeric configuration and absolute stereochemistry of rugulotrosin A. Computational studies are described to rationalize the atropselectivity observed in the key dimerization step. Comparison of the crude fungal extract with synthetic rugulotrosin A and its atropisomer verified that nature generates a single atropisomer of the natural product.P50 GM067041 - NIGMS NIH HHS; R01 GM099920 - NIGMS NIH HHS; GM-067041 - NIGMS NIH HHS; GM-099920 - NIGMS NIH HH

Ferromagnetism in defect-ridden oxides and related materials

The existence of high-temperature ferromagnetism in thin films and nanoparticles of oxides containing small quantities of magnetic dopants remains controversial. Some regard these materials as dilute magnetic semiconductors, while others think they are ferromagnetic only because the magnetic dopants form secondary ferromagnetic impurity phases such as cobalt metal or magnetite. There are also reports in d0 systems and other defective oxides that contain no magnetic ions. Here, we investigate TiO2 (rutile) containing 1 - 5% of iron cations and find that the room-temperature ferromagnetism of films prepared by pulsed-laser deposition is not due to magnetic ordering of the iron. The films are neither dilute magnetic semiconductors nor hosts to an iron-based ferromagnetic impurity phase. A new model is developed for defect-related ferromagnetism which involves a spin-split defect band populated by charge transfer from a proximate charge reservoir in the present case a mixture Fe2+ and Fe3+ ions in the oxide lattice. The phase diagram for the model shows how inhomogeneous Stoner ferromagnetism depends on the total number of electrons Ntot, the Stoner exchange integral I and the defect bandwidth W; the band occupancy is governed by the d-d Coulomb interaction U. There are regions of ferromagnetic metal, half-metal and insulator as well as nonmagnetic metal and insulator. A characteristic feature of the high-temperature Stoner magnetism is an an anhysteretic magnetization curve which is practically temperature independent below room temperature. This is related to a wandering ferromagnetic axis which is determined by local dipole fields. The magnetization is limited by the defect concentration, not by the 3d doping. Only 1-2 % of the volume of the films is magnetically ordered.Comment: 22 pages, 6 figure

Preparation of amino-substituted indenes and 1,4-dihydronaphthalenes using a one-pot multireaction approach: total synthesis of oxybenzo[c]phenanthridine alkaloids

Allylic trichloroacetimidates bearing a 2-vinyl or 2-allylaryl group have been designed as substrates for a one-pot, two-step multi-bond-forming process leading to the general preparation of aminoindenes and amino-substituted 1,4-dihydronaphthalenes. The synthetic utility of the privileged structures formed from this one-pot process was demonstrated with the total synthesis of four oxybenzo[c]phenanthridine alkaloids, oxychelerythrine, oxysanguinarine, oxynitidine, and oxyavicine. An intramolecular biaryl Heck coupling reaction, catalyzed using the Hermann–Beller palladacycle was used to effect the key step during the synthesis of the natural products

Integrated multidimensional sustainability assessment of energy system transformation pathways

Sustainable development embraces a broad spectrum of social, economic and ecological aspects. Thus, a sustainable transformation process of energy systems is inevitably multidimensional and needs to go beyond climate impact and cost considerations. An approach for an integrated and interdisciplinary sustainability assessment of energy system transformation pathways is presented here. It first integrates energy system modeling with a multidimensional impact assessment that focuses on life cycle-based environmental and macroeconomic impacts. Then, stakeholders’ preferences with respect to defined sustainability indicators are inquired, which are finally integrated into a comparative scenario evaluation through a multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA), all in one consistent assessment framework. As an illustrative example, this holistic approach is applied to the sustainability assessment of ten different transformation strategies for Germany. Applying multi-criteria decision analysis reveals that both ambitious (80%) and highly ambitious (95%) carbon reduction scenarios can achieve top sustainability ranks, depending on the underlying energy transformation pathways and respective scores in other sustainability dimensions. Furthermore, this research highlights an increasingly dominant contribution of energy systems’ upstream chains on total environmental impacts, reveals rather small differences in macroeconomic effects between different scenarios and identifies the transition among societal segments and climate impact minimization as the most important stakeholder preferences

Rumen bacterial composition in lambs is affected by β-adrenergic agonist supplementation and heat stress at the phylum level

The rumen has several important physiological functions, including absorption, transport, metabolic activity, and host protection (Roh et al., 2007). The rumen is extensively researched due to the importance of ruminants in agriculture and the major role played by rumen microbes in nutrient utilization and health of the ruminant animal. The microbial community of the rumen is altered by diet (McCann et al., 2014), age (Jami et al., 2013), and environment

Building professional discourse in emerging markets: Language, context and the challenge of sensemaking

Using ethnographic evidence from the former Soviet republics, this article examines a relatively new and mainly unobserved in the International Business (IB) literature phenomenon of communication disengagement that manifests itself in many emerging markets. We link it to the deficiencies of the local professional business discourse rooted in language limitations reflecting lack of experience with the market economy. This hampers cognitive coherence between foreign and local business entities, adding to the liability of foreignness as certain instances of professional experience fail to find adequate linguistic expression, and complicates cross-cultural adjustments causing multi-national companies (MNCs) financial losses. We contribute to the IB literature by examining cross-border semantic sensemaking through a retrospectively constructed observational study. We argue that a relative inadequacy of the national professional idiom is likely to remain a feature of business environment in post-communist economies for some time and therefore should be factored into business strategies of MNCs. Consequently, we recommend including discursive hazards in the risk evaluation of international projects

Justice at Sea: Fishers’ politics and marine conservation in coastal Odisha, India

This is a paper about the politics of fishing rights in and around the Gahirmatha marine sanctuary in coastal Odisha, in eastern India. Claims to the resources of this sanctuary are politicised through the creation of a particularly damaging narrative by influential Odiya environmental actors about Bengalis, as illegal immigrants who have hurt the ecosystem through their fishing practices. Anchored within a theoretical framework of justice as recognition, the paper considers the making of a regional Odiya environmentalism that is, potentially, deeply exclusionary. It details how an argument about ‘illegal Bengalis’ depriving ‘indigenous Odiyas’ of their legitimate ‘traditional fishing rights’ derives from particular notions of indigeneity and territory. But the paper also shows that such environmentalism is tenuous, and fits uneasily with the everyday social landscape of fishing in coastal Odisha. It concludes that a wider class conflict between small fishers and the state over a sanctuary sets the context in which questions about legitimate resource rights are raised, sometimes with important effects, like when out at sea