1,725 research outputs found
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Uncovering the hidden costs of offshoring: The interplay of complexity, organizational design, and experience
This study investigates estimation errors due to hidden costsâthe costs of implementation that are neglected in strategic decision-making processesâin the context of services offshoring. Based on data from the Offshoring Research Network, we find that decision makers are more likely to make cost-estimation errors given increasing configuration and task complexity in captive offshoring and offshore outsourcing, respectively. Moreover, we show that experience and a strong orientation toward organizational design in the offshoring strategy reduce the cost-estimation errors that follow from complexity. Our findings contribute to research on the effectiveness of sourcing and global strategies by stressing the importance of organizational design and experience in dealing with increasing complexity
Franchise Business Development Model: Theoretical Considerations
Franchising is not a popular business development form in Lithuania. Only 0.02% of all Lithuanian companies use franchising for business development, while in most of the developed countries franchise is recognized as a convenient business expansion form. So, what factors determine such differences in the use of franchising? Analysis of related literature showed, that mainly researchers analyse some aspects of franchising, however there is no systematized analysis which covers all the main franchise development elements. Therefore, the aim of this article is to systematize franchise business development phases, main elements and factors, influencing this process and to propose a theoretical franchise system development model. Thus, theoretical considerations about the main phases and elements of franchise system development as well as advantages and disadvantages of the system are analysed in the article. These theoretical considerations are generalized in theoretical franchise system development model, which shows, that development of franchise business consists of particular steps, starting from favourable conditions for the system to emerge; intention and ability of franchisor to form franchise based on his business; the establishment and initial development of franchise system; and its further functioning. The article does not test the model and even does not discuss the operationalization of it. Operationalization of the model as well as empirical evidence is presented by the authors in the forthcoming articles
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The effects of tannin-containing ground pine bark diet upon nutrient digestion, nitrogen balance, and mineral retention in meat goats
Background
Pine bark is a rich source of phytochemical compounds including tannins, phenolic acids, anthocyanins, and fatty acids. These phytochemicals have potential to significantly impact on animal health and animal production. The goal of this work is to measure the effects of tannins in ground pine bark as a partial feed replacement on feed intake, dietary apparent digestibility, nitrogen balance, and mineral retention in meat goats.
Results
Eighteen Kiko cross goats (initial BW = 31.8 ± 1.49 kg) were randomly assigned to three treatment groups (n = 6). Dietary treatments were tested: control (0 % pine bark powder (PB) and 30 % wheat straw (WS)); 15 % PB and 15 % WS, and 30 % PB and 0 % WS. Although dry matter (DM) intake and digestibility were not affected (P > 0.10) by feeding PB, neutral detergent fiber (linear; P = 0.01), acid detergent fiber (linear; P = 0.001) and lignin digestibility (linear; P = 0.01) decreased, and crude protein (CP) digestibility tended to decrease (P = 0.09) as PB increased in the diet, apparent retention of Ca (P = 0.09), P (P = 0.03), Mg (P = 0.01), Mn (P = 0.01), Zn (P = 0.01) and Fe (P = 0.09) also increased linearly. Nitrogen intake and fecal N excretion were not affected (P > 0.05) by addition of PB in the diet, but N balance in the body was quadratically increased (P < 0.01) in the 15 % PB diet compared to other diets. This may be due to more rumen escape protein and less excreted N in the urine with the 15 % PB diet. The study showed that a moderate level of tannin-containing pine bark supplementation could improve gastrointestinal nitrogen balance with the aim of improving animal performance.
Conclusion
These results suggest that tannin-containing PB has negative impact on fiber, lignin, and protein digestibility, but positively impacted on N-balance
Does Arbitration Blossom When State Courts are Bad?
It is often conjectured that non-state dispute resolution blossoms when state courts are not independent or are perceived as low-quality courts. This conjecture implies a substitutive relationship between state and non-state dispute resolution. An alternative hypothesis argues that both the quality and the frequency of use of these two alternative mechanisms are complementary: societies with high-quality state courts would also be able to provide high-quality non-state dispute resolution. This is the first study that puts these hypotheses to an empirical test. It turns out that the lower the perceived quality of state courts, the less frequently conflicting firms resort to them. Second, firms in common-law countries turn away from state courts significantly more often than firms in civil-law countries. This result sheds doubt on the robustness of results generated within the legal traditions literature. Finally, in states that have created the preconditions for arbitration, businesspeople resort significantly more often to state courts. We interpret this as evidence in favor of the complementarity hypothesis
Visual fields in patients who have undergone vitrectomy for complications of diabetic retinopathy. A prospective study
BACKROUND: To determine the extent of visual field loss in patients who had required a pars plana vitrectomy secondary to complications of proliferative diabetic retinopathy. METHODS: Patients that had undergone a vitrectomy on at least one eye for treatment of either vitreous haemorrhage or tractional retinal detachment were selected for study. ETDRS acuity and Humphrey binocular Esterman visual field testing were performed and compared to the minimum standards for safe driving as defined by the Royal College of Ophthalmologists in 1999. In addition to this Goldman kinetic visual fields using a III4e and V4e stimulus size and central 24-2 threshold test with the SITA-fast strategy were performed on the vitrectomised eye. RESULTS: 20 patients (n = 20) were recruited. Mean visual acuity in the eye being tested was 0.20 (Snellen 6/9.5). Results from the Humphrey field analyzer showed a mean number of abnormal stimulus locations of 71.2% (p < 0.005). 70% of patients had sufficient binocular acuity to drive and of these 71.4% were shown not to have a minimum visual field for safe driving on binocular Esterman field analysis. CONCLUSION: Vitrectomy potentially allows retention/restoration of good visual acuity in patients with complications of proliferative diabetic retinopathy. However patients may be suffering from unrecognized visual impairment consequent upon extensive visual field loss which in over two thirds of patients may be sufficiently severe to preclude safe driving
Design of a series visco-elastic actuator for multi-purpose rehabilitation haptic device
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Variable structure parallel mechanisms, actuated with low-cost motors with serially added elasticity (series elastic actuator - SEA), has considerable potential in rehabilitation robotics. However, reflected masses of a SEA and variable structure parallel mechanism linked with a compliant actuator result in a potentially unstable coupled mechanical oscillator, which has not been addressed in previous studies.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The aim of this paper was to investigate through simulation, experimentation and theoretical analysis the necessary conditions that guarantee stability and passivity of a haptic device (based on a variable structure parallel mechanism driven by SEA actuators) when in contact with a human. We have analyzed an equivalent mechanical system where a dissipative element, a mechanical damper was placed in parallel to a spring in SEA.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The theoretical analysis yielded necessary conditions relating the damping coefficient, spring stiffness, both reflected masses, controller's gain and desired virtual impedance that needs to be fulfilled in order to obtain stable and passive behavior of the device when in contact with a human. The validity of the derived passivity conditions were confirmed in simulations and experimentally.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>These results show that by properly designing variable structure parallel mechanisms actuated with SEA, versatile and affordable rehabilitation robotic devices can be conceived, which may facilitate their wide spread use in clinical and home environments.</p
Immune Responses to Plague Infection in Wild Rattus rattus, in Madagascar: A Role in Foci Persistence?
Plague is endemic within the central highlands of Madagascar, where its main reservoir is the black rat, Rattus rattus. Typically this species is considered susceptible to plague, rapidly dying after infection inducing the spread of infected fleas and, therefore, dissemination of the disease to humans. However, persistence of transmission foci in the same area from year to year, supposes mechanisms of maintenance among which rat immune responses could play a major role. Immunity against plague and subsequent rat survival could play an important role in the stabilization of the foci. In this study, we aimed to investigate serological responses to plague in wild black rats from endemic areas of Madagascar. In addition, we evaluate the use of a recently developed rapid serological diagnostic test to investigate the immune response of potential reservoir hosts in plague foci.We experimentally infected wild rats with Yersinia pestis to investigate short and long-term antibody responses. Anti-F1 IgM and IgG were detected to evaluate this antibody response. High levels of anti-F1 IgM and IgG were found in rats one and three weeks respectively after challenge, with responses greatly differing between villages. Plateau in anti-F1 IgM and IgG responses were reached for as few as 500 and 1500 colony forming units (cfu) inoculated respectively. More than 10% of rats were able to maintain anti-F1 responses for more than one year. This anti-F1 response was conveniently followed using dipsticks.Inoculation of very few bacteria is sufficient to induce high immune response in wild rats, allowing their survival after infection. A great heterogeneity of rat immune responses was found within and between villages which could heavily impact on plague epidemiology. In addition, results indicate that, in the field, anti-F1 dipsticks are efficient to investigate plague outbreaks several months after transmission
Beam-Induced Nuclear Depolarisation in a Gaseous Polarised Hydrogen Target
Spin-polarised atomic hydrogen is used as a gaseous polarised proton target
in high energy and nuclear physics experiments operating with internal beams in
storage rings. When such beams are intense and bunched, this type of target can
be depolarised by a resonant interaction with the transient magnetic field
generated by the beam bunches. This effect has been studied with the HERA
positron beam in the HERMES experiment at DESY. Resonances have been observed
and a simple analytic model has been used to explain their shape and position.
Operating conditions for the experiment have been found where there is no
significant target depolarisation due to this effect.Comment: REVTEX, 6 pages, 5 figure
Measurement of the Neutron Spin Structure Function with a Polarized ^3He Target
Results are reported from the HERMES experiment at HERA on a measurement of
the neutron spin structure function in deep inelastic scattering
using 27.5 GeV longitudinally polarized positrons incident on a polarized
He internal gas target. The data cover the kinematic range
and . The integral evaluated at a fixed of is . Assuming Regge behavior at low , the first
moment is .Comment: 4 pages TEX, text available at
http://www.krl.caltech.edu/preprints/OAP.htm
Rhegmatogenous retinal detachment in uveitis
Abstract Background Retinal detachment is more common among uveitis patients than in the general population. Here, we aimed to assess the prevalence of rhegmatogenous retinal detachment (RRD) in a uveitis population. Methods We retrospectively studied 851 uveitis patients, recording characteristics such as uveitis duration, anatomical location, and cause; RRD occurrence; proliferative vitreoretinopathy (PVR) at presentation; surgical approach; reattachment rate; and initial and final visual acuity (VA). Results RRD occurred in 26 patients (3.1%; 29 affected eyes) and was significantly associated with posterior uveitis (pâ<â0.001), infectious uveitis (pâ<â0.001), and male gender (pâ=â0.012). Among cases of infectious uveitis, cytomegalovirus and varicella zoster virus were most commonly associated with RRD development. RRD in non-infectious uveitis was not found to be associated with any specific uveitis entity. The rate of single-operation reattachment was 48%, and the rate of final reattachment was 83%. Mean final VA was 20/125, with 41% of eyes ultimately having a VA of less than 20/200. Conclusion Uveitis is a risk factor for RRD development, which carries a poor prognosis
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