AN ANALYST'S UNCERTAINTY AND FEAR.

Science.gov (United States)

Chused, Judith Fingert

2016-10-01

The motivations for choosing psychoanalysis as a profession are many and differ depending on the psychology of the analyst. However, common to most psychoanalysts is the desire to forge a helpful relationship with the individuals with whom they work therapeutically. This article presents an example of what happens when an analyst is confronted by a patient for whom being in a relationship and being helped are intolerable. © 2016 The Psychoanalytic Quarterly, Inc.

Multi-Intelligence Analytics for Next Generation Analysts (MIAGA)

Science.gov (United States)

Blasch, Erik; Waltz, Ed

2016-05-01

Current analysts are inundated with large volumes of data from which extraction, exploitation, and indexing are required. A future need for next-generation analysts is an appropriate balance between machine analytics from raw data and the ability of the user to interact with information through automation. Many quantitative intelligence tools and techniques have been developed which are examined towards matching analyst opportunities with recent technical trends such as big data, access to information, and visualization. The concepts and techniques summarized are derived from discussions with real analysts, documented trends of technical developments, and methods to engage future analysts with multiintelligence services. For example, qualitative techniques should be matched against physical, cognitive, and contextual quantitative analytics for intelligence reporting. Future trends include enabling knowledge search, collaborative situational sharing, and agile support for empirical decision-making and analytical reasoning.

Competition in investment banking

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Katrina Ellis

2011-01-01

Full Text Available We construct a comprehensive measure of overall investment banking competitiveness for follow-on offerings that aggregates the various dimensions of competition such as fees, pricing accuracy, analyst recommendations, distributional abilities, market making prowess, debt offering capabilities, and overall reputation. The measure allows us to incorporate trade-offs that investment banks may use in competing for new or established clients. We find that firms who switch to similar-quality underwriters enjoy more intense competition among investment banks which manifests in lower fees and more optimistic recommendations. Investment banks do compete vigorously for some clients, with the level of competition related to the likelihood of gaining or losing clients. Finally, investment banks not performing up to market norms are more likely to be dropped in the follow-on offering. In contrast, firms who seek a higher reputation underwriter face relatively non-competitive markets.

Procurement and execution of PCB analyses: Customer-analyst interactions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Erickson, M.D.

1993-01-01

The practical application of PCB (polychlorinated biphenyl) analyses begins with a request for the analysis and concludes with provision of the requested analysis. The key to successful execution of this iteration is timely, professional communication between the requester and the analyst. Often PCB analyses are not satisfactorily executed, either because the requester failed to give adequate instructions or because the analyst simply ''did what he/she was told.'' The request for and conduct of a PCB analysis represents a contract for the procurement of a product (information about the sample); if both parties recognize and abide by this contractual relationship, the process generally proceeds smoothly. Requesters may be corporate purchasing agents working from a scope of work, a sample management office, a field team leader, a project manager, a physician's office, or the analyst himself. The analyst with whom the requester communicates may be a laboratory supervisor, a sample-receiving department, a salesperson for the laboratory, or the analyst himself. The analyst conducting the analysis is often a team, with custody of the sample being passed from sample receiving to the extraction laboratory, to the cleanup laboratory, to the gas chromatography (GC) laboratory, to the data reduction person, to the package preparation person, to the quality control (QC) department for verification, to shipping. Where a team of analysts is involved, the requester needs a central point of contact to minimize confusion and frustration. For the requester-analyst interface to work smoothly, it must function as if it is a one-to-one interaction. This article addresses the pitfalls of the requester-analyst interaction and provides suggestions for improving the quality of the analytical product through the requester-analyst interface

The relevance of security analyst opinions for investment decisions

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Gerritsen, D.F.

2014-01-01

Security analysts analyze information regarding publicly traded companies after which they publish their opinion regarding these companies’ stocks. In this dissertation the published opinions of two different types of analysts are analyzed. Technical analysts derive a recommendation to buy, hold, or

Gender heterogeneity in the sell-side analyst recommendation issuing process

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bosquet, K.; de Goeij, P.C.; Smedts, K.

Using analyst stock recommendations issued between January 1996 and December 2006 we show that the odds for female financial analysts to issue optimistic investment advice is 40% lower than for male analysts. Although 17% of our sample of analysts is female, 48% is employed by a top financial

Entry Level Systems Analysts: What Does the Industry Want?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Donna M. Grant

2016-06-01

Full Text Available This study investigates the skill sets necessary for entry level systems analysts. Towards this end, the study combines two sources of data, namely, a content analysis of 200 systems analysts’ online job advertisements and a survey of 20 senior Information Systems (IS professionals. Based on Chi-square tests, the results reveal that most employers prefer entry level systems analysts with an undergraduate Computer Science degree. Furthermore, most of the employers prefer entry level systems analysts to have some years of experience as well as industry certifications. The results also reveal that there is a higher preference for entry level systems analysts who have non-technical and people skills (e.g., problem solving and oral communication. The empirical results from this study will inform IS educators as they develop future systems analysts. Additionally, the results will be useful to the aspiring systems analysts who need to make sure that they have the necessary job skills before graduating and entering the labor market.

Training for spacecraft technical analysts

Science.gov (United States)

Ayres, Thomas J.; Bryant, Larry

1989-01-01

Deep space missions such as Voyager rely upon a large team of expert analysts who monitor activity in the various engineering subsystems of the spacecraft and plan operations. Senior teammembers generally come from the spacecraft designers, and new analysts receive on-the-job training. Neither of these methods will suffice for the creation of a new team in the middle of a mission, which may be the situation during the Magellan mission. New approaches are recommended, including electronic documentation, explicit cognitive modeling, and coached practice with archived data.

Setting analyst: A practical harvest planning technique

Science.gov (United States)

Olivier R.M. Halleux; W. Dale Greene

2001-01-01

Setting Analyst is an ArcView extension that facilitates practical harvest planning for ground-based systems. By modeling the travel patterns of ground-based machines, it compares different harvesting settings based on projected average skidding distance, logging costs, and site disturbance levels. Setting Analyst uses information commonly available to consulting...

Analyst, Policy and Strategy | IDRC - International Development ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

Working under the supervision of the Director, and with guidance from the Senior Analyst, the Analyst provides research, analysis, and advice on matters of policy and strategy for the Centre and its Board. He or she contributes to strategic and operational planning, corporate reporting, trend monitoring, and engagement with ...

Residues in the analyst of the patient's symbiotic connection at a somatic level: unrepresented states in the patient and analyst.

Science.gov (United States)

Godsil, Geraldine

2018-02-01

This paper discusses the residues of a somatic countertransference that revealed its meaning several years after apparently successful analytic work had ended. Psychoanalytic and Jungian analytic ideas on primitive communication, dissociation and enactment are explored in the working through of a shared respiratory symptom between patient and analyst. Growth in the analyst was necessary so that the patient's communication at a somatic level could be understood. Bleger's concept that both the patient's and analyst's body are part of the setting was central in the working through. © 2018, The Society of Analytical Psychology.

"This strange disease": adolescent transference and the analyst's sexual orientation.

Science.gov (United States)

Burton, John K; Gilmore, Karen

2010-08-01

The treatment of adolescents by gay analysts is uncharted territory regarding the impact of the analyst's sexuality on the analytic process. Since a core challenge of adolescence involves the integration of the adult sexual body, gender role, and reproductive capacities into evolving identity, and since adolescents seek objects in their environment to facilitate both identity formation and the establishment of autonomy from primary objects, the analyst's sexual orientation is arguably a potent influence on the outcome of adolescent development. However, because sexual orientation is a less visible characteristic of the analyst than gender, race, or age, for example, the line between reality and fantasy is less clearly demarcated. This brings up special considerations regarding discovery and disclosure in the treatment. To explore these issues, the case of a late adolescent girl in treatment with a gay male analyst is presented. In this treatment, the question of the analyst's sexual orientation, and the demand by the patient for the analyst's self-disclosure, became a transference nucleus around which the patient's individual dynamics and adolescent dilemmas could be explored and clarified.

Financial Analyst | IDRC - International Development Research Centre

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

You will assist the Chief and the Senior Financial Analyst in the discharge of their responsibilities, and backs up the Senior Financial Analyst, Treasury ... in the FAD Annual Work Plan), at the request of the Director, and ensures deliverables are met within assigned time lines as set by the FAD Manager leading the initiative;

Timing of favorable conditions, competition and fertility interact to govern recruitment of invasive Chinese tallow tree in stressful environments.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Christopher A Gabler

Full Text Available The rate of new exotic recruitment following removal of adult invaders (reinvasion pressure influences restoration outcomes and costs but is highly variable and poorly understood. We hypothesize that broad variation in average reinvasion pressure of Triadica sebifera (Chinese tallow tree, a major invader arises from differences among habitats in spatiotemporal availability of realized recruitment windows. These windows are periods of variable duration long enough to permit establishment given local environmental conditions. We tested this hypothesis via a greenhouse mesocosm experiment that quantified how the duration of favorable moisture conditions prior to flood or drought stress (window duration, competition and nutrient availability influenced Triadica success in high stress environments. Window duration influenced pre-stress seedling abundance and size, growth during stress and final abundance; it interacted with other factors to affect final biomass and germination during stress. Stress type and competition impacted final size and biomass, plus germination, mortality and changes in size during stress. Final abundance also depended on competition and the interaction of window duration, stress type and competition. Fertilization interacted with competition and stress to influence biomass and changes in height, respectively, but did not affect Triadica abundance. Overall, longer window durations promoted Triadica establishment, competition and drought (relative to flood suppressed establishment, and fertilization had weak effects. Interactions among factors frequently produced different effects in specific contexts. Results support our 'outgrow the stress' hypothesis and show that temporal availability of abiotic windows and factors that influence growth rates govern Triadica recruitment in stressful environments. These findings suggest that native seed addition can effectively suppress superior competitors in stressful environments. We also

Improving the information environment for analysts

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Farooq, Omar; Nielsen, Christian

2014-01-01

they have more information. Our results also show that intellectual capital disclosure related to employees and strategic statements are the most important disclosures for analysts. Research limitations/implications: More relevant methods, such as survey or interviews with management, may be used to improve...... the information content of intellectual capital disclosure. Analysts, probably, deduce intellectual capital of a firm from interaction with management rather than financial statements. Practical implications: Firms in biotechnology sector can improve their information environment by disclosing more information...

Is customer satisfaction a relevant metric for financial analysts?

OpenAIRE

Ngobo , Paul-Valentin; Casta , Jean-François; Ramond , Olivier ,

2012-01-01

published on line : 2011/01/08; International audience; This study examines the effects of customer satisfaction on analysts' earnings forecast errors. Based on a sample of analysts following companies measured by the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), we find that customer satisfaction reduces earnings forecast errors. However, analysts respond to changes in customer satisfaction but not to the ACSI metric per se. Furthermore, the effects of customer satisfaction are asymmetric; fo...

Can community structure track sea-level rise? Stress and competitive controls in tidal wetlands.

Science.gov (United States)

Schile, Lisa M; Callaway, John C; Suding, Katharine N; Kelly, N Maggi

2017-02-01

Climate change impacts, such as accelerated sea-level rise, will affect stress gradients, yet impacts on competition/stress tolerance trade-offs and shifts in distributions are unclear. Ecosystems with strong stress gradients, such as estuaries, allow for space-for-time substitutions of stress factors and can give insight into future climate-related shifts in both resource and nonresource stresses. We tested the stress gradient hypothesis and examined the effect of increased inundation stress and biotic interactions on growth and survival of two congeneric wetland sedges, Schoenoplectus acutus and Schoenoplectus americanus . We simulated sea-level rise across existing marsh elevations and those not currently found to reflect potential future sea-level rise conditions in two tidal wetlands differing in salinity. Plants were grown individually and together at five tidal elevations, the lowest simulating an 80-cm increase in sea level, and harvested to assess differences in biomass after one growing season. Inundation time, salinity, sulfides, and redox potential were measured concurrently. As predicted, increasing inundation reduced biomass of the species commonly found at higher marsh elevations, with little effect on the species found along channel margins. The presence of neighbors reduced total biomass of both species, particularly at the highest elevation; facilitation did not occur at any elevation. Contrary to predictions, we documented the competitive superiority of the stress tolerator under increased inundation, which was not predicted by the stress gradient hypothesis. Multifactor manipulation experiments addressing plant response to accelerated climate change are integral to creating a more realistic, valuable, and needed assessment of potential ecosystem response. Our results point to the important and unpredicted synergies between physical stressors, which are predicted to increase in intensity with climate change, and competitive forces on biomass as

Defense Profiles in Adaptation Process to Sport Competition and Their Relationships with Coping, Stress and Control.

Science.gov (United States)

Nicolas, Michel; Martinent, Guillaume; Drapeau, Martin; Chahraoui, Khadija; Vacher, Philippe; de Roten, Yves

2017-01-01

The purpose of this study was to identify the potentially distinct defense profiles of athletes in order to provide insight into the complex associations that can exist between defenses and other important variables tied to performance in sports (e.g., coping, perceived stress and control) and to further our understanding of the complexity of the adaptation process in sports. Two hundred and ninety-six ( N = 296) athletes participated in a naturalistic study that involved a highly stressful situation: a sports competition. Participants were assessed before and after the competition. Hierarchical cluster analysis and a series of MANOVAs with post hoc comparisons indicated two stable defense profiles (high and low defense profiles) of athletes both before and during sport competition. These profiles differed with regards to coping, stress and control. Athletes with high defense profiles reported higher levels of coping strategies, perceived stress and control than athletes with low defense profiles. This study confirmed that defenses are involved in the psychological adaptation process and that research and intervention should not be based only on coping, but rather must include defense mechanisms in order to improve our understanding of psychological adaptation in competitive sports.

Defense Profiles in Adaptation Process to Sport Competition and Their Relationships with Coping, Stress and Control

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Michel Nicolas

2017-12-01

Full Text Available The purpose of this study was to identify the potentially distinct defense profiles of athletes in order to provide insight into the complex associations that can exist between defenses and other important variables tied to performance in sports (e.g., coping, perceived stress and control and to further our understanding of the complexity of the adaptation process in sports. Two hundred and ninety-six (N = 296 athletes participated in a naturalistic study that involved a highly stressful situation: a sports competition. Participants were assessed before and after the competition. Hierarchical cluster analysis and a series of MANOVAs with post hoc comparisons indicated two stable defense profiles (high and low defense profiles of athletes both before and during sport competition. These profiles differed with regards to coping, stress and control. Athletes with high defense profiles reported higher levels of coping strategies, perceived stress and control than athletes with low defense profiles. This study confirmed that defenses are involved in the psychological adaptation process and that research and intervention should not be based only on coping, but rather must include defense mechanisms in order to improve our understanding of psychological adaptation in competitive sports.

Using MetaboAnalyst 3.0 for Comprehensive Metabolomics Data Analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Xia, Jianguo; Wishart, David S

2016-09-07

MetaboAnalyst (http://www.metaboanalyst.ca) is a comprehensive Web application for metabolomic data analysis and interpretation. MetaboAnalyst handles most of the common metabolomic data types from most kinds of metabolomics platforms (MS and NMR) for most kinds of metabolomics experiments (targeted, untargeted, quantitative). In addition to providing a variety of data processing and normalization procedures, MetaboAnalyst also supports a number of data analysis and data visualization tasks using a range of univariate, multivariate methods such as PCA (principal component analysis), PLS-DA (partial least squares discriminant analysis), heatmap clustering and machine learning methods. MetaboAnalyst also offers a variety of tools for metabolomic data interpretation including MSEA (metabolite set enrichment analysis), MetPA (metabolite pathway analysis), and biomarker selection via ROC (receiver operating characteristic) curve analysis, as well as time series and power analysis. This unit provides an overview of the main functional modules and the general workflow of the latest version of MetaboAnalyst (MetaboAnalyst 3.0), followed by eight detailed protocols. © 2016 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Dynamics of analyst forecasts and emergence of complexity: Role of information disparity.

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Chansoo Kim

Full Text Available We report complex phenomena arising among financial analysts, who gather information and generate investment advice, and elucidate them with the help of a theoretical model. Understanding how analysts form their forecasts is important in better understanding the financial market. Carrying out big-data analysis of the analyst forecast data from I/B/E/S for nearly thirty years, we find skew distributions as evidence for emergence of complexity, and show how information asymmetry or disparity affects financial analysts' forming their forecasts. Here regulations, information dissemination throughout a fiscal year, and interactions among financial analysts are regarded as the proxy for a lower level of information disparity. It is found that financial analysts with better access to information display contrasting behaviors: a few analysts become bolder and issue forecasts independent of other forecasts while the majority of analysts issue more accurate forecasts and flock to each other. Main body of our sample of optimistic forecasts fits a log-normal distribution, with the tail displaying a power law. Based on the Yule process, we propose a model for the dynamics of issuing forecasts, incorporating interactions between analysts. Explaining nicely empirical data on analyst forecasts, this provides an appealing instance of understanding social phenomena in the perspective of complex systems.

The anticipatory stress response to sport competition; a systematic review with meta-analysis of cortisol reactivity.

Science.gov (United States)

van Paridon, Kjell N; Timmis, Matthew A; Nevison, Charlotte M; Bristow, Matt

2017-01-01

Athletes anticipating sport competition regularly experience distinct emotional and physiological responses as a result of the expected psychosocial and physical stress. Specifically, cortisol, an indicator of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis activation, prepares the athlete for the psychological and physiological demands of competition. The objective of this meta-analysis is to analyse the magnitude of the anticipatory cortisol response in athletes preparing to participate in sport competition and to examine the influence of gender, level of competition and data collection time. Systematic review with meta-analysis. Four electronic databases were searched to March 2017: PubMed, PsycINFO, SPORTDiscus and Scopus. (1) Athletes participating in real sport competition;(2) salivary cortisol concentration collected before competition in addition to baseline sample(s);(3) original research article published in English language. Data from 25 studies provided 27 effect sizes. A significant anticipatory cortisol response of g=0.85, pstress response. There were no significant differences between level of competition, type of sport or time of competition. Meta-regression indicated that the anticipatory cortisol response is greater when assessed closer to the start of competition (Q=6.85, p=0.009). The anticipatory cortisol response before sport competition reflects moderate cortisol reactivity that prepares athletes optimally for the demands of sport competition via the influence on cognitive processes and attentional control. However, both female athletes and international competitors did not demonstrate a significant anticipatory cortisol response, possibly due to differences in appraisal of the stress of sport competition.

Information Management Analyst | IDRC - International ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

Job Summary The Information Management Analyst is the technical resource person ... Performs systems configuration, testing and quality assurance for all IRO ... IMTD employees, identifying root cause of system issues and solving them or ...

The Role of Analyst Conference Calls in Capital Markets

NARCIS (Netherlands)

E.M. Roelofsen (Erik)

2010-01-01

textabstractMany firms conduct a conference call with analysts shortly after the quarterly earnings announcement. In these calls, management discusses the completed quarter, and analysts can ask questions. Due to SEC requirements, conference calls in the United States are virtually always live

The patient who believes and the analyst who does not (1).

Science.gov (United States)

Lijtmaer, Ruth M

2009-01-01

A patient's religious beliefs and practices challenge the clinical experience and self-knowledge of the analyst owing to a great complexity of factors, and often take the form of the analyst's resistances and countertransference reactions to spiritual and religious issues. The analyst's feelings about the patient's encounters with religion and other forms of healing experiences may result in impasses and communication breakdown for a variety of reasons. These reasons include the analyst's own unresolved issues around her role as a psychoanalyst-which incorporates in some way psychoanalysis's views of religious belief-and these old conflicts may be irritated by the religious themes expressed by the patient. Vignettes from the treatments of two patients provide examples of the analyst's countertransference conflicts, particularly envy in the case of a therapist who is an atheist.

Self-disclosure, trauma and the pressures on the analyst.

Science.gov (United States)

West, Marcus

2017-09-01

This paper argues that self-disclosure is intimately related to traumatic experience and the pressures on the analyst not to re-traumatize the patient or repeat traumatic dynamics. The paper gives a number of examples of such pressures and outlines the difficulties the analyst may experience in adopting an analytic attitude - attempting to stay as closely as possible with what the patient brings. It suggests that self-disclosure may be used to try to disconfirm the patient's negative sense of themselves or the analyst, or to try to induce a positive sense of self or of the analyst which, whilst well-meaning, may be missing the point and may be prolonging the patient's distress. Examples are given of staying with the co-construction of the traumatic early relational dynamics and thus working through the traumatic complex; this attitude is compared and contrasted with some relational psychoanalytic attitudes. © 2017, The Society of Analytical Psychology.

Big Data, Data Analyst, and Improving the Competence of Librarian

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Albertus Pramukti Narendra

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Issue of Big Data was already raised by Fremont Rider, an American Librarian from Westleyan University, in 1944. He predicted that the volume of American universities collection would reach 200 million copies in 2040. As a result, it brings to fore multiple issues such as big data users, storage capacity, and the need to have data analysts. In Indonesia, data analysts is still a rare profession, and therefore urgently needed. One of its distinctive tasks is to conduct visual analyses from various data resources and also to present the result visually as interesting knowledge. It becomes science enliven by interactive visualization. In response to the issue, librarians have already been equipped with basic information management. Yet, they can see the opportunity and improve themselves as data analysts. In developed countries, it is common that librarian are also regarded as data analysts. They enhance themselves with various skills required, such as cloud computing and smart computing. In the end librarian with data analysts competency are eloquent to extract and present complex data resources as interesting and discernible knowledge.

Effects of Motivation: Rewarding Hackers for Undetected Attacks Cause Analysts to Perform Poorly.

Science.gov (United States)

Maqbool, Zahid; Makhijani, Nidhi; Pammi, V S Chandrasekhar; Dutt, Varun

2017-05-01

The aim of this study was to determine how monetary motivations influence decision making of humans performing as security analysts and hackers in a cybersecurity game. Cyberattacks are increasing at an alarming rate. As cyberattacks often cause damage to existing cyber infrastructures, it is important to understand how monetary rewards may influence decision making of hackers and analysts in the cyber world. Currently, only limited attention has been given to this area. In an experiment, participants were randomly assigned to three between-subjects conditions ( n = 26 for each condition): equal payoff, where the magnitude of monetary rewards for hackers and defenders was the same; rewarding hacker, where the magnitude of monetary reward for hacker's successful attack was 10 times the reward for analyst's successful defense; and rewarding analyst, where the magnitude of monetary reward for analyst's successful defense was 10 times the reward for hacker's successful attack. In all conditions, half of the participants were human hackers playing against Nash analysts and half were human analysts playing against Nash hackers. Results revealed that monetary rewards for human hackers and analysts caused a decrease in attack and defend actions compared with the baseline. Furthermore, rewarding human hackers for undetected attacks made analysts deviate significantly from their optimal behavior. If hackers are rewarded for their undetected attack actions, then this causes analysts to deviate from optimal defend proportions. Thus, analysts need to be trained not become overenthusiastic in defending networks. Applications of our results are to networks where the influence of monetary rewards may cause information theft and system damage.

The analyst's participation in the analytic process.

Science.gov (United States)

Levine, H B

1994-08-01

The analyst's moment-to-moment participation in the analytic process is inevitably and simultaneously determined by at least three sets of considerations. These are: (1) the application of proper analytic technique; (2) the analyst's personally-motivated responses to the patient and/or the analysis; (3) the analyst's use of him or herself to actualise, via fantasy, feeling or action, some aspect of the patient's conflicts, fantasies or internal object relationships. This formulation has relevance to our view of actualisation and enactment in the analytic process and to our understanding of a series of related issues that are fundamental to our theory of technique. These include the dialectical relationships that exist between insight and action, interpretation and suggestion, empathy and countertransference, and abstinence and gratification. In raising these issues, I do not seek to encourage or endorse wild analysis, the attempt to supply patients with 'corrective emotional experiences' or a rationalisation for acting out one's countertransferences. Rather, it is my hope that if we can better appreciate and describe these important dimensions of the analytic encounter, we can be better prepared to recognise, understand and interpret the continual streams of actualisation and enactment that are embedded in the analytic process. A deeper appreciation of the nature of the analyst's participation in the analytic process and the dimensions of the analytic process to which that participation gives rise may offer us a limited, although important, safeguard against analytic impasse.

Evaluation and Adaption of the Trier Inventory for Chronic Stress (TICS) for Assessment in Competitive Sports.

Science.gov (United States)

Sallen, Jeffrey; Hirschmann, Florian; Herrmann, Christian

2018-01-01

The demands of a career in competitive sports can lead to chronic stress perception among athletes if there is a non-conformity of requirements and available coping resources. The Trier Inventory for Chronic Stress (TICS) (Schulz et al., 2004) is said to be thoroughly validated. Nevertheless, it has not yet been subjected to a confirmatory factor analysis. The present study aims (1) to evaluate the factorial validity of the TICS within the context of competitive sports and (2) to adapt a short version (TICS-36). The total sample consisted of 564 athletes (age in years: M = 19.1, SD = 3.70). The factor structure of the original TICS did not adequately fit the present data, whereas the short version presented a satisfactory fit. The results indicate that the TICS-36 is an economical instrument for gathering interpretable information about chronic stress. For assessment in competitive sports with TICS-36, we generated overall and gender-specific norm values.

Evaluation and Adaption of the Trier Inventory for Chronic Stress (TICS) for Assessment in Competitive Sports

Science.gov (United States)

Sallen, Jeffrey; Hirschmann, Florian; Herrmann, Christian

2018-01-01

The demands of a career in competitive sports can lead to chronic stress perception among athletes if there is a non-conformity of requirements and available coping resources. The Trier Inventory for Chronic Stress (TICS) (Schulz et al., 2004) is said to be thoroughly validated. Nevertheless, it has not yet been subjected to a confirmatory factor analysis. The present study aims (1) to evaluate the factorial validity of the TICS within the context of competitive sports and (2) to adapt a short version (TICS-36). The total sample consisted of 564 athletes (age in years: M = 19.1, SD = 3.70). The factor structure of the original TICS did not adequately fit the present data, whereas the short version presented a satisfactory fit. The results indicate that the TICS-36 is an economical instrument for gathering interpretable information about chronic stress. For assessment in competitive sports with TICS-36, we generated overall and gender-specific norm values. PMID:29593611

The reality of the other: dreaming of the analyst.

Science.gov (United States)

Ferruta, Anna

2009-02-01

The author discusses the obstacles to symbolization encountered when the analyst appears in the first dream of an analysis: the reality of the other is represented through the seeming recognition of the person of the analyst, who is portrayed in undisguised form. The interpretation of this first dream gives rise to reflections on the meaning of the other's reality in analysis: precisely this realistic representation indicates that the function of the other in the construction of the psychic world has been abolished. An analogous phenomenon is observed in the countertransference, as the analyst's mental processes are occluded by an exclusively self-generated interpretation of the patient's psychic world. For the analyst too, the reality of the other proves not to play a significant part in the construction of her interpretation. A 'turning-point' dream after five years bears witness to the power of the transforming function performed by the other throughout the analysis, by way of the representation of characters who stand for the necessary presence of a third party in the construction of a personal psychic reality. The author examines the mutual denial of the other's otherness, as expressed by the vicissitudes of the transference and countertransference between analyst and patient, otherness being experienced as a disturbance of self-sufficient narcissistic functioning. The paper ends with an analysis of the transformations that took place in the analytic relationship.

Big Data, Data Analyst, and Improving the Competence of Librarian

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Albertus Pramukti Narendra

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Issue of Big Data was already raised by Fremont Rider, an American Librarian from Westleyan University, in 1944. He predicted that the volume of American universities collection would reach 200 million copies in 2040. As a result, it brings to fore multiple issues such as big data users, storage capacity, and the need to have data analysts.  In Indonesia, data analysts is still a rare profession, and therefore urgently needed. One of its distinctive tasks  is to conduct visual analyses from various data resources and also to present the result visually as interesting knowledge. It becomes science enliven by interactive visualization. (Thomas and Cook, 2005. In response to the issue, librarians have already been equipped with basic information management. Yet, they can see the opportunity and improve themselves as data analysts. In developed countries, it is common that librarian are also regarded as data analysts. They enhance  themselves with various skills required, such as cloud computing and smart computing. In the end librarian with data analysts competency are eloquent to extract and present complex data resources as “interesting and discernible” knowledge.

Do analysts anticipate and react to bankruptcy? Evidence

OpenAIRE

Coelho, Luís; Peixinho, Rúben

2005-01-01

Finance literature suggests that financial analysts are sophisticated agents that act as facilitators of market efficiency by releasing relevant information to the market. This paper uses a sample of four major US bankruptcies to explore if analysts are able to disclose information to the market that provides investors with material information for their investment decisions. In particular, we use a qualitative approach to analyse analysts’ reports in order to verify if these agents are ab...

Human Functions, Machine Tools, and the Role of the Analyst

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gordon R. Middleton

2015-09-01

Full Text Available In an era of rapidly increasing technical capability, the intelligence focus is often on the modes of collection and tools of analysis rather than the analyst themselves. Data are proliferating and so are tools to help analysts deal with the flood of data and the increasingly demanding timeline for intelligence production, but the role of the analyst in such a data-driven environment needs to be understood in order to support key management decisions (e.g., training and investment priorities. This paper describes a model of the analytic process, and analyzes the roles played by humans and machine tools in each process element. It concludes that human analytic functions are as critical in the intelligence process as they have ever been, and perhaps even more so due to the advance of technology in the intelligence business. Human functions performed by analysts are critical in nearly every step in the process, particularly at the front end of the analytic process, in defining and refining the problem statement, and at the end of the process, in generating knowledge, presenting the story in understandable terms, tailoring the presentation of the results of the analysis to various audiences, as well as in determining when to initiate iterative loops in the process. The paper concludes with observations on the necessity of enabling expert analysts, tools to deal with big data, developing analysts with advanced analytic methods as well as with techniques for optimal use of advanced tools, and suggestions for further quantitative research.

MetaboAnalyst 3.0--making metabolomics more meaningful.

Science.gov (United States)

Xia, Jianguo; Sinelnikov, Igor V; Han, Beomsoo; Wishart, David S

2015-07-01

MetaboAnalyst (www.metaboanalyst.ca) is a web server designed to permit comprehensive metabolomic data analysis, visualization and interpretation. It supports a wide range of complex statistical calculations and high quality graphical rendering functions that require significant computational resources. First introduced in 2009, MetaboAnalyst has experienced more than a 50X growth in user traffic (>50 000 jobs processed each month). In order to keep up with the rapidly increasing computational demands and a growing number of requests to support translational and systems biology applications, we performed a substantial rewrite and major feature upgrade of the server. The result is MetaboAnalyst 3.0. By completely re-implementing the MetaboAnalyst suite using the latest web framework technologies, we have been able substantially improve its performance, capacity and user interactivity. Three new modules have also been added including: (i) a module for biomarker analysis based on the calculation of receiver operating characteristic curves; (ii) a module for sample size estimation and power analysis for improved planning of metabolomics studies and (iii) a module to support integrative pathway analysis for both genes and metabolites. In addition, popular features found in existing modules have been significantly enhanced by upgrading the graphical output, expanding the compound libraries and by adding support for more diverse organisms. © The Author(s) 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Nucleic Acids Research.

Physics-based and human-derived information fusion for analysts

Science.gov (United States)

Blasch, Erik; Nagy, James; Scott, Steve; Okoth, Joshua; Hinman, Michael

2017-05-01

Recent trends in physics-based and human-derived information fusion (PHIF) have amplified the capabilities of analysts; however with the big data opportunities there is a need for open architecture designs, methods of distributed team collaboration, and visualizations. In this paper, we explore recent trends in the information fusion to support user interaction and machine analytics. Challenging scenarios requiring PHIF include combing physics-based video data with human-derived text data for enhanced simultaneous tracking and identification. A driving effort would be to provide analysts with applications, tools, and interfaces that afford effective and affordable solutions for timely decision making. Fusion at scale should be developed to allow analysts to access data, call analytics routines, enter solutions, update models, and store results for distributed decision making.

Stress-related hormonal and psychological changes to official youth Taekwondo competitions.

Science.gov (United States)

Chiodo, S; Tessitore, A; Cortis, C; Cibelli, G; Lupo, C; Ammendolia, A; De Rosas, M; Capranica, L

2011-02-01

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of an official Taekwondo competition on the heart rate (HR), salivary α-amylase (sA-A), salivary free cortisol (sC), and Profile of Mood States (POMS) in 10 young male (14±0 years) and six female (13±1 years) athletes. POMS and hormones were measured 15 min before and directly after the competition. During the recovery phase (30 and 90 min), sA-A and sC were also measured. HR measured during the competition was expressed as a percentage of individual's maximal heart rate (%HR(max) ) to evaluate the intensity of exercise. During the competition, athletes spent 65% of the time working at HR>90% of individuals HR(max). A significant increase (Ppre-competition level. The peak sC values were observed at 30 min of recovery (Ppre-competition level at 90 min of recovery. A gender difference (P=0.01) emerged only for sC, although a similar trend was observed for female and male athletes. Significantly higher post-match scores emerged for Anger-hostility (pre: 6.1±1.1, post: 11.2±1.9; P=0.03) and Depression-dejection (pre: 4.5±0.5, post: 10.2±1.9; P=0.006), whereas the reverse picture was observed for Vigour-activity (pre: 23.2±1.2, post: 16.3±1.7; P=0.0006). Taekwondo competition results in temporary changes in the stress-related parameters measured in this study. The present findings suggest that this experimental paradigm can represent a useful model for further research on the effects of various stressors (i.e., training and competition) in Taekwondo athletes of different levels (i.e., novice, international). © 2009 John Wiley & Sons A/S.

The analyst's body as tuning fork: embodied resonance in countertransference.

Science.gov (United States)

Stone, Martin

2006-02-01

This paper examines the phenomenon of embodied countertransference: where the analyst experiences a somatic reaction rather than the more common countertransference responses of thoughts, feelings, images, fantasies and dreams. Discussion of clinical material considers neurotic and syntonic aspects. The analogy is made of resonance with a tuning fork. Several questions are posed: Why does countertransference resonate in the bodies of some analysts but not all? Why do those analysts who are sensitive to this, experience it with some patients but not with others? And what are the conditions which are conducive to producing somatic responses? It proposes that somatic reactions are more likely to occur when a number of conditions come together: when working with patients exhibiting borderline, psychotic or severe narcissistic elements; where there has been early severe childhood trauma; and where there is fear of expressing strong emotions directly. In addition another theoretical factor is proposed, namely the typology of the analyst.

The Determinants of Sell-side Analysts' Forecast Accuracy and Media Exposure

OpenAIRE

Sorogho, Samira Amadu

2017-01-01

This study examines contributing factors to the differential forecasting abilities of sell-side analysts and the relation between the sentiments of these analysts and their media exposure. In particular, I investigate whether the level of optimism expressed in sell-side analysts’ reports of fifteen constituents of primarily the S&P 500 Oil and Gas Industry1, enhance the media appearance of these analysts. Using a number of variables estimated from the I/B/E/S Detail history database, 15,455 a...

Senior Systems Analyst | IDRC - International Development ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

... Systems Analyst will play a critical role as part of the Information Technology ... data analysis, and system design); the delivery of professional IM/IT advisory and ... with the current development activities ensuring resolution of those issues.

The analyst's anxieties in the first interview: barriers against analytic presence.

Science.gov (United States)

Møller, Mette

2014-06-01

To answer the questions: why don't more people enter analysis and how do we get more people to do so? Attention is drawn to anxieties in the analyst that become obstacles to the initiation of analysis. The main focus of the paper is how to understand why analysts, irrespective of patient characteristics, seem to have resistances against embarking on analysis. Being a meeting between strangers the consultation activates strong emotional reactions in both parties. One way of coping is defensively to diagnose, assess and exclude instead of being present as an analyst. The analytic frame of a consultation is ambiguous, and a secure analytic function is needed in order to meet the openness and unpredictability of this frame. A fragile psychoanalytic identity is seen as central to analysts' failure to create an analytic practice; it takes years to develop and maintain a robust analytic function, and analytic work continues to cause disturbing emotional reactions in the analyst. Analysts' vulnerable identity is also linked to the history of psychoanalysis that has fostered an ideal of analytic practice that is omnipotent and impossible to reach. Therefore it is no wonder that attempts to reach a convinced recommendation of analysis can become diverted in the process of consultation. Confronting these inner impediments in order to strengthen the analytic identity is suggested as a better way to get more analytic patients than to keep looking for so-called analysability in patients. Copyright © 2014 Institute of Psychoanalysis.

A Survey of Functional Behavior Assessment Methods Used by Behavior Analysts in Practice

Science.gov (United States)

Oliver, Anthony C.; Pratt, Leigh A.; Normand, Matthew P.

2015-01-01

To gather information about the functional behavior assessment (FBA) methods behavior analysts use in practice, we sent a web-based survey to 12,431 behavior analysts certified by the Behavior Analyst Certification Board. Ultimately, 724 surveys were returned, with the results suggesting that most respondents regularly use FBA methods, especially…

SafetyAnalyst : software tools for safety management of specific highway sites

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

SafetyAnalyst provides a set of software tools for use by state and local highway agencies for highway safety management. SafetyAnalyst can be used by highway agencies to improve their programming of site-specific highway safety improvements. SafetyA...

Developing the Cyber Defenders of Tomorrow with Regional Collegiate Cyber Defense Competitions (CCDC)

Science.gov (United States)

Carlin, Anna; Manson, Daniel P.; Zhu, Jake

2010-01-01

With the projected higher demand for Network Systems Analysts and increasing computer crime, network security specialists are an organization's first line of defense. The principle function of this paper is to provide the evolution of Collegiate Cyber Defense Competitions (CCDC), event planning required, soliciting sponsors, recruiting personnel…

On the relation between forecast precision and trading profitability of financial analysts

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Marinelli, Carlo; Weissensteiner, Alex

2014-01-01

We analyze the relation between earnings forecast accuracy and the expected profitability of financial analysts. Modeling forecast errors with a multivariate normal distribution, a complete characterization of the payoff of each analyst is provided. In particular, closed-form expressions for the ......We analyze the relation between earnings forecast accuracy and the expected profitability of financial analysts. Modeling forecast errors with a multivariate normal distribution, a complete characterization of the payoff of each analyst is provided. In particular, closed-form expressions...... for the probability density function, for the expectation, and, more generally, for moments of all orders are obtained. Our analysis shows that the relationship between forecast precision and trading profitability needs not be monotonic, and that the impact of the correlation between the forecasts on the expected...

The demand for corporate financial reporting: A survey among financial analysts

NARCIS (Netherlands)

A. de Jong (Abe); G.M.H. Mertens (Gerard); A.M. van der Poel (Marieke); R. van Dijk (Ronald)

2010-01-01

textabstractAbstract: We examine financial analysts’ views on corporate financial reporting issues by means of a survey among 306 analysts and interviews among 21 analysts and compare their views with that of CFOs. Since CFOs believe that meeting or beating analysts’ forecasts and managing

Paired analyst recommendations and internet IPOs

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van der Goot, T.; van Giersbergen, N.

2008-01-01

The paper investigates analyst recommendations for internet firms that went public during 1997-2000. Our contribution to the literature is that we match recommendations for the same firm issued by different investment banks that have published the recommendations in an interval around the same date.

Reflections: can the analyst share a traumatizing experience with a traumatized patient?

Science.gov (United States)

Lijtmaer, Ruth

2010-01-01

This is a personal account of a dreadful event in the analyst's life that was similar to a patient's trauma. It is a reflection on how the analyst dealt with her own trauma, the patient's trauma, and the transference and countertransference dynamics. Included is a description of the analyst's inner struggles with self-disclosure, continuance of her professional work, and the need for persistent self-scrutiny. The meaning of objects in people's life, particularly the concept of home, will be addressed.

Using the living laboratory framework as a basis for understanding next-generation analyst work

Science.gov (United States)

McNeese, Michael D.; Mancuso, Vincent; McNeese, Nathan; Endsley, Tristan; Forster, Pete

2013-05-01

The preparation of next generation analyst work requires alternative levels of understanding and new methodological departures from the way current work transpires. Current work practices typically do not provide a comprehensive approach that emphasizes the role of and interplay between (a) cognition, (b) emergent activities in a shared situated context, and (c) collaborative teamwork. In turn, effective and efficient problem solving fails to take place, and practice is often composed of piecemeal, techno-centric tools that isolate analysts by providing rigid, limited levels of understanding of situation awareness. This coupled with the fact that many analyst activities are classified produces a challenging situation for researching such phenomena and designing and evaluating systems to support analyst cognition and teamwork. Through our work with cyber, image, and intelligence analysts we have realized that there is more required of researchers to study human-centered designs to provide for analyst's needs in a timely fashion. This paper identifies and describes how The Living Laboratory Framework can be utilized as a means to develop a comprehensive, human-centric, and problem-focused approach to next generation analyst work, design, and training. We explain how the framework is utilized for specific cases in various applied settings (e.g., crisis management analysis, image analysis, and cyber analysis) to demonstrate its value and power in addressing an area of utmost importance to our national security. Attributes of analyst work settings are delineated to suggest potential design affordances that could help improve cognitive activities and awareness. Finally, the paper puts forth a research agenda for the use of the framework for future work that will move the analyst profession in a viable manner to address the concerns identified.

Financial Analyst II - External Funds Management | IDRC ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

The Financial Analyst position is essential for the administration and smooth ... Prepare monthly journal voucher to record the donor partnership revenue in ... of the business requirements for the development and enhancement of financial ...

A Laboratory Exercise to Illustrate Increased Salivary Cortisol in Response to Three Stressful Conditions Using Competitive ELISA

Science.gov (United States)

Haussmann, Mark F.; Vleck, Carol M; Farrar, Eugenia S.

2007-01-01

Perceived stress activates the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis, resulting in the release of glucocorticoids into the systemic circulation. Glucocorticoids cause the elevation of blood glucose, providing the necessary energy for the organism to cope with stress. Here, we outline a laboratory exercise that uses a competitive ELISA kit to…

COMPREHENSIVE APPROACH OVER THE PROFESSIONAL JUDGMENT OF THE FINANCIAL ANALYST

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Viorica Mirela ŞTEFAN-DUICU

2016-06-01

Full Text Available The professional judgment is emblematical at a decisional level. This paper aims to highlight the valences of the professional judgment of the financial analyst by describing the components of its activity and also through highlighting the typologies of the mechanisms involved. Within this paper we have presented the types of financial analysts, the responsibilities that guide the professional judgment and also the interdependent elements of their activity.

Nuclear power in the competitive environment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schlissel, D.A.

1995-01-01

Nuclear power was originally promoted as being able to produce electricity that would be open-quotes too cheap to meter.close quotes However, large construction cost overruns and rapidly rising operating costs caused many nuclear power plants instead to be very expensive sources of electricity. As a result, many nuclear utilities will face increasing cost pressures in the future competitive environment from lower-cost producers. In fact, the threat to nuclear utilities is so severe that many industry analysts are projecting that more that $70 billion of the utilities' remaining investments in nuclear plants will be open-quotes stranded,close quotes i.e., unrecoverable in the competitive environment. Others in the industry have speculated that many of the 150 major U.S. electric utilities, a large number of which are nuclear, could be swept away by competition, leaving fewer than fifty utilities. This paper will examine how utilities are attempting to improve the cost competitiveness of operating today's nuclear power plants. It will also identify some of the potential consequences of competition for nuclear power and the regulatory role of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). Finally, this paper will address how the changing power markets will affect the prospects for the next generation of nuclear power plants

Policy Analyst | IDRC - International Development Research Centre

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

... reviews the plans produced to ensure that they are of the highest possible quality. ... The Policy Analyst plays a key role in information management. ... discussion and decision-making; prepares guidelines on issues relating to processes, ...

Ground Truth Annotation in T Analyst

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

2015-01-01

This video shows how to annotate the ground truth tracks in the thermal videos. The ground truth tracks are produced to be able to compare them to tracks obtained from a Computer Vision tracking approach. The program used for annotation is T-Analyst, which is developed by Aliaksei Laureshyn, Ph...

Analyst reluctance in conveying negative information to the market

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Luca Piras

2012-11-01

Full Text Available This paper investigates one of the main sources of financial markets’ public information: financial analysts’ reports. We analyze reports on S&P 500 index through a multidisciplinary approach integrating behavioral finance with linguistic analysis to understand how financial phenomena reflect in or are deviated by language, i.e. whether financial and linguistic trends follow the same patterns, boosting each other, or diverge. In the latter, language could conceal financial events, mitigating analysts’ feelings and misleading investors. Therefore, we attempt to identify behavioral biases (mainly represented by cognitive dissonances present in analysts’ reports. In doing so, we try to understand whether analysts try to hide the perception of negative price-sensitive events or not, eventually anticipating and controlling the market “mood”. This study focuses on how analysts use linguistic strategies in order to minimize their risk of issuing wrong advice. Our preliminary results show reluctance to incorporate negative information in the reports. A slight asymmetry between the use of positive/negative keywords taken into account and the negative/positive trends of the index seems to emerge. In those weeks characterized by the index poor performances, the frequency of keywords with a negative meaning is lower. On the contrary, in the recovering weeks a higher use of keywords with a positive meaning does not clearly appear. A thorough investigation on the market moods and the analysis of the text of the reports enable us to assess if and to what extent analysts have been willing to mitigate pessimism or emphasize confidence. Furthermore, we contribute to the existing literature also proposing a possible analysts’ value function based on the Prospect Theory [Kahneman and Tversky, 1979] where analysts try to maximize the value deriving from enhancing their reputation, taking into account the risks that may cause a reputational loss. This

Teaching Bayesian Statistics To Intelligence Analysts: Lessons Learned

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hemangni Deshmukh

2009-01-01

Full Text Available The Community must develop and integrate into regular use new tools that can assist analysts in filtering and correlating the vast quantities of information that threaten to overwhelm the analytic process…—Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States.Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction (The WMD Report1Unlike the other social sciences and, particularly, the physical sciences, where scientists get to choose the questions they wish to answer and experiments are carefully designed to confirm or negate hypotheses, intelligence analysis requires analysts to deal with the demands of decision makers and estimate the intentions of foreign actors, criminals or business competitors in an environment filled with uncertainty and even deliberate deception.

Inter-specific competitive stress does not affect the magnitude of inbreeding depression

OpenAIRE

Willi, Yvonne; Dietrich, Stefan; van Kleunen, Mark; Fischer, Markus

2007-01-01

Hypothesis: Stressful inter-specific competition enhances inbreeding depression.Organisms: Creeping spearwort (Ranunculus reptans L.) and its common competitor, thecreeping bentgrass (Agrostis stolonifera L.).Field site: Outdoor common garden experiment at the University of Potsdam.Methods: We collected plants of 12 natural populations of R. reptans differing in mean parental inbreeding coefficient (0.01–0.26). We performed within-population crosses for twogenerations and kept the offspring i...

Managed competition versus industrial purchasing of health care among the Fortune 500.

Science.gov (United States)

Maxwell, James; Temin, Peter

2002-02-01

The theory of managed competition has found favor with many health policy analysts and academic economists alike. Three characteristics--consumer choice, defined contribution, and dissemination of information--signal managed competition strategy. By requiring private employers to provide their employees with a choice of health carriers, a fixed-dollar strategy (defined contribution), and quality information to make appropriate choices among carriers, managed competition offers to remedy imperfections in both the consumer and provider sides of the market for health insurance. In an extensive survey of health care purchasing practices among Fortune 500 companies we found that major companies are not using the managed competition approach to health care purchasing. Instead, most of the companies surveyed are purchasing health care in the same way as they do other inputs to production--a pattern we call industrial purchasing.

Stress Voiding in IC Interconnects - Rules of Evidence for Failure Analysts

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

FILTER, WILLIAM F.

1999-09-17

Mention the words ''stress voiding'', and everyone from technology engineer to manager to customer is likely to cringe. This IC failure mechanism elicits fear because it is insidious, capricious, and difficult to identify and arrest. There are reasons to believe that a damascene-copper future might be void-free. Nevertheless, engineers who continue to produce ICs with Al-alloy interconnects, or who assess the reliability of legacy ICs with long service life, need up-to-date insights and techniques to deal with stress voiding problems. Stress voiding need not be fearful. Not always predictable, neither is it inevitable. On the contrary, stress voids are caused by specific, avoidable processing errors. Analytical work, though often painful, can identify these errors when stress voiding occurs, and vigilance in monitoring the improved process can keep it from recurring. In this article, they show that a methodical, forensics approach to failure analysis can solve suspected cases of stress voiding. This approach uses new techniques, and patiently applies familiar ones, to develop evidence meeting strict standards of proof.

Stock index adjustments, analyst coverage and institutional holdings: Evidence from China

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Song Zhu

2017-09-01

Full Text Available Using 231 pairs of matched firms from 2009 to 2012 in Chinese stock market, we find that the stock index adjustment significantly affects the analyst coverage, which in addition to the stock index leads to more analyst coverage, while deletion from the stock index has no significant effect, indicating that stock index adjustment can significantly change the information environments of firms that are added to the index. An index adjustment also affects institutional holdings in consideration of new information (e.g., changes in fundamentals and information environments. Changes in institutional holdings are partially due to changes in analyst coverage, and both index funds and other types can change their portfolios in response to changes in the target firms’ informativeness.

The Role of Analysts as Gatekeepers: Enhancing Transparency and Curbing Earnings Management in Brazil

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Antonio Lopo Martinez

2011-07-01

Full Text Available This paper examines the relationship of analysts’ coverage, forecasting errors and earnings management. It corroborates the role of analysts as gatekeepers by finding that analysts enhance transparency and reduce the scope of earnings management. To identify analysts’ coverage we used the I/B/E/S, from where we also obtained information on the consensus projections of analysts for listed Brazilian companies. The results indicated a negative correlation between the number of analysts covering firms and the magnitude of their discretionary accruals in absolute terms, indicating that more scrutiny inhibits earnings management. We also found a negative correlation between analysts’ coverage and forecasting errors. Multivariate regressions showed statistically significant results in the same sense. Therefore, market analysts, despite the severe criticism they receive from the specialized press, actually have a beneficial effect on corporate governance by monitoring managers and inhibiting earnings management.

When the analyst is ill: dimensions of self-disclosure.

Science.gov (United States)

Pizer, B

1997-07-01

This article examines questions related to the "inescapable," the "inadvertent," and the "deliberate" personal disclosures by an analyst. Technical and personal considerations that influence the analyst's decision to disclose, as well as the inherent responsibilities and potential clinical consequences involved in self-disclosure, are explored, with particular attention to transference-countertransference dynamics, therapeutic goals, and the negotiation of resistance. The author describes her clinical work during a period of prolonged illness, with case vignettes that illustrate how-self-disclosure may be regarded as both an occasional authentic requirement and a regular intrinsic component of clinical technique.

An eye tracking study of bloodstain pattern analysts during pattern classification.

Science.gov (United States)

Arthur, R M; Hoogenboom, J; Green, R D; Taylor, M C; de Bruin, K G

2018-05-01

Bloodstain pattern analysis (BPA) is the forensic discipline concerned with the classification and interpretation of bloodstains and bloodstain patterns at the crime scene. At present, it is unclear exactly which stain or pattern properties and their associated values are most relevant to analysts when classifying a bloodstain pattern. Eye tracking technology has been widely used to investigate human perception and cognition. Its application to forensics, however, is limited. This is the first study to use eye tracking as a tool for gaining access to the mindset of the bloodstain pattern expert. An eye tracking method was used to follow the gaze of 24 bloodstain pattern analysts during an assigned task of classifying a laboratory-generated test bloodstain pattern. With the aid of an automated image-processing methodology, the properties of selected features of the pattern were quantified leading to the delineation of areas of interest (AOIs). Eye tracking data were collected for each AOI and combined with verbal statements made by analysts after the classification task to determine the critical range of values for relevant diagnostic features. Eye-tracking data indicated that there were four main regions of the pattern that analysts were most interested in. Within each region, individual elements or groups of elements that exhibited features associated with directionality, size, colour and shape appeared to capture the most interest of analysts during the classification task. The study showed that the eye movements of trained bloodstain pattern experts and their verbal descriptions of a pattern were well correlated.

The Inefficient Use of Macroeconomic Information in Analysts' Earnings Forecasts in Emerging Markets

NARCIS (Netherlands)

G.J. de Zwart (Gerben); D.J.C. van Dijk (Dick)

2008-01-01

textabstractThis paper presents empirical evidence that security analysts do not efficiently use publicly available macroeconomic information in their earnings forecasts for emerging market stocks. Analysts completely ignore forecasts on political stability, while these provide valuable information

Instruction in Information Structuring Improves Bayesian Judgment in Intelligence Analysts

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

David R. Mandel

2015-04-01

Full Text Available An experiment was conducted to test the effectiveness of brief instruction in information structuring (i.e., representing and integrating information for improving the coherence of probability judgments and binary choices among intelligence analysts. Forty-three analysts were presented with comparable sets of Bayesian judgment problems before and immediately after instruction. After instruction, analysts’ probability judgments were more coherent (i.e., more additive and compliant with Bayes theorem. Instruction also improved the coherence of binary choices regarding category membership: after instruction, subjects were more likely to invariably choose the category to which they assigned the higher probability of a target’s membership. The research provides a rare example of evidence-based validation of effectiveness in instruction to improve the statistical assessment skills of intelligence analysts. Such instruction could also be used to improve the assessment quality of other types of experts who are required to integrate statistical information or make probabilistic assessments.

17 CFR 200.17 - Chief Management Analyst.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

...) Organizational structures and delegations of authority; (d) Management information systems and concepts; and (e... 17 Commodity and Securities Exchanges 2 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Chief Management Analyst. 200...; CONDUCT AND ETHICS; AND INFORMATION AND REQUESTS Organization and Program Management General Organization...

Senior Financial Analyst – External Funds Management | IDRC ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

Job Summary The Senior Financial Analyst, External Funds Management is responsible ... in accordance with the donor agreements and accounting principles. ... Assist the Manager in the development of the financial accounting structure for ...

How Analysts Cognitively “Connect the Dots”

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bradel, Lauren; Self, Jessica S.; Endert, Alexander; Hossain, Shahriar M.; North, Chris; Ramakrishnan, Naren

2013-06-04

As analysts attempt to make sense of a collection of documents, such as intelligence analysis reports, they may wish to “connect the dots” between pieces of information that may initially seem unrelated. This process of synthesizing information between information requires users to make connections between pairs of documents, creating a conceptual story. We conducted a user study to analyze the process by which users connect pairs of documents and how they spatially arrange information. Users created conceptual stories that connected the dots using organizational strategies that ranged in complexity. We propose taxonomies for cognitive connections and physical structures used when trying to “connect the dots” between two documents. We compared the user-created stories with a data-mining algorithm that constructs chains of documents using co-occurrence metrics. Using the insight gained into the storytelling process, we offer design considerations for the existing data mining algorithm and corresponding tools to combine the power of data mining and the complex cognitive processing of analysts.

Physiological and biochemical stress responses in grassland species are influenced by both early-season ozone exposure and interspecific competition

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Scebba, Francesca; Canaccini, Francesca; Castagna, Antonella; Bender, Juergen; Weigel, Hans-Joachim; Ranieri, Annamaria

2006-01-01

The effects of two-year early season ozone exposure on physiological and biochemical stress response were investigated in model plant communities. Achillea millefolium and Veronica chamaedrys target plants were grown in monocultures and in mixed cultures with Poa pratensis (phytometer) and exposed in open-top chambers over two years for five weeks to charcoal-filtered (CF) air plus 25 nl l -1 O 3 (control) and non-filtered (NF) air plus 50 nl l -1 O 3 . Significant O 3 effects were detected in different physiological and biochemical parameters, evidencing interspecific differences in metabolic stress responses and a strong influence of the competition factor. O 3 induced strong oxidative effects in Achillea irrespective to the different growth modality. Veronica showed less O 3 -induced effects in monoculture than when grown in competition with the phytometer. Poa exhibited a different behaviour against O 3 depending on the species in competition, showing an overall higher sensitivity to O 3 when in mixture with Achillea. - The competition between species modulates the ozone effect in a short-term

Physiological and biochemical stress responses in grassland species are influenced by both early-season ozone exposure and interspecific competition

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Scebba, Francesca [Department of Agricultural Chemistry and Biotechnology, University of Pisa, Via del Borghetto 80, 56124 Pisa (Italy); Canaccini, Francesca [Department of Agricultural Chemistry and Biotechnology, University of Pisa, Via del Borghetto 80, 56124 Pisa (Italy); Castagna, Antonella [Department of Agricultural Chemistry and Biotechnology, University of Pisa, Via del Borghetto 80, 56124 Pisa (Italy); Bender, Juergen [Institute of Agroecology, FAL, Bundesallee 50, 38116 Braunschweig (Germany); Weigel, Hans-Joachim [Institute of Agroecology, FAL, Bundesallee 50, 38116 Braunschweig (Germany); Ranieri, Annamaria [Department of Agricultural Chemistry and Biotechnology, University of Pisa, Via del Borghetto 80, 56124 Pisa (Italy)]. E-mail: aranieri@agr.unipi.it

2006-08-15

The effects of two-year early season ozone exposure on physiological and biochemical stress response were investigated in model plant communities. Achillea millefolium and Veronica chamaedrys target plants were grown in monocultures and in mixed cultures with Poa pratensis (phytometer) and exposed in open-top chambers over two years for five weeks to charcoal-filtered (CF) air plus 25 nl l{sup -1} O{sub 3} (control) and non-filtered (NF) air plus 50 nl l{sup -1} O{sub 3}. Significant O{sub 3} effects were detected in different physiological and biochemical parameters, evidencing interspecific differences in metabolic stress responses and a strong influence of the competition factor. O{sub 3} induced strong oxidative effects in Achillea irrespective to the different growth modality. Veronica showed less O{sub 3}-induced effects in monoculture than when grown in competition with the phytometer. Poa exhibited a different behaviour against O{sub 3} depending on the species in competition, showing an overall higher sensitivity to O{sub 3} when in mixture with Achillea. - The competition between species modulates the ozone effect in a short-term.

Special Nuclear Material Gamma-Ray Signatures for Reachback Analysts

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Karpius, Peter Joseph [Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Myers, Steven Charles [Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

2016-08-29

These are slides on special nuclear material gamma-ray signatures for reachback analysts for an LSS Spectroscopy course. The closing thoughts for this presentation are the following: SNM materials have definite spectral signatures that should be readily recognizable to analysts in both bare and shielded configurations. One can estimate burnup of plutonium using certain pairs of peaks that are a few keV apart. In most cases, one cannot reliably estimate uranium enrichment in an analogous way to the estimation of plutonium burnup. The origin of the most intense peaks from some SNM items may be indirect and from ‘associated nuclides.' Indirect SNM signatures sometimes have commonalities with the natural gamma-ray background.

Understanding NASA surface missions with the PDS Analyst's Notebook

Science.gov (United States)

Stein, T.

2011-10-01

Planetary data archives of surface missions contain data from numerous hosted instruments. Because of the nondeterministic nature of surface missions, it is not possible to assess the data without understanding the context in which they were collected. The PDS Analyst's Notebook (http://an.rsl.wustl.edu) provides access to Mars Exploration Rover (MER) [1] and Mars Phoenix Lander [2] data archives by integrating sequence information, engineering and science data, observation planning and targeting, and documentation into web-accessible pages to facilitate "mission replay." In addition, Lunar Apollo surface mission data archives and LCROSS mission data are available in the Analyst's Notebook concept, and a Notebook is planned for Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission.

Learning patterns of life from intelligence analyst chat

Science.gov (United States)

Schneider, Michael K.; Alford, Mark; Babko-Malaya, Olga; Blasch, Erik; Chen, Lingji; Crespi, Valentino; HandUber, Jason; Haney, Phil; Nagy, Jim; Richman, Mike; Von Pless, Gregory; Zhu, Howie; Rhodes, Bradley J.

2016-05-01

Our Multi-INT Data Association Tool (MIDAT) learns patterns of life (POL) of a geographical area from video analyst observations called out in textual reporting. Typical approaches to learning POLs from video make use of computer vision algorithms to extract locations in space and time of various activities. Such approaches are subject to the detection and tracking performance of the video processing algorithms. Numerous examples of human analysts monitoring live video streams annotating or "calling out" relevant entities and activities exist, such as security analysis, crime-scene forensics, news reports, and sports commentary. This user description typically corresponds with textual capture, such as chat. Although the purpose of these text products is primarily to describe events as they happen, organizations typically archive the reports for extended periods. This archive provides a basis to build POLs. Such POLs are useful for diagnosis to assess activities in an area based on historical context, and for consumers of products, who gain an understanding of historical patterns. MIDAT combines natural language processing, multi-hypothesis tracking, and Multi-INT Activity Pattern Learning and Exploitation (MAPLE) technologies in an end-to-end lab prototype that processes textual products produced by video analysts, infers POLs, and highlights anomalies relative to those POLs with links to "tracks" of related activities performed by the same entity. MIDAT technologies perform well, achieving, for example, a 90% F1-value on extracting activities from the textual reports.

What's in a name: what analyst and patient call each other.

Science.gov (United States)

Barron, Grace Caroline

2006-01-01

Awkward moments often arise between patient and analyst involving the question, "What do we call each other?" The manner in which the dyad address each other contains material central to the patient's inner life. Names, like dreams, deserve a privileged status as providing a royal road into the paradoxical analytic relationship and the unconscious conflicts that feed it. Whether an analyst addresses the patient formally, informally, or not at all, awareness of the issues surrounding names is important.

Stress map for ion irradiation: Depth-resolved dynamic competition between radiation-induced viscoelastic phenomena in SiO2

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dillen, T. van; Siem, M.Y.S.; Polman, A.

2004-01-01

The dynamic competition between structural transformation, Newtonian viscous flow, and anisotropic strain generation during ion irradiation of SiO 2 , leads to strongly depth-dependent evolution of the mechanical stress, ranging between compressive and tensile. From independent in situ stress measurements during irradiation, generic expressions are derived of the nuclear stopping dependence of both the structural transformation rate and the radiation-induced viscosity. Using these data we introduce and demonstrate the concept of a 'stress map' that predicts the depth-resolved saturation stress in SiO 2 for any irradiation up to several MeV

Effect of Drought Stress on Water Use Efficiency and Root Dry Weight of Wheat (Triticum aesativum L. and Rye (Secale cereale L. in Competition Conditions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

F Golestani Far

2017-10-01

Full Text Available Introduction Deficiency of water during the plant growth is one of the main factors which reduce the crops production around the world. Drought stress is one of the most important tensions that may occur around the low rainfall, high temperature and wind blowing environments. Plant response to this stress depends on the stage of plant growth and drought intensity. Weeds are unwanted and harmful plants with disturbance in agricultural practices which make increase the cost of crop production and reduce the crop yields. Rye (Secale cereal L. is one of the most important weeds at wheat fields in Iran (Baghestani and Atri, 2003. Low expectations, allelopathic effects and similarity of life cycle and morphology, caused increasing of rye density in winter wheat fields. Water use efficiency (WUE as an important physiological characteristic indicates the ability of plants to water stress. WUE may be affected by climatic and soil or plant factors. In plant communities, competition is one of most important physiological topics (Evans et al, 2003. At Inter-specific competition, weeds interfere to absorbing of light, water and nutrients through the adjacency with crop and so affect the growth and yield of crops. Weeds often compete with crops for soil water and reduce the accessibility of water. Competition between weeds and crops decrease the soil moisture and cause water stress which might decrease the weeds and crops growth. When the supply of water is limited, water drainage overlap areas in soil profile could be occurred relatively fast at early of in the crop life cycle. Materials and Methods In order to study the effects of drought stress on water use efficiency and root dry weight of wheat (Triticum aesativum L. and rye (Secale cereale L. in competition conditions, a pot experiment was conducted in the greenhouse of Agriculture Faculty , University of Birjand in 2012. The experiment was arranged as factorial based on completely randomized design

Nothing but the truth: self-disclosure, self-revelation, and the persona of the analyst.

Science.gov (United States)

Levine, Susan S

2007-01-01

The question of the analyst's self-disclosure and self-revelation inhabits every moment of every psychoanalytic treatment. All self-disclosures and revelations, however, are not equivalent, and differentiating among them allows us to define a construct that can be called the analytic persona. Analysts already rely on an unarticulated concept of an analytic persona that guides them, for instance, as they decide what constitutes appropriate boundaries. Clinical examples illustrate how self-disclosures and revelations from within and without the analytic persona feel different, for both patient and analyst. The analyst plays a specific role for each patient and is both purposefully and unconsciously different in this context than in other settings. To a great degree, the self is a relational phenomenon. Our ethics call for us to tell nothing but the truth and simultaneously for us not to tell the whole truth. The unarticulated working concept of an analytic persona that many analysts have refers to the self we step out of at the close of each session and the self we step into as the patient enters the room. Attitudes toward self-disclosure and self-revelation can be considered reflections of how we conceptualize this persona.

Financial Analysts' Forecast Accuracy : Before and After the Introduction of AIFRS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chee Seng Cheong

2010-09-01

Full Text Available We examine whether financial analysts’ forecast accuracy differs between the pre- and post- adoption ofAustralian Equivalents to the International Financial Reporting Standards (AIFRS. We find that forecastaccuracy has improved after Australia adopted AIFRS. As a secondary objective, this paper also investigatesthe role of financial analysts in reducing information asymmetry in today’s Australian capital market. We findweak evidence that more analysts following a stock do not help to improve forecast accuracy by bringingmore firm-specific information to the market.

The Pentagon's Military Analyst Program

Science.gov (United States)

Valeri, Andy

2014-01-01

This article provides an investigatory overview of the Pentagon's military analyst program, what it is, how it was implemented, and how it constitutes a form of propaganda. A technical analysis of the program is applied using the theoretical framework of the propaganda model first developed by Noam Chomsky and Edward S. Herman. Definitions…

Analysis of Skills Requirement for Entry-Level Programmer/Analysts in Fortune 500 Corporations

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Choong Kwon; Han, Hyo-Joo

2008-01-01

This paper presents the most up-to-date skill requirements for programmer/analyst, one of the most demanded entry-level job titles in the Information Systems (IS) field. In the past, several researchers studied job skills for IS professionals, but few have focused especially on "programmer/analyst." The authors conducted an extensive empirical…

Physiological and biochemical stress responses in grassland species are influenced by both early-season ozone exposure and interspecific competition.

Science.gov (United States)

Scebba, Francesca; Canaccini, Francesca; Castagna, Antonella; Bender, Jürgen; Weigel, Hans-Joachim; Ranieri, Annamaria

2006-08-01

The effects of two-year early season ozone exposure on physiological and biochemical stress response were investigated in model plant communities. Achillea millefolium and Veronica chamaedrys target plants were grown in monocultures and in mixed cultures with Poa pratensis (phytometer) and exposed in open-top chambers over two years for five weeks to charcoal-filtered (CF) air plus 25 nl l(-1) O3 (control) and non-filtered (NF) air plus 50 nl l(-1) O3. Significant O3 effects were detected in different physiological and biochemical parameters, evidencing interspecific differences in metabolic stress responses and a strong influence of the competition factor. O3 induced strong oxidative effects in Achillea irrespective to the different growth modality. Veronica showed less O3-induced effects in monoculture than when grown in competition with the phytometer. Poa exhibited a different behaviour against O3 depending on the species in competition, showing an overall higher sensitivity to O3 when in mixture with Achillea.

Nuclear power in competitive electricity markets

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2000-01-01

Economic deregulation in the power sector raises new challenges for the prospects of nuclear power. A key issue is to assess whether nuclear power can be competitive in a de-regulated electricity market. Other important considerations include safety, nuclear liability and insurance, the nuclear power infrastructure, and health and environmental protection. This study, conducted by a group of experts from twelve OECD Member countries and three international organisations, provides a review and analysis of these issues, as related to both existing and future nuclear power plants. It will be of particular interest to energy analysts, as well as to policy makers in the nuclear and government sectors. (author)

A reply to behavior analysts writing about rules and rule-governed behavior.

Science.gov (United States)

Schlinger, H D

1990-01-01

Verbal stimuli called "rules" or "instructions" continue to be interpreted as discriminative stimuli despite recent arguments against this practice. Instead, it might more fruitful for behavior analysts to focus on "contingency-specifying stimuli" which are function-altering. Moreover, rather than having a special term, "rule," for verbal stimuli whose only function is discriminative, perhaps behavior analysts should reserve the term, if at all, only for these function-altering contingency-specifying stimuli.

Implementation status of performance demonstration program for steam generator tubing analysts in Korea

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cho, Chan Hee; Lee, Hee Jong; Yoo, Hyun Ju; Nam, Min Woo; Hong, Sung Yull

2013-01-01

Some essential components in nuclear power plants are periodically inspected using non destructive examinations, for example ultrasonic, eddy current and radiographic examinations, in order to determine their integrity. These components include nuclear power plant items such as vessels, containments, piping systems, pumps, valves, tubes and core support structure. Steam generator tubes have an important safety role because they constitute one of the primary barriers between the radioactive and non radioactive sides of the nuclear power plant. There is potential that if a tube bursts while a plant is operating, radioactivity from the primary coolant system could escape directly to the atmosphere. Therefore, in service inspections are critical in maintaining steam generator tube integrity. In general, the eddy current testing is widely used for the inspection of steam generator tubes due tube integrity. In general, the eddy current testing is widely used for the inspection of steam generator tubes due to its high inspection speed and flaw detectability on non magnetic tubes. However, it is not easy to analyze correctly eddy current signals because they are influenced by many factors. Therefore, the performance of eddy current data analysts for steam generator tubing should be demonstrated comprehensively. In Korea, the performance of steam generator tubing analysts has been demonstrated using the Qualified Data Analyst program. This paper describes the performance demonstration program for steam generator tubing analysts and its implementation results in Korea. The pass rate of domestic analysts for this program was 71.4%

Implementation status of performance demonstration program for steam generator tubing analysts in Korea

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Cho, Chan Hee; Lee, Hee Jong; Yoo, Hyun Ju; Nam, Min Woo [KHNP Central Research Institute, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of); Hong, Sung Yull [Yeungnam Univ., Gyeongsan (Korea, Republic of)

2013-02-15

Some essential components in nuclear power plants are periodically inspected using non destructive examinations, for example ultrasonic, eddy current and radiographic examinations, in order to determine their integrity. These components include nuclear power plant items such as vessels, containments, piping systems, pumps, valves, tubes and core support structure. Steam generator tubes have an important safety role because they constitute one of the primary barriers between the radioactive and non radioactive sides of the nuclear power plant. There is potential that if a tube bursts while a plant is operating, radioactivity from the primary coolant system could escape directly to the atmosphere. Therefore, in service inspections are critical in maintaining steam generator tube integrity. In general, the eddy current testing is widely used for the inspection of steam generator tubes due tube integrity. In general, the eddy current testing is widely used for the inspection of steam generator tubes due to its high inspection speed and flaw detectability on non magnetic tubes. However, it is not easy to analyze correctly eddy current signals because they are influenced by many factors. Therefore, the performance of eddy current data analysts for steam generator tubing should be demonstrated comprehensively. In Korea, the performance of steam generator tubing analysts has been demonstrated using the Qualified Data Analyst program. This paper describes the performance demonstration program for steam generator tubing analysts and its implementation results in Korea. The pass rate of domestic analysts for this program was 71.4%.

Stress Management in Education: Warning Signs and Coping Mechanisms

Science.gov (United States)

Sorenson, Richard D.

2007-01-01

Only in recent years have researchers begun to study stress in the workplace. Psychologists and other stress analysts have discovered that the most trying professions are those that involve high pressure and serious responsibilities, often beyond the control of the individuals employed. Most interesting, the American Institute of Stress revealed…

A reply to behavior analysts writing about rules and rule-governed behavior

OpenAIRE

Schlinger, Henry D.

1990-01-01

Verbal stimuli called “rules” or “instructions” continue to be interpreted as discriminative stimuli despite recent arguments against this practice. Instead, it might more fruitful for behavior analysts to focus on “contingency-specifying stimuli” which are function-altering. Moreover, rather than having a special term, “rule,” for verbal stimuli whose only function is discriminative, perhaps behavior analysts should reserve the term, if at all, only for these function-altering contingency-sp...

Are security analysts rational? a literature review

OpenAIRE

Peixinho, Rúben; Coelho, Luís; Taffler, Richard J.

2005-01-01

Rational choice theory and bounded rationality constitute the basis for the discussion in several areas regarding human rationality. In finance, this discussion has been made between traditional finance and behavioural finance approach, which have different perspectives concerning market agents’ rationality. This paper reviews several studies addressing rationality among security analysts. The analysis shows that analysts’systematic optimism seems to be inconsistent with rationality....

Audience as analyst: Dennis Potter's The Singing Detective.

Science.gov (United States)

Jeffrey, W

1997-06-01

Author Dennis Potter has written an exceptional psychoanalytically informed television series in The Singing Detective. Potter succeeds by echewing the usual portrayal of psychoanalysis in cinema and television as a therapy which the viewer observes but instead creates, by means of the content and structure of the series, a production that forces the audience into a role of analyst. The story of the current life and the childhood of the protagonist, Philip Marlow, has depth and context which allows the audience to examine the personality of Marlow, including character pathology and traits, sexuality, fantasy, dreams, and delusions from several metapsychological viewpoints. Potter allows the audience to use the dynamic, genetic, topographic, and, most unusual in drama, structural viewpoints. The audience can experience aspects of an analyst's experience, including the process of formulating and evaluating over time analytic hypotheses and coping with emotional reactions to the material which at times has transferencelike qualities.

The body of the analyst and the analytic setting: reflections on the embodied setting and the symbiotic transference.

Science.gov (United States)

Lemma, Alessandra

2014-04-01

In this paper the author questions whether the body of the analyst may be helpfully conceptualized as an embodied feature of the setting and suggests that this may be especially helpful for understanding patients who develop a symbiotic transference and for whom any variance in the analyst's body is felt to be profoundly destabilizing. In such cases the patient needs to relate to the body of the analyst concretely and exclusively as a setting 'constant' and its meaning for the patient may thus remain inaccessible to analysis for a long time. When the separateness of the body of the analyst reaches the patient's awareness because of changes in the analyst's appearance or bodily state, it then mobilizes primitive anxieties in the patient. It is only when the body of the analyst can become a dynamic variable between them (i.e., part of the process) that it can be used by the patient to further the exploration of their own mind. Copyright © 2014 Institute of Psychoanalysis.

78 FR 14359 - Verizon Business Networks Services, Inc., Senior Analysts-Order Management, Voice Over Internet...

Science.gov (United States)

2013-03-05

... Business Networks Services, Inc., Senior Analysts-Order Management, Voice Over Internet Protocol, Small And... Management, Voice Over Internet Protocol, Small And Medium Business, San Antonio, TX; Amended Certification... Business Networks Services, Inc., Senior Analysts-Order Management, Voice Over Internet Protocol, Small and...

COLAB: A Laboratory Environment for Studying Analyst Sensemaking and Collaboration

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Morrison, Clayton T; Cohen, Paul R

2005-01-01

COLAB is a laboratory for studying tools that facilitate collaboration and sensemaking among groups of human analysts as they build interpretations of unfolding situations based on accruing intelligence data...

Key Performance Indicators and Analysts' Earnings Forecast Accuracy: An Application of Content Analysis

OpenAIRE

Alireza Dorestani; Zabihollah Rezaee

2011-01-01

We examine the association between the extent of change in key performance indicator (KPI) disclosures and the accuracy of forecasts made by analysts. KPIs are regarded as improving both the transparency and relevancy of public financial information. The results of using linear regression models show that contrary to our prediction and the hypothesis of this paper, there is no significant association between the change in non- financial KPI disclosures and the accuracy of analysts' forecasts....

Using eye temperature and heart rate for stress assessment in young horses competing in jumping competitions and its possible influence on sport performance.

Science.gov (United States)

Bartolomé, E; Sánchez, M J; Molina, A; Schaefer, A L; Cervantes, I; Valera, M

2013-12-01

The aims of this study were, first, to evaluate eye temperature (ET) with infrared thermography and heart rate (HR) to measure stress in horses during show jumping competitions and their relationship with competition results, and second, to evaluate the influence of different extrinsic and intrinsic factors of the horse on the stress measurements analysed. One hundred and seventy-three Spanish Sport Horses were analysed for ET and HR, and these measurements were taken 3 h before the competition, just after and 3 h after it. Two interval measurements were also assessed for each parameter. Positive significant correlations were found between ET and HR, measured before (r=0.23), just after competition (r=0.28) and for the later interval (r=0.26), whereas negative correlations with competition results were found only for ET when measured just after competing (r=-0.25). Two intrinsic factors (genetic line and age) and no extrinsic factors showed significant differences for ET, whereas one intrinsic factor (age) and two extrinsic factors (journey duration and number of training hours) showed significant differences for HR. The marginal means showed significantly higher ET values for the Anglo-Arab genetic line and for 5-year-old animals. HR values were significantly higher for 4-year-old animals, for horses which had travelled 4 to 6 h and for horses that had 3 to 6 h of daily training. This study suggests that, although ET and HR seemed to share a similar physiological basis, the factors that most influenced each parameter were different. Finally, ET seems to be a suitable tool for assessing stress during show jumping competitions in horses.

Impact of competitive flow on wall shear stress in coronary surgery: computational fluid dynamics of a LIMA-LAD model.

Science.gov (United States)

Nordgaard, Håvard; Swillens, Abigail; Nordhaug, Dag; Kirkeby-Garstad, Idar; Van Loo, Denis; Vitale, Nicola; Segers, Patrick; Haaverstad, Rune; Lovstakken, Lasse

2010-12-01

Competitive flow from native coronary vessels is considered a major factor in the failure of coronary bypass grafts. However, the pathophysiological effects are not fully understood. Low and oscillatory wall shear stress (WSS) is known to induce endothelial dysfunction and vascular disease, like atherosclerosis and intimal hyperplasia. The aim was to investigate the impact of competitive flow on WSS in mammary artery bypass grafts. Using computational fluid dynamics, WSS was calculated in a left internal mammary artery (LIMA) graft to the left anterior descending artery in a three-dimensional in vivo porcine coronary artery bypass graft model. The following conditions were investigated: high competitive flow (non-significant coronary lesion), partial competitive flow (significant coronary lesion), and no competitive flow (totally occluded coronary vessel). Time-averaged WSS of LIMA at high, partial, and no competitive flow were 0.3-0.6, 0.6-3.0, and 0.9-3.0 Pa, respectively. Further, oscillatory WSS quantified as the oscillatory shear index (OSI) ranged from (maximum OSI = 0.5 equals zero net WSS) 0.15 to 0.35, OSI similar to the no competitive flow condition. Graft flow is highly dependent on the degree of competitive flow. High competitive flow was found to produce unfavourable WSS consistent with endothelial dysfunction and subsequent graft narrowing and failure. Partial competitive flow, however, may be better tolerated as it was found to be similar to the ideal condition of no competitive flow.

Water stress and nitrogen limitation effects on corn (Zea mays L.) competition with a C3 and a C4 weed.

Science.gov (United States)

Zand, E; Soufizadeh, S; Eskandari, A

2006-01-01

To examine how drought and nitrogen limitation might affect crop competitive ability with C3 or C4 weeds, a two year experiment was conducted at the research field of Plant Pest and Disease Research Institute, Karaj, in 2002 and 2003. Irrigation interval (every 7d and 14d (moderate drought stress)), nitrogen rate (recommended and 1/4 recommended), and crop-weed competition (corn, corn-common lambsquarters (Chenopodium album L.), corn-redroot pigweed (Amaranthus retroflexus L.), and corn-common lambsquarters-redroot pigweed) were studied in a split-factorial design with 4 replications, with irrigation interval as the main plot, and factorial combination of the other two factors as the sub-plot. Grain yield, harvest index (HI), water and nitrogen use efficiencies (WUE and NUE, respectively) were measured at harvest. Drought and nitrogen deficiency reduced corn grain yield and HI (except for corn-redroot pigweed and corn-common lambsquarters treatments under drought stress). Redroot pigweed was found inhibitorier to corn compared to common lambsquarters in all irrigation and nitrogen levels. Corn WUE reduced under drought condition and competition, but drought caused less reduction in corn WUE when it competed with common lambsquarters compared to redroot pigweed. This shows that drought has more negative effect on C3 weeds (probably due to higher reduction in stomatal conductance and increment in photo-respiration under these conditions compared to a C4 plant). The same result was obtained for corn NUE under nitrogen limitation and competition. In other words, nitrogen deficiency had more inhibitory effect on common lambsquarters competitive ability compared with redroot pigweed. Totally, it was concluded that drought stress and nitrogen deficiency, as the two results of climate change, had more negative effect on C3 weeds compared with C4.

Development of a Nevada Statewide Database for Safety Analyst Software

Science.gov (United States)

2017-02-02

Safety Analyst is a software package developed by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and twenty-seven participating state and local agencies including the Nevada Department of Transportation (NDOT). The software package implemented many of the...

Temenos regained: reflections on the absence of the analyst.

Science.gov (United States)

Abramovitch, Henry

2002-10-01

The importance of the temenos as a metaphor to conceptualize therapeutic containment is discussed. Jung drew the analogy between the consulting room and the temenos, at the centre of the Greek Temple as a sacred and inviolate place where the analysand might encounter the Self. Although Jung believed that whether called or not, the gods would appear, under certain conditions, patients may experience 'temenos lost', the loss of the holding function of the analytic space. Two cases are presented in which temenos issues played a central role. In one case, an unorthodox method was used to preserve the analytic container during the absence of the analyst and in the other, the impact of an extra-analytical encounter had a dramatic effect on the holding function of the temenos. A discussion is presented of the appropriate circumstances in which analysts may deviate from traditional analytic practice in order to preserve the temenos and transform a 'temenos lost' into a 'temenos regained'.

Self-confidence in financial analysis: a study of younger and older male professional analysts.

Science.gov (United States)

Webster, R L; Ellis, T S

2001-06-01

Measures of reported self-confidence in performing financial analysis by 59 professional male analysts, 31 born between 1946 and 1964 and 28 born between 1965 and 1976, were investigated and reported. Self-confidence in one's ability is important in the securities industry because it affects recommendations and decisions to buy, sell, and hold securities. The respondents analyzed a set of multiyear corporate financial statements and reported their self-confidence in six separate financial areas. Data from the 59 male financial analysts were tallied and analyzed using both univariate and multivariate statistical tests. Rated self-confidence was not significantly different for the younger and the older men. These results are not consistent with a similar prior study of female analysts in which younger women showed significantly higher self-confidence than older women.

Retail competition in electricity supply—Survey results in North Carolina

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

McDaniel, Tanga M.; Groothuis, Peter A.

2012-01-01

Residential retail competition in electricity supply was introduced in many countries and some US states as part of electricity industry deregulation. Following problems in the electricity market in California in 2000/2001 many US states, including North Carolina, suspended their deregulation agenda. Recent technological advances have made competition more viable, so we ask if NC should reconsider deregulation and retail competition. The welfare benefits will depend on consumers’ willingness to switch suppliers and the potential for value added innovations. In electricity and industries such as pay-tv and telecommunications consumers are ‘sticky’, remaining with their current supplier even though rivals offer savings. Moreover, some analysts question the likelihood of significant welfare improvements from retail competition. We survey residents in two NC counties focusing on: (i) households’ knowledge of and interest in retail competition, (ii) factors that would encourage them to switch suppliers and (iii) the required savings to encourage switching. About 50–65% of respondents would favor retail competition in NC. Demographic variables and experience switching in other industries affect opinions and the savings required to incent switching. We conclude the estimated rate reduction to encourage competitive switching will be hard to achieve in NC as long as rates remain below the national average. - Highlights: ► NC survey results suggest residents are interested in utility supply competition. ► Socio-demographic variables affect opinions. ► A lower bound on required savings to incent switching is about 1.4¢/kWh. ► NC residential rates are below the national average, so such a savings is unlikely.

Accuracy and Consistency of Grass Pollen Identification by Human Analysts Using Electron Micrographs of Surface Ornamentation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Luke Mander

2014-08-01

Full Text Available Premise of the study: Humans frequently identify pollen grains at a taxonomic rank above species. Grass pollen is a classic case of this situation, which has led to the development of computational methods for identifying grass pollen species. This paper aims to provide context for these computational methods by quantifying the accuracy and consistency of human identification. Methods: We measured the ability of nine human analysts to identify 12 species of grass pollen using scanning electron microscopy images. These are the same images that were used in computational identifications. We have measured the coverage, accuracy, and consistency of each analyst, and investigated their ability to recognize duplicate images. Results: Coverage ranged from 87.5% to 100%. Mean identification accuracy ranged from 46.67% to 87.5%. The identification consistency of each analyst ranged from 32.5% to 87.5%, and each of the nine analysts produced considerably different identification schemes. The proportion of duplicate image pairs that were missed ranged from 6.25% to 58.33%. Discussion: The identification errors made by each analyst, which result in a decline in accuracy and consistency, are likely related to psychological factors such as the limited capacity of human memory, fatigue and boredom, recency effects, and positivity bias.

Information seeking and use behaviour of economists and business analysts

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Eric Thivant

2005-01-01

Full Text Available Introduction. The aim of this paper is to deal with the information seeking and use problem in a professional context and understand how activity can influence practices, by taking as examples, the research undertaken by economic analysts. We analyse the relationship between the situational approach, described by Cheuk, the work environment complexity (with social, technological and personal aspects, and the information seeking and use strategies, which relied on Ellis and Wilson's model, with Bates's comments. Method. We interviewed eight economists, using a questionnaire and the SICIA (Situation, Complexity and Information Activity method. The SICAI method is a qualitative approach, which underlines the relationship between situations, professional contexts and strategies. Both methods allow better understanding of how investment analysts find out what they need for their job. We can clarify their information sources and practices of information seeking, which are very particular because of their activities. We complete our analysis by interviewing analysts from financial institutions. Analysis. A qualitative mode of analysis was used to interpret the interviewees' comments, within the research framework adopted. Results. We find similarity in information seeking and use strategies used by these two groups and environmental levels meet in most situations. But some differences can be also found, explained by the activity frameworks and goals. Conclusion. This study demonstrates that the activity and also the professional context (here the financial context can directly influence practices.

Interspecific competition changes photosynthetic and oxidative stress response of barley and barnyard grass to elevated CO2 and temperature

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Irena Januskaitiene

2018-03-01

Full Text Available This work focuses on the investigation of competition interaction between C3 crop barley (Hordeum vulgare L. and C4 weed barnyard grass (Echinochloa crus-galli L. at 2 times higher than ambient [CO2] and +4 0C higher ambient temperature climate conditions. It was hypothesized that interspecific competition will change the response of the investigated plants to increased [CO2] and temperature. The obtained results showed that in the current climate conditions, a higher biomass and photosynthetic rate and a lower antioxidant activity were detected for barley grown under interspecific competition effect. While in the warmed climate and under competition conditions opposite results were detected: a higher water use efficiency, a higher photosynthetic performance, a lower dissipated energy flux and a lower antioxidant enzymes activity were detected for barnyard grass plants. This study highlights that in the future climate conditions, barnyard grass will become more efficient in performance of the photosynthetic apparatus and it will suffer from lower oxidative stress caused by interspecific competition as compared to barley.

Seeing, mirroring, desiring: the impact of the analyst's pregnant body on the patient's body image.

Science.gov (United States)

Yakeley, Jessica

2013-08-01

The paper explores the impact of the analyst's pregnant body on the course of two analyses, a young man, and a young woman, specifically focusing on how each patient's visual perception and affective experience of being with the analyst's pregnant body affected their own body image and subjective experience of their body. The pre-verbal or 'subsymbolic' material evoked in the analyses contributed to a greater understanding of the patients' developmental experiences in infancy and adolescence, which had resulted in both carrying a profoundly distorted body image into adulthood. The analyst's pregnancy offered a therapeutic window in which a shift in the patient's body image could be initiated. Clinical material is presented in detail with reference to the psychoanalytic literature on the pregnant analyst, and that of the development of the body image, particularly focusing on the role of visual communication and the face. The author proposes a theory of psychic change, drawing on Bucci's multiple code theory, in which the patients' unconscious or 'subsymbolic' awareness of her pregnancy, which were manifest in their bodily responses, feeling states and dreams, as well as in the analyst s countertransference, could gradually be verbalized and understood within the transference. Thus visual perception, or 'external seeing', could gradually become 'internal seeing', or insight into unconscious phantasies, leading to a shift in the patients internal object world towards a less persecutory state and more realistic appraisal of their body image. Copyright © 2013 Institute of Psychoanalysis.

Stress fractures of the ribs in elite competitive rowers: a report of nine cases

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Dragoni, S. [Institute of Sport Medicine and Science of the Italian Olympic Committee, Department of Radiology, Rome (Italy); Giombini, A.; Ripani, M. [University of Motor Sciences, Department of Health, Rome (Italy); Di Cesare, A. [University of Rome ' ' La Sapienza' ' , Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Rome (Italy); Magliani, G. [Medical Department of the Italian State Police, Rome (Italy)

2007-10-15

The objective was to report the clinical and imaging patterns of nine cases of stress fractures of the rib diagnosed in Italian Olympic rowers. Nine patients with stress fractures of the rib detected from 103 (8.7%) Italian team rowers competing between May 2000 and May 2006 were identified based on the database of a sports medicine institute. All athletes were male. They were aged between 17 and 31 years (mean: 24.4). Patient weight, fracture location, rowing side and imaging methods employed were noted. The diagnosis was made based on history, clinical examination and Tc-99m MDP bone scintigraphy. Eight of the 9 fractures were located anterolaterally between the fourth and ninth rib. In 1 of the 5 athletes with standard radiographs, a fracture line was visible and in 4 there was callus formation. In 2 athletes sonography was performed, which detected discontinuity of the rib surface and callus formation (1 case each). Stress fractures of the ribs are relatively common in competitive rowers. They are characterized by increasing lateral chest pain and typical scintigraphic, radiographic and sonographic findings. (orig.)

Stress fractures of the ribs in elite competitive rowers: a report of nine cases

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dragoni, S.; Giombini, A.; Ripani, M.; Di Cesare, A.; Magliani, G.

2007-01-01

The objective was to report the clinical and imaging patterns of nine cases of stress fractures of the rib diagnosed in Italian Olympic rowers. Nine patients with stress fractures of the rib detected from 103 (8.7%) Italian team rowers competing between May 2000 and May 2006 were identified based on the database of a sports medicine institute. All athletes were male. They were aged between 17 and 31 years (mean: 24.4). Patient weight, fracture location, rowing side and imaging methods employed were noted. The diagnosis was made based on history, clinical examination and Tc-99m MDP bone scintigraphy. Eight of the 9 fractures were located anterolaterally between the fourth and ninth rib. In 1 of the 5 athletes with standard radiographs, a fracture line was visible and in 4 there was callus formation. In 2 athletes sonography was performed, which detected discontinuity of the rib surface and callus formation (1 case each). Stress fractures of the ribs are relatively common in competitive rowers. They are characterized by increasing lateral chest pain and typical scintigraphic, radiographic and sonographic findings. (orig.)

Competitive advantage and corporate communications

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mitić Sanja

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Strategic importance of corporate communications and its role in the development of competitive advantage has attracted interest of numerous researchers in the fields of organization, management, marketing and public relations. Recent studies particularly emphasise the growing importance of soft factors, such as reputation in the development of competitive advantage. Concept of reputation is strongly connected with stakeholder theory, which stresses the importance of corporate communications for competitive advantage of firms. The paper focuses on competitive advantage and the link among strategy, reputation and corporate communications.

The growing competition in Brazilian science: rites of passage, stress and burnout

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

de Meis L.

2003-01-01

Full Text Available Brazil's scientific community is under pressure. Each year there is an increase in its contribution to international science and in the number of students who are trained to do research and teach at an advanced level. Most of these activities are carried out in state and federal universities, but with government funding that has decreased by more than 70% since 1996. Interviews with graduate students, post-doctoral fellows and professors in one university department with a strong research tradition illustrate the level of stress engendered by the conflict between increasing competition and diminishing resources, and serve to underscore the negative effects on creativity and on the tendency to choose science as a career.

Look who is talking now: analyst recommendations and internet IPOs

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van der Goot, T.; van Giersbergen, N.

2009-01-01

This paper investigates whether analyst recommendations are independent of their employer’s investment banking activities. Our sample consists of internet firms that went public during 1997-2000. The contribution of the paper to the literature is threefold. First, to account for missing

[Concordance among analysts from Latin-American laboratories for rice grain appearance determination using a gallery of digital images].

Science.gov (United States)

Avila, Manuel; Graterol, Eduardo; Alezones, Jesús; Criollo, Beisy; Castillo, Dámaso; Kuri, Victoria; Oviedo, Norman; Moquete, Cesar; Romero, Marbella; Hanley, Zaida; Taylor, Margie

2012-06-01

The appearance of rice grain is a key aspect in quality determination. Mainly, this analysis is performed by expert analysts through visual observation; however, due to the subjective nature of the analysis, the results may vary among analysts. In order to evaluate the concordance between analysts from Latin-American rice quality laboratories for rice grain appearance through digital images, an inter-laboratory test was performed with ten analysts and images of 90 grains captured with a high resolution scanner. Rice grains were classified in four categories including translucent, chalky, white belly, and damaged grain. Data was categorized using statistic parameters like mode and its frequency, the relative concordance, and the reproducibility parameter kappa. Additionally, a referential image gallery of typical grain for each category was constructed based on mode frequency. Results showed a Kappa value of 0.49, corresponding to a moderate reproducibility, attributable to subjectivity in the visual analysis of grain images. These results reveal the need for standardize the evaluation criteria among analysts to improve the confidence of the determination of rice grain appearance.

Do analysts disclose cash flow forecasts with earnings estimates when earnings quality is low?

OpenAIRE

Bilinski, P.

2014-01-01

Cash flows are incrementally useful to earnings in security valuation mainly when earnings quality is low. This suggests that when earnings quality decreases, analysts will be more likely to supplement their earnings forecasts with cash flow estimates. Contrary to this prediction, we find that analysts do not disclose cash flow forecasts when the quality of earnings is low. This is because cash flow forecast accuracy depends on the accuracy of the accrual estimates and the precision of accrua...

Which analysts benefited most from mandatory IFRS adoption in Europe?

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Beuselinck, Christof; Joos, Philip; Khurana, I.K.; van der Meulen, Sofie

2017-01-01

This study examines whether financial analysts' research structure and portfolio selection choices helped in improving relative earnings forecast accuracy around mandatory IFRS adoption in Europe. Using a sample of 68,665 one-year ahead forecasts for 1,980 publicly listed firms, we find that

Meta-Analyst: software for meta-analysis of binary, continuous and diagnostic data

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Schmid Christopher H

2009-12-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Meta-analysis is increasingly used as a key source of evidence synthesis to inform clinical practice. The theory and statistical foundations of meta-analysis continually evolve, providing solutions to many new and challenging problems. In practice, most meta-analyses are performed in general statistical packages or dedicated meta-analysis programs. Results Herein, we introduce Meta-Analyst, a novel, powerful, intuitive, and free meta-analysis program for the meta-analysis of a variety of problems. Meta-Analyst is implemented in C# atop of the Microsoft .NET framework, and features a graphical user interface. The software performs several meta-analysis and meta-regression models for binary and continuous outcomes, as well as analyses for diagnostic and prognostic test studies in the frequentist and Bayesian frameworks. Moreover, Meta-Analyst includes a flexible tool to edit and customize generated meta-analysis graphs (e.g., forest plots and provides output in many formats (images, Adobe PDF, Microsoft Word-ready RTF. The software architecture employed allows for rapid changes to be made to either the Graphical User Interface (GUI or to the analytic modules. We verified the numerical precision of Meta-Analyst by comparing its output with that from standard meta-analysis routines in Stata over a large database of 11,803 meta-analyses of binary outcome data, and 6,881 meta-analyses of continuous outcome data from the Cochrane Library of Systematic Reviews. Results from analyses of diagnostic and prognostic test studies have been verified in a limited number of meta-analyses versus MetaDisc and MetaTest. Bayesian statistical analyses use the OpenBUGS calculation engine (and are thus as accurate as the standalone OpenBUGS software. Conclusion We have developed and validated a new program for conducting meta-analyses that combines the advantages of existing software for this task.

Sex-dependent components of the analgesia produced by athletic competition.

Science.gov (United States)

Sternberg, W F; Bokat, C; Kass, L; Alboyadjian, A; Gracely, R H

2001-02-01

Competing in various athletic events (track meet, basketball game, or fencing match) can produce analgesia to cold pressor stimuli in male and female college athletes compared with baseline assessments. This competition-induced analgesia has been attributed to the stress associated with competition, which has components related to both physical exercise and the cognitive aspects of competing. This study evaluated the analgesic effect of exercise-related stress, and that caused by the cognitively stressful components of competing independent of exercise. Cold pressor pain ratings were assessed after competition in a track meet and after treadmill exercise or sedentary video game competition in both athletes and nonathletes. As expected, competing in athletics resulted in a decrease in cold pressor ratings in both male and female athletes. Independent of athletic status, treadmill running induced analgesia in women, but not in males, whereas sedentary video game competition produced analgesia in men, but not in women. These findings suggest that different components of the competitive athletic experience might be responsible for the analgesic effects in a sex-dependent manner.

Sport competitions in Antique Chersoneses.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Moutiev A.V.

2011-12-01

Full Text Available It is examined the content of physical education in Chersoneses in the ancient period. It is shown the participation of citizens in the Chersoneses competitions at various levels. Stressed the importance of physical culture, sports, sports training, organizing and conducting athletic competitions. Show the direction of physical education of youth, training for local and Panhellenic competitions, military service. The role of the teacher of gymnastics in physical education students in public schools. It is noted that the study involved in Chersoneses pedagogical methods and techniques. It is established that the citizens of Chersoneses actively participated in Panhellenic competitions and they became the victors.

The Effects of Bug-in-Ear Coaching on Pre-Service Behavior Analysts' Use of Functional Communication Training.

Science.gov (United States)

Artman-Meeker, Kathleen; Rosenberg, Nancy; Badgett, Natalie; Yang, Xueyan; Penney, Ashley

2017-09-01

Behavior analysts play an important role in supporting the behavior and learning of young children with disabilities in natural settings. However, there is very little research related specifically to developing the skills and competencies needed by pre-service behavior analysts. This study examined the effects of "bug-in-ear" (BIE) coaching on pre-service behavior analysts' implementation of functional communication training with pre-school children with autism in their classrooms. BIE coaching was associated with increases in the rate of functional communication training trials each intern initiated per session and in the fidelity with which interns implemented functional communication training. Adults created more intentional opportunities for children to communicate, and adults provided more systematic instruction around those opportunities.

The analyst's desire in the clinic of anorexia

OpenAIRE

Silva, Mariana Benatto Pereira da; Pereira, Mario Eduardo Costa; Celeri, Eloísa Helena Valler

2010-01-01

The present work deals with the issue of the analyst's desire in the psychoanalytical treatment of anorexia. It analyzes important elements to establish transference in these cases, as the pursuit of death and the choice of refusing food as a way of controlling the demands of the Other. It then discusses the "analist's desire" function in this clinic. Rejecting the definition of a treatment model and the structural categorization of anorexia, we can find in the cases of the girl of Angouleme ...

Competitive advantage and corporate communications

OpenAIRE

Mitić Sanja; Ognjanov Galjina

2013-01-01

Strategic importance of corporate communications and its role in the development of competitive advantage has attracted interest of numerous researchers in the fields of organization, management, marketing and public relations. Recent studies particularly emphasise the growing importance of soft factors, such as reputation in the development of competitive advantage. Concept of reputation is strongly connected with stakeholder theory, which stresses the importance of corporate communications ...

Disclosure of Non-Financial Information: Relevant to Financial Analysts?

OpenAIRE

ORENS, Raf; LYBAERT, Nadine

2013-01-01

The decline in the relevance of financial statement information to value firms leads to calls from organizational stakeholders to convey non-financial information in order to be able to judge firms' financial performance and value. This literature review aims to report extant literature findings on the use of corporate non-financial information by sell-side financial analysts, the information intermediaries between corporate management and investors. Prior studies highlight that financial ana...

Idealization of the analyst by the young adult.

Science.gov (United States)

Chused, J F

1987-01-01

Idealization is an intrapsychic process that serves many functions. In addition to its use defensively and for gratification of libidinal and aggressive drive derivatives, it can contribute to developmental progression, particularly during late adolescence and young adulthood. During an analysis, it is important to recognize all the determinants of idealization, including those related to the reworking of developmental conflicts. If an analyst understands idealization solely as a manifestation of pathology, he may interfere with his patient's use of it for the development of autonomous functioning.

Survival, growth and stress response of juvenile tidewater goby, Eucyclogobius newberryi, to interspecific competition for food

Science.gov (United States)

Chase, Daniel A; Flynn, Erin E; Todgham, Anne E

2016-01-01

Abstract Reintroduction of endangered fishes to historic habitat has been used as a recovery tool; however, these fish may face competition from other fishes that established in their native habitat since extirpation. This study investigated the physiological response of tidewater goby, Eucyclogobius newberryi, an endangered California fish, when competing for food with threespine stickleback, Gasterosteus aculeatus, a native species, and rainwater killifish, Lucania parva, a non-native species. Survival, growth and physiological indicators of stress (i.e. cortisol, glucose and lactate concentrations) were assessed for juvenile fish held for 28 days in two food-limited conditions. When fed a 75% ration, survival of E. newberryi was significantly lower when held with G. aculeatus. In all fish assemblages, weight and relative condition decreased then stabilized over the 28 day experiment, while length remained unchanged. Whole-body cortisol in E. newberryi was not affected by fish assemblage; however, glucose and lactate concentrations were significantly higher with conspecifics than with other fish assemblages. When fed a 50% ration, survival of E. newberryi decreased during the second half of the experiment, while weight and relative condition decreased and length remained unchanged in all three fish assemblages. Cortisol concentrations were significantly higher for all fish assemblages compared with concentrations at the start of the experiment, whereas glucose and lactate concentrations were depressed relative to concentrations at the start of the experiment, with the magnitude of decrease dependent on the species assemblage. Our findings indicate that E. newberryi exhibited reduced growth and an elevated generalized stress response during low food availability. In response to reduced food availability, competition with G. aculeatus had the greatest physiological effect on E. newberryi, with minimal effects from the non-native L. parva. This study presents

Analyzing the Qualitative Data Analyst: A Naturalistic Investigation of Data Interpretation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wolff-Michael Roth

2015-07-01

Full Text Available Much qualitative research involves the analysis of verbal data. Although the possibility to conduct qualitative research in a rigorous manner is sometimes contested in debates of qualitative/quantitative methods, there are scholarly communities within which qualitative research is indeed data driven and enacted in rigorous ways. How might one teach rigorous approaches to analysis of verbal data? In this study, 20 sessions were recorded in introductory graduate classes on qualitative research methods. The social scientist thought aloud while analyzing transcriptions that were handed to her immediately prior the sessions and for which she had no background information. The students then assessed, sometimes showing the original video, the degree to which the analyst had recovered (the structures of the original events. This study provides answers to the broad question: "How does an analyst recover an original event with a high degree of accuracy?" Implications are discussed for teaching qualitative data analysis. URN: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs1503119

Examination of suspicious objects by virus analysts

Science.gov (United States)

Ananin, E. V.; Ananina, I. S.; Nikishova, A. V.

2018-05-01

The paper presents data on virus threats urgency. But in order for antiviruses to work properly, all data on new implementations of viruses should be added to its database. For that to be done, all suspicious objects should be investigated. It is a dangerous process and should be done in the virtual system. However, it is not secure for the main system as well. So the diagram of a secure workplace for a virus analyst is proposed. It contains software for its protection. Also all kinds of setting to ensure security of the process of investigating suspicious objects are proposed. The proposed approach allows minimizing risks caused by the virus.

Analyst Hype in IPOs: Explaining the Popularity of Bookbuilding

OpenAIRE

Francois Degeorge; Francois Derrien; Kent L. Womack

2007-01-01

The bookbuilding IPO procedure has captured significant market share from auction alternatives recently, despite the significantly lower costs related to the auction mechanism. In France, where both mechanisms were used in the 1990s, the ostensible advantages of bookbuilding were advertising-related benefits. Book-built issues were more likely to be followed and positively recommended by lead underwriters. Even nonunderwriters' analysts promote book-built issues more in order to curry favor w...

Monday-Morning Quarterbacking: A Senior Analyst Uses His Early Work to Discuss Contemporary Child and Adolescent Psychoanalytic Technique.

Science.gov (United States)

Sugarman, Alan

2015-01-01

Contemporary child and adolescent psychoanalytic technique has evolved and changed a great deal in the last thirty years. This paper will describe the analysis of an adolescent girl from early in the author's career to demonstrate the ways in which technique has changed. The clinical material presented highlights six areas in which contemporary child and adolescent analysts practice and/or understand material and the clinical process differently than they did thirty years ago: (1) the contemporary perspective on mutative action, (2) the contemporary emphasis on mental organization, (3) the developmental lag in integrating the structural model, (4) the child analyst's multiple functions, (5) the child analyst's use of countertransference, and (6) the child analyst's work with parents. The author discusses how he would work differently with the patient now using his contemporary perspective. But he also wonders what might have been lost by not working in a more traditional manner, in particular the opportunity to analyze the patient's hypersensitivity to feeling hurt and mistreated so directly in the transference.

Storing and managing information artifacts collected by information analysts using a computing device

Science.gov (United States)

Pike, William A; Riensche, Roderick M; Best, Daniel M; Roberts, Ian E; Whyatt, Marie V; Hart, Michelle L; Carr, Norman J; Thomas, James J

2012-09-18

Systems and computer-implemented processes for storage and management of information artifacts collected by information analysts using a computing device. The processes and systems can capture a sequence of interactive operation elements that are performed by the information analyst, who is collecting an information artifact from at least one of the plurality of software applications. The information artifact can then be stored together with the interactive operation elements as a snippet on a memory device, which is operably connected to the processor. The snippet comprises a view from an analysis application, data contained in the view, and the sequence of interactive operation elements stored as a provenance representation comprising operation element class, timestamp, and data object attributes for each interactive operation element in the sequence.

Predicting coexistence of plants subject to a tolerance-competition trade-off.

Science.gov (United States)

Haegeman, Bart; Sari, Tewfik; Etienne, Rampal S

2014-06-01

Ecological trade-offs between species are often invoked to explain species coexistence in ecological communities. However, few mathematical models have been proposed for which coexistence conditions can be characterized explicitly in terms of a trade-off. Here we present a model of a plant community which allows such a characterization. In the model plant species compete for sites where each site has a fixed stress condition. Species differ both in stress tolerance and competitive ability. Stress tolerance is quantified as the fraction of sites with stress conditions low enough to allow establishment. Competitive ability is quantified as the propensity to win the competition for empty sites. We derive the deterministic, discrete-time dynamical system for the species abundances. We prove the conditions under which plant species can coexist in a stable equilibrium. We show that the coexistence conditions can be characterized graphically, clearly illustrating the trade-off between stress tolerance and competitive ability. We compare our model with a recently proposed, continuous-time dynamical system for a tolerance-fecundity trade-off in plant communities, and we show that this model is a special case of the continuous-time version of our model.

Pedestrian collective motion in competitive room evacuation.

Science.gov (United States)

Garcimartín, A; Pastor, J M; Martín-Gómez, C; Parisi, D; Zuriguel, I

2017-09-07

When a sizable number of people evacuate a room, if the door is not large enough, an accumulation of pedestrians in front of the exit may take place. This is the cause of emerging collective phenomena where the density is believed to be the key variable determining the pedestrian dynamics. Here, we show that when sustained contact among the individuals exists, density is not enough to describe the evacuation, and propose that at least another variable -such as the kinetic stress- is required. We recorded evacuation drills with different degrees of competitiveness where the individuals are allowed to moderately push each other in their way out. We obtain the density, velocity and kinetic stress fields over time, showing that competitiveness strongly affects them and evidencing patterns which have been never observed in previous (low pressure) evacuation experiments. For the highest competitiveness scenario, we detect the development of sudden collective motions. These movements are related to a notable increase of the kinetic stress and a reduction of the velocity towards the door, but do not depend on the density.

Stress Biomarkers, Mood States, and Sleep during a Major Competition: "Success" and "Failure" Athlete's Profile of High-Level Swimmers.

Science.gov (United States)

Chennaoui, Mounir; Bougard, Clément; Drogou, Catherine; Langrume, Christophe; Miller, Christian; Gomez-Merino, Danielle; Vergnoux, Frédéric

2016-01-01

The aim of this study was to evaluate stress markers, mood states, and sleep indicators in high-level swimmers during a major 7-days competition according to the outcomes. Nine swimmers [six men and three women (age: 22 ± 2 and 22 ± 4 years, respectively)] were examined. Before (PRE) and after (POST) each race (series, semi-finals, and finals), salivary concentrations of cortisol, α-amylase (sAA), and chromogranin-A (CgA) were determined. Mood states were assessed by the profile of mood state (POMS) questionnaire completed before and after the 7-days, and self-reported sleep diaries were completed daily. In the "failure" group, cortisol and sAA significantly increased between PRE-POST measurements (p failure group." In this group, fatigue, confusion and depression scores, and sleep duration before the finals increased. The results in the "success" group show tendencies for increased cortisol and sCgA concentrations in response to competition, while sAA was not changed. Cortisol levels before the semi-finals and finals and sCgA levels before the finals were positively correlated to the fatigue score in the "failure" group only (r = 0.89). sAA levels before and after the semi-finals were negatively correlated to sleep duration measured in the subsequent night (r = -0.90). In conclusion, the stress of the competition could trigger a negative mood profile and sleep disturbance which correspond to different responses of biomarkers related to the hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal axis and the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) activity, cortisol, sAA, and CgA.

The effect of swimming on oral health status: competitive versus non-competitive athletes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Simonetta D’ERCOLE

2016-04-01

Full Text Available ABSTRACT Young swimmers are particularly susceptible to the onset of oral diseases. Objective To evaluate the oral health status in young competitive and non-competitive swimmers, involving an assessment of salivary cariogenic bacteria and secretory IgA (S-IgA concentration. Material and Methods Before training sessions (T1, 54 competitive and 69 non-competitive swimmers had the following parameters assessed: decayed, missing, and filled teeth (DMFT, Plaque Index (PlI, and Gingival Index (GI. At T1 and after training sessions (T2, stimulated saliva was collected and microbiological and immunological analyses were performed. Results Competitive swimmers trained 2.02±0.09 hours 5 times a week, while non-competitive swimmers trained 2.03±0.18 hours a week. A total of 14.7% of competitive swimmers suffered dental trauma related to sports. Only 11.76% of the competitive swimmers took a daily dose of fluoride, against 32.65% of non-competitive swimmers (p=0.029. Neither group followed an established diet or presented statistically significant differences in terms of nutritional supplement drink and chocolate intake. There were statistically significant differences in terms of oral hygiene. No significant difference in clinical indexes (DMFT, PlI, and GI was present. S. mutans was harbored by 18.6% of competitive and the 32.2% of non-competitive swimmers. S. sobrinus was detected in 22.03% of competitive and 91.6% of non-competitive swimmers (p<0.05. S. sanguinis was found only in the saliva of competitive swimmers. The average S-IgA of competitive swimmers decreased significantly at T2 (p<0.05. The pool water had a daily average pH of 7.22. Conclusions Microbial markers, immune status and sporting characteristics are important for establishing guidelines for management of training load in order to minimize physical stress and the risk of oral infection.

Transformations in hallucinosis and the receptivity of the analyst.

Science.gov (United States)

Civitarese, Giuseppe

2015-08-01

Bion describes transformation in hallucinosis (TH) as a psychic defence present in elusive psychotic scenarios in which there is a total adherence to concrete reality: as the hallucinatory activity which physiologically infiltrates perception and allows us to know reality, setting it off against a background of familiarity; and then, surprisingly, as the ideal state of mind towards which the analyst has to move in order to intuit the facts of the analysis. When hallucinosis is followed by 'awakening', the analyst gains understanding from the experience and goes through a transformation that will inevitably be transmitted to the analytic field and to the patient. In this paper I illustrate Bion's concept and underline its eminently intersubjective nature. Then I differentiate it from two other technical devices: reverie, which unlike hallucinosis does not imply the persistence of a feeling of the real, and Ferro's transformation in dreaming, i.e., purposeful listening to everything that is said in the analysis as if it were the telling of a dream. Finally, I try to demonstrate the practical utility of the concept of transformation in hallucinosis in order to read the complex dynamics of a clinical vignette. Though not well known (only two references in English in the PEP archive), TH proves to be remarkably versatile and productive for thinking about psychoanalytic theory, technique and clinical work. Copyright © 2014 Institute of Psychoanalysis.

Transference to the analyst as an excluded observer.

Science.gov (United States)

Steiner, John

2008-02-01

In this paper I briefly review some significant points in the development of ideas on transference which owe so much to the discoveries of Freud. I then discuss some of the subsequent developments which were based on Freud 's work and which have personally impressed me. In particular I mention Melanie Klein's elaboration of an internal world peopled by internal object and her description of the mechanisms of splitting and projective identification, both of which profoundly affect our understanding of transference. Using some clinical material I try to illustrate an important transference situation which I do not think has been sufficiently emphasized although it is part of the 'total situation' outlined by Klein. In this kind of transference the analyst finds himself in an observing position and is no longer the primary object to whom love and hate are directed. Instead he is put in a position of an excluded figure who can easily enact rather than understand the role he has been put in. In this situation he may try to regain the position as the patient's primary object in the transference or avoid the transference altogether and make extra-transference interpretations and in this way enact the role of a judgemental and critical super-ego. If he can tolerate the loss of a central role and understand the transference position he has been put in, the analyst can sometimes reduce enactments and release feelings to do with mourning and loss in both himself and his patient.

Uptake and allocation of 15N in alpine plants. Implications for the importance of competitive ability in predicting community structure in a stressful environment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Theodose, T.A.; Jaeger, C.H.; Bowman, W.D.; Schardt, J.C.

1996-01-01

Several potential components of competitive ability were determined for 13 plant species in a N-limited alpine moist meadow community in order to determine if competition had an influence on relative abundance in this stressful environment. The components of competitive ability examined were 15 N uptake rate, 15 N allocation, whole plant biomass, root:shoot ratio, and tissue N concentrations. It was hypothesized that 15 N uptake rate would be the component most correlated with relative abundance. However, 15 N uptake rate was negatively correlated with percent cover in the community. In contrast, whole plant biomass and root:shoot ratio were positively correlated with relative abundance. Tissue N concentrations and 15 N allocation were not important predictors of relative abundance. These results suggest that in a harsh environment, high resource uptake rates are not indicative of competitive ability, but may instead by a mechanism by which rare species are able to coexist with competitive dominants. (au) 47 refs

Analysts forecast error : A robust prediction model and its short term trading

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Boudt, Kris; de Goeij, Peter; Thewissen, James; Van Campenhout, Geert

We examine the profitability of implementing a short term trading strategy based on predicting the error in analysts' earnings per share forecasts using publicly available information. Since large earnings surprises may lead to extreme values in the forecast error series that disrupt their smooth

Presentation of the results of a Bayesian automatic event detection and localization program to human analysts

Science.gov (United States)

Kushida, N.; Kebede, F.; Feitio, P.; Le Bras, R.

2016-12-01

The Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) has been developing and testing NET-VISA (Arora et al., 2013), a Bayesian automatic event detection and localization program, and evaluating its performance in a realistic operational mode. In our preliminary testing at the CTBTO, NET-VISA shows better performance than its currently operating automatic localization program. However, given CTBTO's role and its international context, a new technology should be introduced cautiously when it replaces a key piece of the automatic processing. We integrated the results of NET-VISA into the Analyst Review Station, extensively used by the analysts so that they can check the accuracy and robustness of the Bayesian approach. We expect the workload of the analysts to be reduced because of the better performance of NET-VISA in finding missed events and getting a more complete set of stations than the current system which has been operating for nearly twenty years. The results of a series of tests indicate that the expectations born from the automatic tests, which show an overall overlap improvement of 11%, meaning that the missed events rate is cut by 42%, hold for the integrated interactive module as well. New events are found by analysts, which qualify for the CTBTO Reviewed Event Bulletin, beyond the ones analyzed through the standard procedures. Arora, N., Russell, S., and Sudderth, E., NET-VISA: Network Processing Vertically Integrated Seismic Analysis, 2013, Bull. Seismol. Soc. Am., 103, 709-729.

The reciprocal relationship between competition and intraspecific trait variation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

A Bennett, Jonathan; Riibak, Kersti; Tamme, Riin

2016-01-01

competitive dynamics from trait patterns within communities. However, plant traits are frequently plastic in response to competition. This variation is poorly accounted for in trait based studies of competition and community assembly. 2.To explore the relationship between trait responses and competitive...... with larger leaves and lower specific leaf area than their neighbours. Switching to more stress tolerant strategies by increasing root diameter and leaf tissue density also reduced competition. However, dissimilarity in root tissue density also minimized competition, consistent with limiting similarity...... suggest that considering the effect of competition on trait expression is critical to understanding the relationship between traits and community assembly....

Heat stress impairs repeated jump ability after competitive elite soccer games

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Mohr, Magni; Krustrup, Peter

2013-01-01

ABSTRACT:: The present study examined the effect of environmental heat stress on repeated jump performance after elite competitive soccer games. Male elite soccer players (n=19) from two Scandinavian teams participated (age; 26.7±1.0 yrs, height; 181.7±1.1 cm, body mass; 75.8±1.0 kg). The players...... had a Yo-Yo IR2 performance of 1032±42 m (range: 920-1400 m). The players took part in the Champions League Qualification (CL), where six games (three home and three away) were played. The home games took place at an average ambient temperature of 12.2±0.5 oC (control game; CON) and the away games...... in hot conditions (30.0±0.3 oC; HOT). In resting condition (Baseline) and immediately after CON and HOT, the players performed a repeated countermovement jump (CMJ) test consisting of five jumps separated by 10 s of recovery. Game-induced body mass loss was determined based on change in body mass after...

Competitive Traits Are More Important than Stress-Tolerance Traits in a Cadmium-Contaminated Rhizosphere: A Role for Trait Theory in Microbial Ecology.

Science.gov (United States)

Wood, Jennifer L; Tang, Caixian; Franks, Ashley E

2018-01-01

Understanding how biotic and abiotic factors govern the assembly of rhizosphere-microbial communities is a long-standing goal in microbial ecology. In phytoremediation research, where plants are used to remediate heavy metal-contaminated soils, a deeper understanding of rhizosphere-microbial ecology is needed to fully exploit the potential of microbial-assisted phytoremediation. This study investigated whether Grime's competitor/stress-tolerator/ruderal (CSR) theory could be used to describe the impact of cadmium (Cd) and the presence of a Cd-accumulating plant, Carpobrotus rossii (Haw.) Schwantes, on the assembly of soil-bacterial communities using Illumina 16S rRNA profiling and the predictive metagenomic-profiling program, PICRUSt. Using predictions based on CSR theory, we hypothesized that Cd and the presence of a rhizosphere would affect community assembly. We predicted that the additional resource availability in the rhizosphere would enrich for competitive life strategists, while the presence of Cd would select for stress-tolerators. Traits identified as competitive followed CSR predictions, discriminating between rhizosphere and bulk-soil communities whilst stress-tolerance traits increased with Cd dose, but only in bulk-soil communities. These findings suggest that a bacterium's competitive attributes are critical to its ability to occupy and proliferate in a Cd-contaminated rhizosphere. Ruderal traits, which relate to community re-colonization potential, were synergistically decreased by the presence of the rhizosphere and Cd dose. Taken together this microcosm study suggests that the CSR theory is broadly applicable to microbial communities. Further work toward developing a simplified and robust strategy for microbial CSR classification will provide an ecologically meaningful framework to interpret community-level changes across a range of biomes.

Interspecific competition between alien and native congeneric species

Science.gov (United States)

Garcia-Serrano, H.; Sans, F. X.; Escarré, J.

2007-01-01

A good way to check hypotheses explaining the invasion of ecosystems by exotic plants is to compare alien and native congeneric species. To test the hypothesis that invasive alien plants are more competitive than natives, we designed a replacement series experiment to evaluate interspecific competition between three Senecio species representing the same bushy life form: two alien species ( S. inaequidens and S. pterophorus, both from South Africa) and a native species from the south-east of the Iberian Peninsula and Maghreb ( S. malacitanus). While S. inaequidens is widespread throughout western Europe and is expanding towards the south of Spanish-French border, the geographical distribution of the recently introduced S. pterophorus is still limited to north-eastern Spain. Plants from each species were grown in pure and in mixed cultures with one of their congeners, and water availability was manipulated to evaluate the effects of water stress on competitive abilities. Our results show that the alien S. inaequidens is the most competitive species for all water conditions. The native S. malacitanus is more competitive that the alien S. pterophorus in water stress conditions, but this situation is reversed when water availability is not limiting.

Emergence Time and Skin Melanin Spot Patterns Do Not Correlate with Growth Performance, Social Competitive Ability or Stress Response in Farmed Rainbow Trout.

Science.gov (United States)

Gesto, Manuel; Skov, Peter V; Jokumsen, Alfred

2017-01-01

In wild salmonid fish, specific individual behavioral traits have been correlated with the timing of fry emergence from their gravel spawning nests; Early emerging fish display more aggressive behavior and have a higher probability of becoming socially dominant, compared to fish that emerge at a later stage. Apart from aggression and dominance, other behavioral and metabolic traits, such as boldness, metabolic rate, or growth, have also been linked to emergence time. Altogether, the traits of early- and late-emerging fish resemble those of the proactive and reactive stress-coping style, respectively. As proactive fish are considered more resilient to stress, it may be desirable to select these for aquaculture production. However, it is currently unclear to what extent the link between emergence time and stress-coping styles is maintained in the selective breeding of farmed fish. In the present study, eyed eggs from a commercial supplier were hatched, and larvae fractionated according to their emergence time. Later on, juvenile fish from different emergence fractions were subjected to a stress challenge and also tested to evaluate their competitive ability for food. Beyond some slight dissimilarities in the acute stress responses, emergence fraction displayed no correlation with growth rates, or the ability to compete for feed. Within the whole group of fish utilized in the experiments, no relationship between skin melanin spot pattern and growth performance, stress response intensity, or competitive ability was found. Altogether, the differences in physiological traits related to emergence time were not as strong as those found in earlier studies. It is hypothesized, that the origin and degree of domestication of the fish might be partly responsible for this. The predictive value of skin spots or emergence time to infer the fish stress coping style in farmed fish is also discussed.

Emergence Time and Skin Melanin Spot Patterns Do Not Correlate with Growth Performance, Social Competitive Ability or Stress Response in Farmed Rainbow Trout

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Manuel Gesto

2017-06-01

Full Text Available In wild salmonid fish, specific individual behavioral traits have been correlated with the timing of fry emergence from their gravel spawning nests; Early emerging fish display more aggressive behavior and have a higher probability of becoming socially dominant, compared to fish that emerge at a later stage. Apart from aggression and dominance, other behavioral and metabolic traits, such as boldness, metabolic rate, or growth, have also been linked to emergence time. Altogether, the traits of early- and late-emerging fish resemble those of the proactive and reactive stress-coping style, respectively. As proactive fish are considered more resilient to stress, it may be desirable to select these for aquaculture production. However, it is currently unclear to what extent the link between emergence time and stress-coping styles is maintained in the selective breeding of farmed fish. In the present study, eyed eggs from a commercial supplier were hatched, and larvae fractionated according to their emergence time. Later on, juvenile fish from different emergence fractions were subjected to a stress challenge and also tested to evaluate their competitive ability for food. Beyond some slight dissimilarities in the acute stress responses, emergence fraction displayed no correlation with growth rates, or the ability to compete for feed. Within the whole group of fish utilized in the experiments, no relationship between skin melanin spot pattern and growth performance, stress response intensity, or competitive ability was found. Altogether, the differences in physiological traits related to emergence time were not as strong as those found in earlier studies. It is hypothesized, that the origin and degree of domestication of the fish might be partly responsible for this. The predictive value of skin spots or emergence time to infer the fish stress coping style in farmed fish is also discussed.

NDE of stresses in thick-walled components by ultrasonic methods

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Goebbels, K.; Pitsch, H.; Schneider, E.; Nowack, H.

1985-01-01

The possibilty of measuring stresses - especially residual stresses - by ultrasonic methods has been presented at the 4th and 5th International Conference on NDE in Nuclear Industry. This contribution now presents results of several applications to thick walled components such as turbines and generators for power plants. The measurement technique using linearly polarized shear waves allows one to characterize the homogeneitry of the residual stress situation along and around cylindrically shaped components. Some important results show that the stress distribution integrated over the cross section of the component has not followed in any case the simple relations derived by stress analysts. Conclusions referring to the stress situation inside the components are discussed

The analyst's desire in the clinic of anorexia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mariana Benatto Pereira da Silva

2010-06-01

Full Text Available The present work deals with the issue of the analyst's desire in the psychoanalytical treatment of anorexia. It analyzes important elements to establish transference in these cases, as the pursuit of death and the choice of refusing food as a way of controlling the demands of the Other. It then discusses the "analist's desire" function in this clinic. Rejecting the definition of a treatment model and the structural categorization of anorexia, we can find in the cases of the girl of Angouleme (Charcot and Sidonie (M. Mannoni present possible subjective ways to get out of this psychopathological impasse, by means of this function.

Analyste de systèmes principal (h/f) | CRDI - Centre de recherches ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

L'analyste de systèmes principal travaille sous la supervision du ... une analyse fonctionnelle élémentaire des exigences en parlant de la portée et de la raison ... et l'infrastructure en matière de TI tout en se mettant à la place des techniciens, ...

Emergence time and skin melanin spot patterns do not correlate with growth performance, social competitive ability or stress response in farmed rainbow trout

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Gesto, Manuel; Skov, Peter Vilhelm; Jokumsen, Alfred

2017-01-01

dissimilarities in the acute stress responses, emergence fraction displayed no correlation with growth rates, or the ability to compete for feed. Within the whole group of fish utilized in the experiments, no relationship between skinmelanin spot pattern and growth performance, stress response intensity......, or competitive ability was found. Altogether, the differences in physiological traits related to emergence time were not as strong as those found in earlier studies. It is hypothesized, that the origin and degree of domestication of the fish might be partly responsible for this. The predictive value of skin...... spots or emergence time to infer the fish stress coping style in farmed fish is also discussed...

Translating the covenant: The behavior analyst as ambassador and translator.

Science.gov (United States)

Foxx, R M

1996-01-01

Behavior analysts should be sensitive to how others react to and interpret our language because it is inextricably related to our image. Our use of conceptual revision, with such terms as punishment, has created communicative confusion and hostility on the part of general and professional audiences we have attempted to influence. We must, therefore, adopt the role of ambassador and translator in the nonbehavioral world. A number of recommendations are offered for promoting, translating, and disseminating behavior analysis.

ECONOMIC RECESSION A CALL FOR COMPETITIVE INTELLIGENCE

OpenAIRE

Lucian Marius IVANOV

2011-01-01

Global recession brought about a significant growth in competition, stressing the need for relevant and reliable intelligence as a support for making efficient strategic decisions. The recent circumstances draw the attention far more earnestly this time on the need for an intelligence structure within companies to be ready for sustaining business management endeavours in line with increasing competitiveness, protection and promotion of their interests.

Analyste de la gestion des documents (h/f) | CRDI - Centre de ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

Résumé des fonctions L'analyste de la gestion des documents est la ressource technique au sein de l'équipe de la Gestion de l'information et des documents. ... Se tenir également informé de toutes les pratiques exemplaires liées à la gestion de l'information et des documents électroniques et matériels que le CRDI doit ...

Securing Healthcare’s Quantified-Self Data: A Comparative Analysis Versus Personal Financial Account Aggregators Based on Porter’s Five Forces Framework for Competitive Force

Science.gov (United States)

2016-09-01

PORTER’S FIVE FORCES FRAMEWORK FOR COMPETITIVE FORCES Catherine H. Chiang Management Program Analyst, United States Citizenship and Immigration...2009): 454–66, doi:10.1377/hlthaff.28.2.454. 34 Catherine L. Anderson and Ritu Agarwal, “The Digitization of Healthcare: Boundary Risks, Emotion...allows patterns of distinctive characteristics to be tracked. As more behaviors are digitized , these unique characteristics could easily be used to

Analysis of wall shear stress around a competitive swimmer using 3D Navier-Stokes equations in CFD.

Science.gov (United States)

Popa, C V; Zaidi, H; Arfaoui, A; Polidori, G; Taiar, R; Fohanno, S

2011-01-01

This paper deals with the flow dynamics around a competitive swimmer during underwater glide phases occurring at the start and at every turn. The influence of the head position, namely lifted up, aligned and lowered, on the wall shear stress and the static pressure distributions is analyzed. The problem is considered as 3D and in steady hydrodynamic state. Three velocities (1.4 m/s, 2.2 m/s and 3.1 m/s) that correspond to inter-regional, national and international swimming levels are studied. The flow around the swimmer is assumed turbulent. The Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations are solved with the standard k-ω turbulent model by using the CFD (computational fluid dynamics) numerical method based on a volume control approach. Numerical simulations are carried out with the ANSYS FLUENT® CFD code. The results show that the wall shear stress increases with the velocity and consequently the drag force opposing the movement of the swimmer increases as well. Also, high wall shear stresses are observed in the areas where the body shape, globally rigid in form, presents complex surface geometries such as the head, shoulders, buttocks, heel and chest.

Radiation litigation: Quality assurance and the radiation analyst

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jose, D.E.

1986-01-01

This paper touches on three areas of interest to the radiation analyst; the dose issue, legal persuasion, and future legal issues. While many laboratory scientists would think that the actual dose received by the plaintiff's relevant organ would be an easy issue to resolve, that has not been the experience to date. All radiation cases are assumed to be ultrahazardous activity cases, even though they involve a dose well below yearly natural background. At some point the law needs to realize that such low dose cases are a waste of scarce judicial resources. Lawyers and scientists need to communicate with each other and work together to help improve the way the legal system processes these important cases

Many analysts, one dataset: Making transparent how variations in analytical choices affect results

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Silberzahn, Raphael; Uhlmann, E.L.; Martin, D.P.; Anselmi, P.; Aust, F.; Awtrey, E.; Bahnik, Š.; Bai, F.; Bannard, C.; Bonnier, E.; Carlsson, R.; Cheung, F.; Christensen, G.; Clay, R.; Craig, M.A.; Dalla Rosa, A.; Dam, Lammertjan; Evans, M.H.; Flores Cervantes, I.; Fong, N.; Gamez-Djokic, M.; Glenz, A.; Gordon-McKeon, S.; Heaton, T.J.; Hederos, K.; Heene, M.; Hofelich Mohr, A.J.; Högden, F.; Hui, K.; Johannesson, M.; Kalodimos, J.; Kaszubowski, E.; Kennedy, D.M.; Lei, R.; Lindsay, T.A.; Liverani, S.; Madan, C.R.; Molden, D.; Molleman, Henricus; Morey, R.D.; Mulder, Laetitia; Nijstad, Bernard; Pope, N.G.; Pope, B.; Prenoveau, J.M.; Rink, Floortje; Robusto, E.; Roderique, H.; Sandberg, A.; Schlüter, E.; Schönbrodt, F.D.; Sherman, M.F.; Sommer, S.A.; Sotak, K.; Spain, S.; Spörlein, C.; Stafford, T.; Stefanutti, L.; Täuber, Susanne; Ullrich, J.; Vianello, M.; Wagenmakers, E.-J.; Witkowiak, M.; Yoon, S.; Nosek, B.A.

2018-01-01

Twenty-nine teams involving 61 analysts used the same dataset to address the same research question: whether soccer referees are more likely to give red cards to dark skin toned players than light skin toned players. Analytic approaches varied widely across teams, and estimated effect sizes ranged

The impact of stress on tournament entry

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Buser, T.; Dreber, A.; Mollerstrom, J.

Individual willingness to enter competitive environments predicts career choices and labor market outcomes. Meanwhile, many people experience competitive contexts as stressful. We use two laboratory experiments to investigate whether factors related to stress can help explain individual differences

Work stressed and play? A brief look at competitive gaming

OpenAIRE

Griffiths, MD

2017-01-01

To date, competitive gaming has not been widely researched or recognised in the scientific and professional literature on video games. As the name suggests, competitive gaming comprises players who regularly compete in tournaments organised and run by the gaming community, often for large monetary gains. Secondary benefits include the recognition and admiration of other gaming community members. Such tournaments are now often run by companies that host the events at large convention centres i...

Are the People Backward? Algerian Symbolic Analysts and the Culture of the Masses

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Thomas Serres

2017-01-01

Full Text Available This article studies representations of the Algerian population promoted by francophone intellectuals in a context of longstanding crisis and uncertainty. Borrowing the category of symbolic analysts from Robert Reich, it looks at the way in which novelists, scholars and journalists try to make sense of a critical situation by diagnosing the culture of the Algerian population as deviant or backward. Aiming to encourage social and political reform, these actors try to understand the characteristics of their "people", often by pointing to their so-called pre-modern or passive behaviors. This article analyzes two aspects of this activity: first, attempts to determine who is responsible for the ongoing crisis, and second, the reproduction of cultural prejudices in a context of increased transnationalization. Moreover, it argues that one can interpret the political and intellectual commitments of these analysts by drawing on the triad concept of "Naming, Blaming, Claiming", which as been used to study the publicization of disputes.

Rates for the competitive market

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ander, B.; Watson, I.; Snelson, K.

1997-01-01

The discussion panel consisted of Bruce Ander of Pamco Atlas, Ian Watson, Chair of the Ontario Chamber of Commerce Energy Committee, and Ken Snelson, Principal of Snelson International Energy. Ian Watson shared his membership's views on the future supply of electric power under a competitive energy system in Ontario, stressing the need for the government to instruct Ontario Hydro to bring forward a transmission rate to the Ontario Energy Board in 1997, and for legislation to allow independent buyers and sellers to contract with one another to use that transmission rate outside the control of Ontario Hydro. He also expressed concern about Ontario Hydro's anti-competitive load retention rate which was an obvious bid to retain its major customers. Ken Snelson reported on a review of the effects of competition on Canada's long-term energy outlook. He predicted that in a competitive market with full retail access, customers can expect a lot more choice; independent producers also will have many more options for selling power

Competition, salinity, and clonal growth in native and introduced irises.

Science.gov (United States)

Mopper, Susan; Wiens, Karen C; Goranova, Greta A

2016-09-01

Iris pseudacorus spread rapidly into North America after introduction from Europe in the 1800s and now co-occurs with native I. hexagona in freshwater Louisiana wetlands. Native irises support and interact with multiple trophic levels, whereas I. pseudacorus is classified an invasive pest because it grows aggressively, reduces biodiversity, and displaces native vegetation. Salinity levels are increasing in coastal wetlands worldwide. We examined how salt-stress affects competitive interactions between these conspecifics. We established a three-way full-factorial common-garden experiment that included species (I. pseudacorus, I. hexagona), competition (no competition, intraspecific competition, and interspecific competition), and salinity (0, 4, 8 parts per thousand NaCl), with six replicates per treatment. After 18 mo, Iris pseudacorus produced much more biomass than the native species did (F1, 92 = 71.5, P Interspecific competition did not affect the introduced iris, but biomass of the native was strongly reduced (competition × species interaction: F2, 95 = 76.7, P = 0.002). Salinity significantly reduced biomass of both species (F2, 92 = 21.8, P competitive advantage over the native, regardless of environmental salinity levels. Based on patterns in clonal reproduction, the introduced iris could potentially threaten native iris populations. We are currently investigating seed production and mortality during competition and stress because both clonal and sexual reproduction must be considered when predicting long-term population dynamics. © 2016 Botanical Society of America.

Analyste de systèmes intermédiaire (h/f) | CRDI - Centre de ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

L'analyste de systèmes intermédiaire travaille sous la supervision du ... à la mise en œuvre et à la maintenance d'un large éventail de systèmes tout en assurant ... directement les consultants externes sous contrat afin de faciliter la transition ...

School-Wide PBIS: Extending the Impact of Applied Behavior Analysis. Why is This Important to Behavior Analysts?

Science.gov (United States)

Putnam, Robert F; Kincaid, Donald

2015-05-01

Horner and Sugai (2015) recently wrote a manuscript providing an overview of school-wide positive behavioral interventions and supports (PBIS) and why it is an example of applied behavior analysis at the scale of social importance. This paper will describe why school-wide PBIS is important to behavior analysts, how it helps promote applied behavior analysis in schools and other organizations, and how behavior analysts can use this framework to assist them in the promotion and implementation of applied behavior analysis at both at the school and organizational level, as well as, the classroom and individual level.

Germination phenology determines the propensity for facilitation and competition.

Science.gov (United States)

Leverett, Lindsay D

2017-09-01

A single plant can interact both positively and negatively with its neighbors through the processes of facilitation and competition, respectively. Much of the variation in the balance of facilitation and competition that individuals experience can be explained by the degree of physical stress and the sizes or ages of plants during the interaction. Germination phenology partly controls both of these factors, but its role in defining the facilitation-competition balance has not been explicitly considered. I performed an experiment in a population of the winter annual Arabidopsis thaliana (Brassicaceae) to test whether germinating during physically stressful periods leads to facilitation while germinating during periods that promote growth and reproduction leads to competition. I manipulated germination and neighbor presence across two years in order to quantify the effects of the local plant community on survival, fecundity, and total fitness as a function of germination phenology. Neighbors increased survival when germination occurred under conditions that were unsuitable for survival, but they reduced fecundity in germinants that were otherwise the most fecund. Later germination was associated with facilitation in the first year but competition in the second year. These episodes of facilitation and competition opposed each other, leading to no net effect of neighbors when averaged over all cohorts. These results indicate that variation in germination timing can explain some of the variation in the facilitation-competition balance in plant communities. © 2017 by the Ecological Society of America.

The Legionella pneumophila kai operon is implicated in stress response and confers fitness in competitive environments

Science.gov (United States)

Loza-Correa, Maria; Sahr, Tobias; Rolando, Monica; Daniels, Craig; Petit, Pierre; Skarina, Tania; Valero, Laura Gomez; Dervins-Ravault, Delphine; Honoré, Nadine; Savchenko, Aleksey; Buchrieser, Carmen

2014-01-01

Summary Legionella pneumophila uses aquatic protozoa as replication niche and protection from harsh environments. Although L. pneumophila is not known to have a circadian clock, it encodes homologues of the KaiBC proteins of Cyanobacteria that regulate circadian gene expression. We show that L. pneumophila kaiB, kaiC and the downstream gene lpp1114, are transcribed as a unit under the control of the stress sigma factor RpoS. KaiC and KaiB of L. pneumophila do not interact as evidenced by yeast and bacterial two-hybrid analyses. Fusion of the C-terminal residues of cyanobacterial KaiB to Legionella KaiB restores their interaction. In contrast, KaiC of L. pneumophila conserved autophosphorylation activity, but KaiB does not trigger the dephosphorylation of KaiC like in Cyanobacteria. The crystal structure of L. pneumophila KaiB suggests that it is an oxidoreductase-like protein with a typical thioredoxin fold. Indeed, mutant analyses revealed that the kai operon-encoded proteins increase fitness of L. pneumophila in competitive environments, and confer higher resistance to oxidative and sodium stress. The phylogenetic analysis indicates that L. pneumophila KaiBC resemble Synechosystis KaiC2B2 and not circadian KaiB1C1. Thus, the L. pneumophila Kai proteins do not encode a circadian clock, but enhance stress resistance and adaption to changes in the environments. PMID:23957615

Stress Biomarkers, Mood States, and Sleep during a Major Competition: “Success” and “Failure” Athlete's Profile of High-Level Swimmers

Science.gov (United States)

Chennaoui, Mounir; Bougard, Clément; Drogou, Catherine; Langrume, Christophe; Miller, Christian; Gomez-Merino, Danielle; Vergnoux, Frédéric

2016-01-01

The aim of this study was to evaluate stress markers, mood states, and sleep indicators in high-level swimmers during a major 7-days competition according to the outcomes. Nine swimmers [six men and three women (age: 22 ± 2 and 22 ± 4 years, respectively)] were examined. Before (PRE) and after (POST) each race (series, semi-finals, and finals), salivary concentrations of cortisol, α-amylase (sAA), and chromogranin-A (CgA) were determined. Mood states were assessed by the profile of mood state (POMS) questionnaire completed before and after the 7-days, and self-reported sleep diaries were completed daily. In the “failure” group, cortisol and sAA significantly increased between PRE-POST measurements (p failure group.” In this group, fatigue, confusion and depression scores, and sleep duration before the finals increased. The results in the “success” group show tendencies for increased cortisol and sCgA concentrations in response to competition, while sAA was not changed. Cortisol levels before the semi-finals and finals and sCgA levels before the finals were positively correlated to the fatigue score in the “failure” group only (r = 0.89). sAA levels before and after the semi-finals were negatively correlated to sleep duration measured in the subsequent night (r = −0.90). In conclusion, the stress of the competition could trigger a negative mood profile and sleep disturbance which correspond to different responses of biomarkers related to the hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal axis and the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) activity, cortisol, sAA, and CgA. PMID:27014092

Institutional Competitiveness in Media Markets

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lund, Anker Brink

a social science / leadership perspective - not from the perspective of a journalist or from the ideologically critical perspective of the license payer. Thirdly, we consider competition in the media market as an institutional phenomenon that is not solely conditioned by economic considerations. We aim...... emerged from a tradition based upon ideals of freedom of expression, democracy and the enlightenment of the general public. At the same time we stress the fact that the media worldwide is Big Business - and that this reality has an increasing effect on Danish competitiveness and business development......This inaugural address is a welcome opportunity to call your attention to a new area of research that the International Center for Business and Politics has chosen as one of five areas of special interest. By referring to this area of focus as'institutional competition in the media market' we also...

Building the competitive intelligence knowledge: processes and activities in a corporate organisation

OpenAIRE

Sreenivasulu, V.

1999-01-01

This paper discusses the process of building and developing comprehensive tools, techniques, support systems, and better methods of harnessing the competitive intelligence knowledge processes. The author stresses the need for building sophisticated methodological competitive intelligence knowledge acquisition, systematic collection of competitive intelligence knowledge from various sources for critical analysis, process, organization, synthesis, assessment, screening, filtering and interpreta...

Quality of life, coach behaviour and competitive anxiety in Winter Youth Olympic Games participants.

Science.gov (United States)

Ledochowski, Larissa; Unterrainer, Christine; Ruedl, Gerhard; Schnitzer, Martin; Kopp, Martin

2012-12-01

To ensure the highest technical performance, speed, safety, excellent control and to improve competitive performance, a successful regulation of competitive anxiety is necessary. Therefore, it seems crucial to identify factors influencing competitive anxiety of adolescent athletes. Research suggests that people reporting high quality of life are more capable to cope with stressful and challenging situations than others. The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of quality of life, the involvement of parents in sports career and coach's leadership behaviour on competitive anxiety in Winter Youth Olympic Games participants. During the first Winter Youth Olympic Games 2012 in Innsbruck/Austria, 662 (316 women) participants completed questionnaires and single items to assess quality of life, coach's leadership behaviour, parental involvement in sports career and competitive anxiety. Multiple regression analysis revealed positive influences of high quality of life and useful coach instruction on competitive anxiety. The relationship between quality of life, coach behaviour and competitive anxiety in young elite athletes competing at the first Winter Youth Olympic Games should be considered in long-term programmes for reducing competitive stress.

Emotional Detachment of Partners and the Sanctity of the Relationship with the Analyst as the Most Powerful Curative Factor.

Science.gov (United States)

Gostečnik, Christian; Slavič, Tanja Repič; Lukek, Saša Poljak; Pate, Tanja; Cvetek, Robert

2017-08-01

The relationship between partners and the analyst is considered the most basic means for healing in contemporary psychoanalytic theories and analyses. It also holds as one of the most fundamental phenomenon's of psychoanalysis, so it comes as no surprise that it has always been deliberated over as an object of great interest as well as immense controversy. This same relationship, mutually co-created by the analyst and each individual and partner in analysis, represents also the core of sanctity and sacred space in contemporary psychoanalysis.

Salivary Biomarkers and Training Load during Training and Competition in Paralympic Swimmers.

Science.gov (United States)

Sinnott-O'Connor, Ciara; Comyns, Tom; Nevill, Alan M; Warrington, Giles

2017-11-28

Stress responses in athletes can be attributed to training and also competition, where increased physiological and psychological stress may negatively impact on performance and recovery. The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between training load and salivary biomarkers IgA, alpha-amylase (AA) and cortisol across a 16-week preparation phase and 10-day competition phase in Paralympic swimmers. Four Paralympic swimmers provided bi-weekly saliva samples during three training phases - 1) normal training, 2) intensified training and 3) taper as well as daily saliva samples in the 10 day Paralympic competition (2016 Paralympic Games). Training load (TL) was measured using session-RPE. Multi-level analysis identified a significant increase in sIgA (94.98 (27.69) μg.ml -1 ), sAA (45.78 (19.07) μg.ml -1 ) and salivary cortisol (7.92 (2.17) ng.ml) during intensified training concurrent with a 38.3% increase in TL. During taper phase, a 49.5% decrease in TL from the intensified training phase resulted in decrease in sIgA, sAA and salivary cortisol; however, all three remained higher than baseline levels. A further significant increase was observed during competition in sIgA (168.69(24.19) μg.ml -1 ), sAA (35.86(16.67) μg.ml -1 ) and salivary cortisol (10.49(1.89) ng.ml) despite a continued decrease (77.8%) in TL from taper phase. Results demonstrate performance in major competition such as Paralympic Games despite a noticeable reduction in TL induces a stress response in athletes. Due to elevated stress response observed, modifications to individual post-race recovery protocols may be required to enable athletes to maximise performance across all ten days of competition.

The Effect of Ownership Structure and Investor Protection on Firm Value: Analyst Following as Moderating Variable

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Desi Susilawati

2017-12-01

Full Text Available The research related to the association between structure ownership and the firm value is a discussion about corporate governance which is still has contradictory conclusion and mixed result. It indicates open question that needs empirical evidence. The influence of concentrated ownership on firm value still brought conflict of interest so the role of analyst following can be stated as an alternative of corporate governance mechanism (Lang et al., 2004. The objectives of this research are to examine the interaction effect between concentrated ownership and analyst following, and the effect of investor protection toward firm value in five Asian companies. Asia is chosen because it has unique characteristic, in term of corporates ownership structure which is more concentrated on families and board of governance is weak (Choi, 2003. The data is consisting of 7.100 firm year observations obtained from Bloomberg and OSIRIS database for the period 2011-2013 in five Asian Countries, i.e. China, South Korea,  Malaysia, Taiwan, and Thailand. Multiple Regression analysis is used to test hypotheses. The results show that concentrated ownership is positively affects the firm value. However, there is no empirical evidence that the interaction of concentrated ownership and analyst following positively affect the firm value. As hypothesized, this research also shows that investor protection has negative impact on firm’s value.

Effects of ultraviolet-B irradiance on intraspecific competition and facilitation of plants: self-thinning, size inequality, and phenotypic plasticity.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Rui-Chang; Lin, Yue; Yue, Ming; Li, Qian; Zhang, Xiao-Fei; Liu, Xiao; Chi, Hong; Chai, Yong-Fu; Wang, Mao

2012-01-01

(1) The effects of facilitation on the structure and dynamics of plant populations have not been studied so widely as competition. The UV-B radiation, as a typical environmental factor causing stress, may result in direct stress and facilitation. (2) The effects of UV-B radiation on intraspecific competition and facilitation were investigated based on the following three predictions on self-thinning, size inequality, and phenotypic plasticity: i) Self-thinning is the reduction in density that results from the increase in the mean biomass of individuals in crowded populations, and is driven by competition. In this study, the mortality rate of the population is predicted to decrease from UV-B irradiance. ii) The size inequality of a population increases with competition intensity because larger individuals receive a disproportionate share of resources, thereby leaving limited resources for smaller individuals. The second hypothesis assumes that direct stress decreases the size inequality of the population. iii) Phenotypic plasticity is the ability to alter one's morphology in response to environmental changes. The third hypothesis assumes that certain morphological indices can change among the trade-offs between competition, facilitation, and stress. These predictions were tested by conducting a field pot experiment using mung beans, and were supported by the following results: (3) UV-B radiation increased the survival rate of the population at the end of self-thinning. However, this result was mainly due to direct stress rather than facilitation. (4) Just as competitor, facilitation was also asymmetric. It increased the size inequality of populations during self-thinning, whereas stress decreased the size inequality. (5) Direct stress and facilitation influence plants differently on various scales. Stress inhibited plant growth, whereas facilitation showed the opposite on an individual scale. Stress increased survival rate, whereas facilitation increased individual

Competition amplifies drought stress in forests across broad climatic and compositional gradients

Science.gov (United States)

Gleason, Kelly; Bradford, John B.; Bottero, Alessandra; D'Amato, Tony; Fraver, Shawn; Palik, Brian J.; Battaglia, Michael; Iverson, Louis R.; Kenefic, Laura; Kern, Christel C.

2017-01-01

Forests around the world are experiencing increasingly severe droughts and elevated competitive intensity due to increased tree density. However, the influence of interactions between drought and competition on forest growth remains poorly understood. Using a unique dataset of stand-scale dendrochronology sampled from 6405 trees, we quantified how annual growth of entire tree populations responds to drought and competition in eight, long-term (multi-decadal), experiments with replicated levels of density (e.g., competitive intensity) arrayed across a broad climatic and compositional gradient. Forest growth (cumulative individual tree growth within a stand) declined during drought, especially during more severe drought in drier climates. Forest growth declines were exacerbated by high density at all sites but one, particularly during periods of more severe drought. Surprisingly, the influence of forest density was persistent overall, but these density impacts were greater in the humid sites than in more arid sites. Significant density impacts occurred during periods of more extreme drought, and during warmer temperatures in the semi-arid sites but during periods of cooler temperatures in the humid sites. Because competition has a consistent influence over growth response to drought, maintaining forests at lower density may enhance resilience to drought in all climates.

Connecting Hazard Analysts and Risk Managers to Sensor Information.

Science.gov (United States)

Le Cozannet, Gonéri; Hosford, Steven; Douglas, John; Serrano, Jean-Jacques; Coraboeuf, Damien; Comte, Jérémie

2008-06-11

Hazard analysts and risk managers of natural perils, such as earthquakes, landslides and floods, need to access information from sensor networks surveying their regions of interest. However, currently information about these networks is difficult to obtain and is available in varying formats, thereby restricting accesses and consequently possibly leading to decision-making based on limited information. As a response to this issue, state-of-the-art interoperable catalogues are being currently developed within the framework of the Group on Earth Observations (GEO) workplan. This article provides an overview of the prototype catalogue that was developed to improve access to information about the sensor networks surveying geological hazards (geohazards), such as earthquakes, landslides and volcanoes.

Dividend Policy: A Survey of Malaysian Public Listed Companies and Security Analysts

OpenAIRE

Chong, David Voon Chee

2003-01-01

This dissertation revisits the dividend puzzle and attempts to answer the fundamental question of “why do companies pay dividends?” by using a simple regression model incorporating the major theories on dividend relevance. In addition, this research investigates if the opinions of companies (both dividend and non-dividend paying) and security analysts differ with respect to the various explanations for paying dividends. Finally, this research also explores the views and opinions of corporate ...

CONCEPTUAL APPROACH OF COMPETITIVENESS AND INTERDEPENDENCE BETWEEN COMPETITION AND COMPETITIVENESS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tatiana GUTIUM

2017-11-01

Full Text Available This article is devoted to analysis of interdependence and correlation between competition and competitiveness, and competition’s consequences. The author analysed some authors’ visions on competitiveness, and common features between theories of competition and competitiveness. Using the synthetic indicator elaborated by author has been evaluated the competitiveness of domestic goods on the internal and external market. At the end of this article, the author has developed proposals to increase competitiveness.

When does stress help or harm? The effects of stress controllability and subjective stress response on Stroop performance.

OpenAIRE

Roselinde Kaiser Henderson; Hannah R. Snyder; Tina eGupta; Marie T. Banich; Marie T. Banich

2012-01-01

The ability to engage in goal-directed behavior despite exposure to stress is critical to resilience. Questions of how stress can impair or improve behavioral functioning are important in diverse settings, from athletic competitions to academic testing to clinical therapy. Previous research suggests that controllability is a key factor in the impact of stress on behavior: learning how to control stressors buffers people from the negative effects of stress on subsequent cognitively demanding ...

When Does Stress Help or Harm? The Effects of Stress Controllability and Subjective Stress Response on Stroop Performance

OpenAIRE

Henderson, Roselinde K.; Snyder, Hannah R.; Gupta, Tina; Banich, Marie T.

2012-01-01

The ability to engage in goal-directed behavior despite exposure to stress is critical to resilience. Questions of how stress can impair or improve behavioral functioning are important in diverse settings, from athletic competitions to academic testing. Previous research suggests that controllability is a key factor in the impact of stress on behavior: learning how to control stressors buffers people from the negative effects of stress on subsequent cognitively demanding tasks. In addition, r...

Competitive effects and instruments of power sector reforms. International reform concepts blockade structures, risk distribution. A political economy analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Liebchen, Armin

2014-01-01

Power sectors with weak or inadequate competition structures are the rule, despite numerous attempts at reform. But can afford modern economies this defect for a long time? Why can the implementation of competition are blocked so effectively? The author studied international reform experiences and opens up interesting insights that can also reflect on problems of the German energy turnaround: The difficulty of timing and coordination of the reform components, the development of resistance levels of individual interest groups, breach of contract as a rational alternative, causes unwanted price effects, shifting interest situations of major stakeholders, change dynamics impending regulatory risks, pending financing risks, stranded cost-conflict situations for power stations disconnected from the grid and facilities and instruments of a political and regulatory risk management for reforms. With numerous examples, background analyzes and instruments to reform analysis, this book is aimed at investors, policy planners and analysts. [de

Additional Support for the Information Systems Analyst Exam as a Valid Program Assessment Tool

Science.gov (United States)

Carpenter, Donald A.; Snyder, Johnny; Slauson, Gayla Jo; Bridge, Morgan K.

2011-01-01

This paper presents a statistical analysis to support the notion that the Information Systems Analyst (ISA) exam can be used as a program assessment tool in addition to measuring student performance. It compares ISA exam scores earned by students in one particular Computer Information Systems program with scores earned by the same students on the…

Analysis of group cohesion levels and pre-competitive psychological stress in volleyball athletes.. http://dx.doi.org/10.5007/1980-0037.2012v14n6p704

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Guilherme Moraes Balbim

2012-11-01

Full Text Available This descriptive study was designed to analyze the level of group cohesion and pre-competitive psychological stress of adult volleyball athletes. The subjects consisted of 155 male and female athletes from the state of Parana who played in the JAPS/ 1st division (A, and 2nd division (B. The assessment instruments used were the Group Environment Questionnaire (GEQ and the Volleyball Psychic Stress Test (V-PST. For data analysis, the following tools were used: Cronbach’s alpha, Kolmogorov-Smirnov, Mann-Whitney, one-way Anova, and Tukey’s post hoc (p<0.05. The results revealed that athletes of division A were more negatively influenced by stress factors than the athletes of division B; in terms of individual attraction to the social group (p=0.014 and tasks (p=0016 athletes of division B had higher levels of group cohesion than athletes from division A; athletes with low social cohesion were negatively impacted by factors of "inappropriate physical conditioning" and "excessive nervousness;" athletes with low levels of cohesion for the task were negatively influenced by the factors of "Pressure from other people to win" and positively by the factor "Behavior of the fans in the game outside." It was concluded that group cohesion is demonstrated to be an intervening factor in pre-competitive stress thereby demonstrating that the higher the dispute level, the higher the negative influence of stress.

The role of analytic neutrality in the use of the child analyst as a new object.

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Chused, J F

1982-01-01

The analyses of two children and one adolescent were presented to illustrate the concept that the neutrality of the analyst can be used not only to (a) establish a working, analyzing, and observing alliance, (b) permit the development, recognition, and working through of the transference neurosis, but also to (c) develop a sense of autonomy and self-esteem which had been contaminated by the neediness and lack of true empathy of the primary objects during the practicing and rapprochement phases of separation-individuation. For the patients discussed above, many ego functions which should have had a degree of secondary autonomy were either inhibited, enmeshed in conflict, or experienced as nongenuine, part of a "false self." It was as if the experience with the neutral analyst permitted an "autonomous practicing" that had not been possible during the period of separation-individuation.

Resource competition model predicts zonation and increasing nutrient use efficiency along a wetland salinity gradient

Science.gov (United States)

Schoolmaster, Donald; Stagg, Camille L.

2018-01-01

A trade-off between competitive ability and stress tolerance has been hypothesized and empirically supported to explain the zonation of species across stress gradients for a number of systems. Since stress often reduces plant productivity, one might expect a pattern of decreasing productivity across the zones of the stress gradient. However, this pattern is often not observed in coastal wetlands that show patterns of zonation along a salinity gradient. To address the potentially complex relationship between stress, zonation, and productivity in coastal wetlands, we developed a model of plant biomass as a function of resource competition and salinity stress. Analysis of the model confirms the conventional wisdom that a trade-off between competitive ability and stress tolerance is a necessary condition for zonation. It also suggests that a negative relationship between salinity and production can be overcome if (1) the supply of the limiting resource increases with greater salinity stress or (2) nutrient use efficiency increases with increasing salinity. We fit the equilibrium solution of the dynamic model to data from Louisiana coastal wetlands to test its ability to explain patterns of production across the landscape gradient and derive predictions that could be tested with independent data. We found support for a number of the model predictions, including patterns of decreasing competitive ability and increasing nutrient use efficiency across a gradient from freshwater to saline wetlands. In addition to providing a quantitative framework to support the mechanistic hypotheses of zonation, these results suggest that this simple model is a useful platform to further build upon, simulate and test mechanistic hypotheses of more complex patterns and phenomena in coastal wetlands.

Automatic theory generation from analyst text files using coherence networks

Science.gov (United States)

Shaffer, Steven C.

2014-05-01

This paper describes a three-phase process of extracting knowledge from analyst textual reports. Phase 1 involves performing natural language processing on the source text to extract subject-predicate-object triples. In phase 2, these triples are then fed into a coherence network analysis process, using a genetic algorithm optimization. Finally, the highest-value sub networks are processed into a semantic network graph for display. Initial work on a well- known data set (a Wikipedia article on Abraham Lincoln) has shown excellent results without any specific tuning. Next, we ran the process on the SYNthetic Counter-INsurgency (SYNCOIN) data set, developed at Penn State, yielding interesting and potentially useful results.

A Graph is Worth a Thousand Words: How Overconfidence and Graphical Disclosure of Numerical Information Influence Financial Analysts Accuracy on Decision Making.

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Ricardo Lopes Cardoso

Full Text Available Previous researches support that graphs are relevant decision aids to tasks related to the interpretation of numerical information. Moreover, literature shows that different types of graphical information can help or harm the accuracy on decision making of accountants and financial analysts. We conducted a 4×2 mixed-design experiment to examine the effects of numerical information disclosure on financial analysts' accuracy, and investigated the role of overconfidence in decision making. Results show that compared to text, column graph enhanced accuracy on decision making, followed by line graphs. No difference was found between table and textual disclosure. Overconfidence harmed accuracy, and both genders behaved overconfidently. Additionally, the type of disclosure (text, table, line graph and column graph did not affect the overconfidence of individuals, providing evidence that overconfidence is a personal trait. This study makes three contributions. First, it provides evidence from a larger sample size (295 of financial analysts instead of a smaller sample size of students that graphs are relevant decision aids to tasks related to the interpretation of numerical information. Second, it uses the text as a baseline comparison to test how different ways of information disclosure (line and column graphs, and tables can enhance understandability of information. Third, it brings an internal factor to this process: overconfidence, a personal trait that harms the decision-making process of individuals. At the end of this paper several research paths are highlighted to further study the effect of internal factors (personal traits on financial analysts' accuracy on decision making regarding numerical information presented in a graphical form. In addition, we offer suggestions concerning some practical implications for professional accountants, auditors, financial analysts and standard setters.

A Graph is Worth a Thousand Words: How Overconfidence and Graphical Disclosure of Numerical Information Influence Financial Analysts Accuracy on Decision Making.

Science.gov (United States)

Cardoso, Ricardo Lopes; Leite, Rodrigo Oliveira; de Aquino, André Carlos Busanelli

2016-01-01

Previous researches support that graphs are relevant decision aids to tasks related to the interpretation of numerical information. Moreover, literature shows that different types of graphical information can help or harm the accuracy on decision making of accountants and financial analysts. We conducted a 4×2 mixed-design experiment to examine the effects of numerical information disclosure on financial analysts' accuracy, and investigated the role of overconfidence in decision making. Results show that compared to text, column graph enhanced accuracy on decision making, followed by line graphs. No difference was found between table and textual disclosure. Overconfidence harmed accuracy, and both genders behaved overconfidently. Additionally, the type of disclosure (text, table, line graph and column graph) did not affect the overconfidence of individuals, providing evidence that overconfidence is a personal trait. This study makes three contributions. First, it provides evidence from a larger sample size (295) of financial analysts instead of a smaller sample size of students that graphs are relevant decision aids to tasks related to the interpretation of numerical information. Second, it uses the text as a baseline comparison to test how different ways of information disclosure (line and column graphs, and tables) can enhance understandability of information. Third, it brings an internal factor to this process: overconfidence, a personal trait that harms the decision-making process of individuals. At the end of this paper several research paths are highlighted to further study the effect of internal factors (personal traits) on financial analysts' accuracy on decision making regarding numerical information presented in a graphical form. In addition, we offer suggestions concerning some practical implications for professional accountants, auditors, financial analysts and standard setters.

ASME stress linearization and classification - a discussion based on a case study

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Miranda, Carlos A. de J.; Faloppa, Altair A.; Mattar Neto, Miguel; Fainer, Gerson

2011-01-01

The ASME code, specially in its Nuclear Division (Subsection NB - Class I Components), gives some recommendations to the structural analyst on how to perform the verifications required to prove the design as good as the by-analysis prevented failures modes. Each of these failure modes has specific stress limits which are established based on simple but conservative hypothesis like the material perfectly plastic behavior and the shell theory with its typical membrane and bending stresses with linear distribution along the thickness. Other detail to keep in mind is the code distinction between primary and secondary stresses (respectively, stress that came due to equilibrium and due to displacement compatibility). In general, the numerical models used in the analyses are developed with plane or 3D solid elements and due this fact no direct comparison with the code limits can be done and, besides that, the programs do not distinguish between primary and secondary stresses. Mostly, the later are produced due to the temperature variation but they also appear near discontinuities. Sometimes, this classification is not so clear or direct. To perform the required ASME Code verifications the analyst should obtain the membrane and bending stresses from the plane or 3-D model which is called stress linearization and, also, should classify them as primary and secondary. (The excess between the maximum stress at a point and the sum of these linearized values is called peak stress and is included in the fatigue verification.) This task, most of the time is not a simple one due to the nature of the involved load and/or the complex geometry under analysis. In fact, there are several studies discussing on how to perform these stress classification and linearization. The present paper shows a discussion on how to perform these verifications based on a generic geometry found in many plants, from petrochemical to nuclear, which emphasizes some of theses issues. (author)

ASME stress linearization and classification - a discussion based on a case study

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Miranda, Carlos A. de J.; Faloppa, Altair A.; Mattar Neto, Miguel; Fainer, Gerson, E-mail: cmiranda@ipen.b, E-mail: afaloppa@ipen.b, E-mail: mmattar@ipen.b, E-mail: gfainer@ipen.b [Instituto de Pesquisas Energeticas e Nucleares (IPEN/CNEN-SP), Sao Paulo, SP (Brazil)

2011-07-01

The ASME code, specially in its Nuclear Division (Subsection NB - Class I Components), gives some recommendations to the structural analyst on how to perform the verifications required to prove the design as good as the by-analysis prevented failures modes. Each of these failure modes has specific stress limits which are established based on simple but conservative hypothesis like the material perfectly plastic behavior and the shell theory with its typical membrane and bending stresses with linear distribution along the thickness. Other detail to keep in mind is the code distinction between primary and secondary stresses (respectively, stress that came due to equilibrium and due to displacement compatibility). In general, the numerical models used in the analyses are developed with plane or 3D solid elements and due this fact no direct comparison with the code limits can be done and, besides that, the programs do not distinguish between primary and secondary stresses. Mostly, the later are produced due to the temperature variation but they also appear near discontinuities. Sometimes, this classification is not so clear or direct. To perform the required ASME Code verifications the analyst should obtain the membrane and bending stresses from the plane or 3-D model which is called stress linearization and, also, should classify them as primary and secondary. (The excess between the maximum stress at a point and the sum of these linearized values is called peak stress and is included in the fatigue verification.) This task, most of the time is not a simple one due to the nature of the involved load and/or the complex geometry under analysis. In fact, there are several studies discussing on how to perform these stress classification and linearization. The present paper shows a discussion on how to perform these verifications based on a generic geometry found in many plants, from petrochemical to nuclear, which emphasizes some of theses issues. (author)

Competition Makes a Comeback: Academic Bees and Bowls Attract Top Students

Science.gov (United States)

Kronholz, June

2010-01-01

Americans thrive on competition. But American schools have been suspicious of competition for generations, and are generally horrified by the idea that success should be accompanied by a reward like a title, a trophy, or a cash prize. In this article, the author stresses that the self-esteem movement in the 1990s made many educators squeamish…

Evolution of Research on Interventions for Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Implications for Behavior Analysts

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, Tristram

2012-01-01

The extraordinary success of behavior-analytic interventions for individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has fueled the rapid growth of behavior analysis as a profession. One reason for this success is that for many years behavior analysts were virtually alone in conducting programmatic ASD intervention research. However, that era has…

Prerequisites for Systems Analysts: Analytic and Management Demands of a New Approach to Educational Administration.

Science.gov (United States)

Ammentorp, William

There is much to be gained by using systems analysis in educational administration. Most administrators, presently relying on classical statistical techniques restricted to problems having few variables, should be trained to use more sophisticated tools such as systems analysis. The systems analyst, interested in the basic processes of a group or…

THE MISSING FATHER FUNCTION IN PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY AND TECHNIQUE: THE ANALYST'S INTERNAL COUPLE AND MATURING INTIMACY.

Science.gov (United States)

Diamond, Michael J

2017-10-01

This paper argues that recovering the "missing" paternal function in analytic space is essential for the patient's achievement of mature object relations. Emerging from the helpless infant's contact with primary caregivers, mature intimacy rests on establishing healthy triadic functioning based on an infant-with-mother-and-father. Despite a maternocentric bias in contemporary clinical theory, the emergence of triangularity and the inclusion of the paternal third as a separating element is vital in the analytic dyad. Effective technique requires the analyst's balanced interplay between the paternal, investigative and the maternal, maximally receptive modes of functioning-the good enough analytic couple within the analyst-to serve as the separating element that procreatively fertilizes the capacity for intimacy with a differentiated other. A clinical example illustrates how treatment is limited when the paternal function is minimized within more collusive, unconsciously symbiotic dyads. © 2017 The Psychoanalytic Quarterly, Inc.

Athlete social support, negative social interactions and psychological health across a competitive sport season.

Science.gov (United States)

DeFreese, J D; Smith, Alan L

2014-12-01

Social support and negative social interactions have implications for athlete psychological health, with potential to influence the links of stress-related experiences with burnout and well-being over time. Using a longitudinal design, perceived social support and negative social interactions were examined as potential moderators of the temporal stress-burnout and burnout-well-being relationships. American collegiate athletes (N = 465) completed reliable and valid online assessments of study variables at four time points during the competitive season. After controlling for dispositional and conceptually important variables, social support and negative social interactions did not moderate the stress-burnout or burnout-well-being relationships, respectively, but did simultaneously contribute to burnout and well-being across the competitive season. The results showcase the importance of sport-related social perceptions to athlete psychological outcomes over time and inform development of socially driven interventions to improve the psychological health of competitive athletes.

A Few Insights Into Romanian Information Systems Analysts and Designers Toolbox

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Fotache Marin

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Information Systems (IS analysts and designers have been key members in software development teams. From waterfall to Rational Unified Process, from UML to agile development, IS modelers have faced many trends and buzzwords. Even if the topic of models and modeling tools in software development is important, there are no many detailed studies to identify for what the developers, customers and managers decide to use the modeling and specific tools. Despite the popularity of the subject, studies showing what tools the IS modelers prefer are scarce, and quasi-non-existent, when talking about Romanian market. As Romania is an important IT outsourcing market, this paper investigated what methods and tools Romanian IS analysts and designers apply. In this context, the starting question of our research focuses on the preference of the developers to choose between agile or non-agile methods in IT projects. As a result, the research questions targeted the main drivers in choosing specific methods and tools for IT projects deployed in Romanian companies. Also, one of the main objectives of this paper was to approach the relationship between the methodologies (agile or non-agile, diagrams and other tools (we refer in our study to the CASE features with other variables/metrics of the system/software development project. The observational study was conducted based on a survey filled by IS modelers in Romanian IT companies. The data collected were processed and analyzed using Exploratory Data Analysis. The platform for data visualization and analysis was R.

Conserving analyst attention units: use of multi-agent software and CEP methods to assist information analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Rimland, Jeffrey; McNeese, Michael; Hall, David

2013-05-01

Although the capability of computer-based artificial intelligence techniques for decision-making and situational awareness has seen notable improvement over the last several decades, the current state-of-the-art still falls short of creating computer systems capable of autonomously making complex decisions and judgments in many domains where data is nuanced and accountability is high. However, there is a great deal of potential for hybrid systems in which software applications augment human capabilities by focusing the analyst's attention to relevant information elements based on both a priori knowledge of the analyst's goals and the processing/correlation of a series of data streams too numerous and heterogeneous for the analyst to digest without assistance. Researchers at Penn State University are exploring ways in which an information framework influenced by Klein's (Recognition Primed Decision) RPD model, Endsley's model of situational awareness, and the Joint Directors of Laboratories (JDL) data fusion process model can be implemented through a novel combination of Complex Event Processing (CEP) and Multi-Agent Software (MAS). Though originally designed for stock market and financial applications, the high performance data-driven nature of CEP techniques provide a natural compliment to the proven capabilities of MAS systems for modeling naturalistic decision-making, performing process adjudication, and optimizing networked processing and cognition via the use of "mobile agents." This paper addresses the challenges and opportunities of such a framework for augmenting human observational capability as well as enabling the ability to perform collaborative context-aware reasoning in both human teams and hybrid human / software agent teams.

Fuzzy VIKOR approach for selection of big data analyst in procurement management

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Surajit Bag

2016-07-01

Full Text Available Background: Big data and predictive analysis have been hailed as the fourth paradigm of science. Big data and analytics are critical to the future of business sustainability. The demand for data scientists is increasing with the dynamic nature of businesses, thus making it indispensable to manage big data, derive meaningful results and interpret management decisions. Objectives: The purpose of this study was to provide a brief conceptual review of big data and analytics and further illustrate the use of a multicriteria decision-making technique in selecting the right skilled candidate for big data and analytics in procurement management. Method: It is important for firms to select and recruit the right data analyst, both in terms of skills sets and scope of analysis. The nature of such a problem is complex and multicriteria decision-making, which deals with both qualitative and quantitative factors. In the current study, an application of the Fuzzy VIsekriterijumska optimizacija i KOmpromisno Resenje (VIKOR method was used to solve the big data analyst selection problem. Results: From this study, it was identified that Technical knowledge (C1, Intellectual curiosity (C4 and Business acumen (C5 are the strongest influential criteria and must be present in the candidate for the big data and analytics job. Conclusion: Fuzzy VIKOR is the perfect technique in this kind of multiple criteria decisionmaking problematic scenario. This study will assist human resource managers and procurement managers in selecting the right workforce for big data analytics.

Effects of competition on induction of crassulacean acid metabolism in a facultative CAM plant.

Science.gov (United States)

Yu, Kailiang; D'Odorico, Paolo; Li, Wei; He, Yongli

2017-06-01

Abiotic drivers of environmental stress have been found to induce CAM expression (nocturnal carboxylation) in facultative CAM species such as Mesembryanthemum crystallinum. The role played by biotic factors such as competition with non-CAM species in affecting CAM expression, however, remains largely understudied. This research investigated the effects of salt and water conditions on the competition between M. crystallinum and the C 3 grass Bromus mollis with which it is found to coexist in California's coastal grasslands. We also investigated the extent to which CAM expression in M. crystallinum was affected by the intensity of the competition with B. mollis. We found that M. crystallinum had a competitive advantage over B. mollis in drought and saline conditions, while B. mollis exerted strong competitive effects on M. crystallinum in access to light and soil nutrients in high water conditions. This strong competitive effect even outweighed the favorable effects of salt or water additions in increasing the biomass and productivity of M. crystallinum in mixture. Regardless of salt conditions, M. crystallinum did not switch to CAM photosynthesis in response to this strong competitive effect from B. mollis. Disturbance (i.e., grass cutting) reduced the competitive pressure by B. mollis and allowed for CAM expression in M. crystallinum when it was grown mixed with B. mollis. We suggest that moderate competition with other functional groups can enhance CAM expression in M. crystallinum, thereby affecting its plasticity and ability to cope with biological stress.

Stress Management for Sport.

Science.gov (United States)

Zaichkowsky, Leonard D., Ed.; Sime, Wesley E., Ed.

Included in this volume are papers on stress management in athletics; eight of the ten papers are followed with a "Coach's Reaction": (1) "Competitive Athletic Stress Factors in Athletes and Coaches" (Walter Kroll); (2) "Mental Preparation for Peak Performance in Swimmers" (Eugene F. Gauron)--Coach's Reaction by Suzi…

Stress and cortisol responses in men: differences according to facial symmetry.

Science.gov (United States)

Borráz-León, Javier I; Cerda-Molina, Ana Lilia; Mayagoitia-Novales, Lilian

2017-11-01

Stress response is associated with increased activity in the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical axis. Chronic stress-induced elevation in cortisol may alter its own negative regulation with multiple long-term consequences for physical and psychological health. One of the most reliable physical traits associated with mental, apparent physical health, and competitiveness is the degree of facial fluctuating asymmetry. However, to our knowledge there are no studies regarding the relationship between cortisol levels, facial symmetry and male competitiveness, and how cortisol changes after a stressful test depending on these traits. Here, a group of 100 college men were photographed to obtain their facial asymmetry levels. They then, answered the perceived stress scale and the intrasexual competition test and donated two saliva samples (pre-and post-test sample) to measure the change in their cortisol levels after a stressful test. We found that basal cortisol levels were positively correlated with both perceived stress and competitiveness, but not with facial fluctuating asymmetry. Cortisol levels increased in most symmetrical men after a short stressful test, but it decreased in most asymmetrical men. The results suggest differences in endocrine responses according to facial fluctuating asymmetry in men and how these responses could be related to the maintenance of social status.

What oil companies will be the most competitive in the next century?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Littlejohn, W.W.

1993-01-01

Turning oil into profit is the engine that propels the industry forward. Today, that engine is sputtering, threatened by a longtime friend and adversary, the federal government. As the authors approach the 21st century, most industry analysts expect the trend in the US toward ever more stringent regulation of oil drilling, transportation, and refining to continue. What kind of oil company can profit on that playing field? Will the 21st century favor international producers with upstream and downstream operations scattered across the globe? Or will it reward companies that focus on the American market and its myriad rules and regulations? A close look at two American-based companies offers some perspective. Exxon is a world-wide producer, refiner and seller of petroleum products and Arco, a California-based company that was among the first to view government intervention as an opportunity to gain competitive advantage

Building Competitive Advantage in Academic Programmes in Open ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The paper however, suggests that greatest competitive advantage for ODL-HLIs such as OUT‟s is hidden in its postgraduate programmes. The paper stresses that improved quality and completion rates of research and postgraduate students in business, law, economics, and education and applied natural sciences should ...

Planning the International Competition Schedules for the Health of Elite Athletes: A 21-Year Retrospective Study Evaluating the Effectiveness and Economic Impact in an Olympic Sport.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anna Maria Malagoni

Full Text Available The increased number of trips and competitions scheduled in the international agonistic calendars meets commercial demands while acting as a source of stress for the athletes. A model, developed in biathlons to monitor the so-called competition load, revealed an upward trend over time. The aim of this study was to evaluate, in a 21-year period, the effects of the International Biathlon Union's rescheduling of the competitive calendars to control the competition load, as well as its stability over time and the economic impact of this intervention.For each season competition, the load factors from the international agonistic calendar (number of venues/events, competition days/distance were considered, and the athletes' daily and maximal stress scores were calculated. The calendar rescheduling, which started in 2001, involved the length of competitions, number of resting days and frequency of travels. Data from the period pre (1994-2000 and post (2001-2007 the intervention, as well as follow-up (2008-2015, were compared and analyzed in relation to the federation's budget.The competition load and athletes' daily stress score progressively increased pre, plateaued post and remained stable in follow-up. Their annual variations within the final two periods were significantly lower than in the pre period, in spite of the higher average values. The maximal stress score decreased over time. The direct correlation between most of the competition load factors with the economic budget present in pre was lost in post and follow-up. Similarly, the athletes' daily stress score had a stable trend in post and follow-up, while budget continued to increase.The management of an athlete's potential source of stress by an international federation stabilized the competition load over time, but it did not affect the budget. Furthermore, it uncoupled the relationship between the athlete's effort and federation income.

Planning the International Competition Schedules for the Health of Elite Athletes: A 21-Year Retrospective Study Evaluating the Effectiveness and Economic Impact in an Olympic Sport.

Science.gov (United States)

Malagoni, Anna Maria; Lamberti, Nicola; Carrabre, James E; Litmanen, Hannu; Jeannier, Pierre; Zhukovskaja, Larisa; Dal Follo, Donatella; Zambon, Christel; Resch, Nicole; Manfredini, Fabio

2015-01-01

The increased number of trips and competitions scheduled in the international agonistic calendars meets commercial demands while acting as a source of stress for the athletes. A model, developed in biathlons to monitor the so-called competition load, revealed an upward trend over time. The aim of this study was to evaluate, in a 21-year period, the effects of the International Biathlon Union's rescheduling of the competitive calendars to control the competition load, as well as its stability over time and the economic impact of this intervention. For each season competition, the load factors from the international agonistic calendar (number of venues/events, competition days/distance) were considered, and the athletes' daily and maximal stress scores were calculated. The calendar rescheduling, which started in 2001, involved the length of competitions, number of resting days and frequency of travels. Data from the period pre (1994-2000) and post (2001-2007) the intervention, as well as follow-up (2008-2015), were compared and analyzed in relation to the federation's budget. The competition load and athletes' daily stress score progressively increased pre, plateaued post and remained stable in follow-up. Their annual variations within the final two periods were significantly lower than in the pre period, in spite of the higher average values. The maximal stress score decreased over time. The direct correlation between most of the competition load factors with the economic budget present in pre was lost in post and follow-up. Similarly, the athletes' daily stress score had a stable trend in post and follow-up, while budget continued to increase. The management of an athlete's potential source of stress by an international federation stabilized the competition load over time, but it did not affect the budget. Furthermore, it uncoupled the relationship between the athlete's effort and federation income.

Demolishing the competition: the longitudinal link between competitive video games, competitive gambling, and aggression.

Science.gov (United States)

Adachi, Paul J C; Willoughby, Teena

2013-07-01

The majority of research on the link between video games and aggression has focused on the violent content in games. In contrast, recent experimental research suggests that it is video game competition, not violence, that has the greatest effect on aggression in the short-term. However, no researchers have examined the long-term relationship between video game competition and aggression. In addition, if competition in video games is a significant reason for the link between video game play and aggression, then other competitive activities, such as competitive gambling, also may predict aggression over time. In the current study, we directly assessed the socialization (competitive video game play and competitive gambling predicts aggression over time) versus selection hypotheses (aggression predicts competitive video game play and competitive gambling over time). Adolescents (N = 1,492, 50.8 % female) were surveyed annually from Grade 9 to Grade 12 about their video game play, gambling, and aggressive behaviors. Greater competitive video game play and competitive gambling predicted higher levels of aggression over time, after controlling for previous levels of aggression, supporting the socialization hypothesis. The selection hypothesis also was supported, as aggression predicted greater competitive video game play and competitive gambling over time, after controlling for previous competitive video game play and competitive gambling. Our findings, taken together with the fact that millions of adolescents play competitive video games every day and that competitive gambling may increase as adolescents transition into adulthood, highlight the need for a greater understanding of the relationship between competition and aggression.

A feasibility study for Arizona's roadway safety management process using the Highway Safety Manual and SafetyAnalyst : final report.

Science.gov (United States)

2016-07-01

To enable implementation of the American Association of State Highway Transportation (AASHTO) Highway Safety Manual using : SaftetyAnalyst (an AASHTOWare software product), the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) studied the data assessment :...

The Insider Threat to Cybersecurity: How Group Process and Ignorance Affect Analyst Accuracy and Promptitude

Science.gov (United States)

2017-09-01

McCarthy, J. (1980). Circumscription - A Form of Nonmonotonic Reasoning. Artificial Intelligence , 13, 27–39. McClure, S., Scambray, J., & Kurtz, G. (2012...THREAT TO CYBERSECURITY : HOW GROUP PROCESS AND IGNORANCE AFFECT ANALYST ACCURACY AND PROMPTITUDE by Ryan F. Kelly September 2017...September 2017 3. REPORT TYPE AND DATES COVERED Dissertation 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE THE INSIDER THREAT TO CYBERSECURITY : HOW GROUP PROCESS AND

PREFACE: 7th International Conference on Modern Practice in Stress and Vibration Analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Dulieu-Barton, J. M.

2009-07-01

The proceedings contain the papers presented at the 7th International Conference on Modern Practice in Stress and Vibration Analysis. The collection of papers represents the range of activities that are carried out to understand the functionality of engineering systems and structures through stress/strain based evaluation and dynamic response. The scope is broad and covers theoretical studies, modelling and experimental evaluations. Many of the papers cover integration techniques and approaches to better understanding of system performance and failure. All of the papers have been peer reviewed by at least two experts and represent the state of the art of research in this area. The conference is the seventh in the series, following on from previous conferences in Bath, Glasgow, Nottingham, Dublin, Sheffield and Liverpool. Although based in the British Isles the conference has a truly international flavour with offerings from 22 countries. The conference is organised by the Institute of Physics Applied Mechanics Group (formerly the Stress and Vibration Group). It incorporates activities associated with the British Society for Strain Measurement including the Measurements Lecture, the EMex Exhibition and the Young Stress Analyst Competition. The organising committee is grateful for the support of all of the authors, the scientific committee and keynote speakers who played a significant role in the review process, to John Edwards who was instrumental in managing the paper review and submission process, Dawn Stewart and Claire Garland of the Institute of Physics for organising the conference, social programme and registration and Biana Gale of the British Society for Strain Measurement for organising the Exhibition. The organising committee is also grateful to the sponsors of the conference for their kind support and to the co-sponsors for distributing information on the conference. Professor Janice M Dulieu-Barton Professor of Experimental Mechanics University of

STRESS FRACTURE PREVALENCE IN ELITE FIGURE SKATERS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sanda Dubravcic-Simunjak

2008-09-01

Full Text Available Figure skating is a physically demanding sport that requires a unique combination of artistic ability, speed, agility, flexibility and power. During the last decades not only the competitive schedule has become tougher, but after introduction of the new judging system in 2003, also more emphasis is put on difficult technical elements, jumps, steps and spins (ISU Rules, 2006. More studies about possible increasing prevalence of stress fractures in figure skaters and contributing factors are lacking (Dubravcic-Simunjak et al., 2003; Moran, 2000; Pecina et al., 1990. Therefore the aim of this study was to obtain data about the current stress fracture cumulative risk among elite junior and senior figure skaters, as well as possible factors that may contribute to stress fracture incidence. An anonymous questionnaire, divided into 5 sections, inquired about the prevalence of stress fracture were mailed and distributed to all 62 International Skating Union (ISU members by the ISU headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland. The guidelines of the Helsinki declaration 2004 were followed. From the 644 skaters who received the questionnaire, 412 completed ones were returned from 110 female juniors (78 single skaters, 12 pair skaters and 20 ice dancers and 135 female seniors (97 single skaters, 16 pair skaters and 22 ice dancers and from 79 male juniors (47 single skaters, 12 pair skaters and 20 ice dancers and 88 male seniors (50 single skaters, 16 pair skaters and 22 ice dancers, coming from different ISU members. The response rate was 62% in females and 67% in males. The median age for female skaters was 16 years and for males 18 years (range 12-25 years. All participants started to skate between 3 and 6 years of age and started to compete in national and international competitions when they were between 5 and 7 years old. At the time of this analysis, they had been skating between 9 and 20 years.In females 41 (16.7%, and in males 25 (13.8% figure skaters

Resiliency against stress among athletes

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Kamila Litwic-Kaminska

2015-10-01

Full Text Available Background The aim of this paper is to describe the results of a study concerning the relationship between resiliency and appraisal of a stressful situation, anxiety reactions and undertaken methods of coping among sportsmen. Participants and procedure The research concerned 192 competitors who actively train in one of the Olympic disciplines – individual or team. We used the following instruments: Resiliency Assessment Scale (SPP-25; Stress Appraisal Questionnaire A/B; Reactions to Competition Questionnaire; Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations (CISS; Sport Stress Coping Strategies Questionnaire (SR3S, self-constructed. Results Athletes most frequently apply positive types of stress appraisal, and they cope with stress through a task-oriented style during competitions. There is a relationship between the level of resiliency and the analysed aspects of the process of stress. The higher the resiliency, the more positive is the appraisal of a stressful situation and the more task-oriented are the strategies applied. Similarly, in everyday situations resilient sportspeople positively appraise difficult situations and undertake mostly task-oriented strategies. Resiliency is connected with less frequently experiencing reactions in the form of anxiety. Conclusions The obtained results, similarly to previous research, suggest that resiliency is connected with experiencing positive emotions. It causes more frequent appraisal of stressful situations as a challenge. More resilient people also choose more effective and situation-appropriate coping strategies. Therefore they are more resistant to stress.

European Management: an emerging competitive advantage of European nations: A reply to Michael Porter

OpenAIRE

Bosch, Frans; Prooijen, A.A.

1992-01-01

textabstractThis article extends the debate begun in the June 1992 issue of EMJ when the authors first criticized Michael Porter's explanatory framework in his Competitive Advantage of Nations (1990), over the role of national culture on the competitive advantage of nations. In this paper, Frans van den Bosch and Arno van Prooijen stress that Europe is a locus of competitive advantage if one is prepared to pay attention to the possibility of ‘European Management’ as a potential asset of Europ...

Competition along productivity gradients: news from heathlands.

Science.gov (United States)

Delerue, Florian; Gonzalez, Maya; Achat, David L; Puzos, Luc; Augusto, Laurent

2018-05-01

The importance of competition in low productive habitats is still debated. Studies which simultaneously evaluate preemption of resources and consequences for population dynamics are needed for a comprehensive view of competitive outcomes. We cultivated two emblematic species of European heathlands (Calluna vulgaris and Molinia caerulea) in a nursery for 2 years at two fertility levels, reproducing the productivity gradient found in phosphorus (P)-depleted heathlands in southwest France. The second year, we planted Ulex europaeus seedlings, a ubiquitous heathland species, under the cover of the two species to evaluate its ability to regenerate. Half of the seedlings were placed in tubes for exclusion of competitor roots. We measured the development of the competitors aboveground and belowground and their interception of resources (light, water, inorganic P). Ulex seedlings' growth and survival were also measured. Our results on resources interception were consistent with species distribution in heathlands. Molinia, which dominates rich heathlands, was the strongest competitor for light and water in the rich soil. Calluna, which dominates poor heathlands, increased its root allocation in the poor soil, decreasing water and inorganic P availability. However, the impact of total competition and root competition on Ulex seedlings decreased in the poor soil. Other mechanisms, especially decrease of water stress under neighbouring plant cover, appeared to have more influence on the seedlings' response. We found no formal contradiction between Tilman and Grime's theories. Root competition has a primary role in acquisition of soil resources in poor habitats. However, the importance of competition decreases with decreasing fertility.

An experimental demonstration that early-life competitive disadvantage accelerates telomere loss.

Science.gov (United States)

Nettle, Daniel; Monaghan, Pat; Gillespie, Robert; Brilot, Ben; Bedford, Thomas; Bateson, Melissa

2015-01-07

Adverse experiences in early life can exert powerful delayed effects on adult survival and health. Telomere attrition is a potentially important mechanism in such effects. One source of early-life adversity is the stress caused by competitive disadvantage. Although previous avian experiments suggest that competitive disadvantage may accelerate telomere attrition, they do not clearly isolate the effects of competitive disadvantage from other sources of variation. Here, we present data from an experiment in European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) that used cross-fostering to expose siblings to divergent early experience. Birds were assigned either to competitive advantage (being larger than their brood competitors) or competitive disadvantage (being smaller than their brood competitors) between days 3 and 12 post-hatching. Disadvantage did not affect weight gain, but it increased telomere attrition, leading to shorter telomere length in disadvantaged birds by day 12. There were no effects of disadvantage on oxidative damage as measured by plasma lipid peroxidation. We thus found strong evidence that early-life competitive disadvantage can accelerate telomere loss. This could lead to faster age-related deterioration and poorer health in later life.

Perception of academic stress among Health Science Preparatory Program students in two Saudi universities

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alsulami S

2018-03-01

Full Text Available Saleh Alsulami, Zaid Al Omar, Mohammed S Binnwejim, Fahad Alhamdan, Amr Aldrees, Abdulkarim Al-bawardi, Meshary Alsohim, Mohammed Alhabeeb Departments of Family Medicine and Medical Education, College of Medicine, Imam Mohammad ibn Saud Islamic University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Abstract: The Health Science Preparatory Program (HSPP is a special program that aims to enhance the educational preparedness of students for participation in a health sciences career. Students spend their first university year in a combined extensive teaching program before they can be assigned to a particular health science specialty. It is thought that students enrolled in a highly competitive environment such as HSPP with a long list of potential stressors, including developmental, academic overload, language barriers and competition, are more disposed to stress and stress-related complications. This study aims to measure the level of academic stress and to determine its risk factors in students enrolled in HSPP-adapted local universities in Saudi Arabia. The study was conducted at two Saudi universities, King Saud University (KSU and Imam Mohammad ibn Saud Islamic University (IMSU with competition-based and non-competition-based HSPP learning models, respectively. Both universities adopt the HSPP system. The scale for assessing academic stress (SAAS was used to assess students’ perceived stress. A total of 290 students successfully completed the questionnaire (N=290, with a mean age of 18.66 years. Mean SAAS scores for KSU and IMSU students were 8.37 (SD = 4.641 and 7.97 (SD = 5.104, P=0.480, respectively. Only “satisfaction” and “associated social and health problems” have shown statistically significant correlation with university (P=0.000 and P=0.049, respectively. This study has found mean SAAS score for two local universities with competition-based versus non-competition-based HSPP learning models. Academic stress correlation with age, gender and

EDITORIAL: Physics competitions Physics competitions

Science.gov (United States)

Jordens, H.; Mathelitsch, L.

2009-11-01

1. Physics competitions: aims and realizations One aim of physics competitions is to increase the interest of young students, primarily at upper secondary level, to physics and natural sciences in general. A competition has motivational aspects known usually from sports events or games—comparing one's own ability with others, of course with the desire to be better and to win. If competitions reach nationwide and even international levels, additional stimulation is created. Competitions provide greatest attraction to possible winners, to the group of gifted people in a particular field. This implies that science contests are excellent tools for the promotion of talented students. Traditional teaching has been shown to have problems in supporting this group of students. Very often teachers are overstretched with the demands of teaching both low- and high-level students. Extracurricular activities are therefore a good chance to relieve the teacher, and to give talented students the opportunity for appropriate training and challenge. The competitions, however, have a broader impact and address more young people than one might guess from the statements above. Training courses and selection at school level give a larger group of students extra and, to some extent, complimentary education in physics. The degree of complexity of the tasks corresponds very often to the standards of the next level of education in the school system. Interestingly, many physics competitions have their origin in countries beyond the former Iron Curtain. They started as regional and national tournaments, were joined by neighbouring countries and have grown, in some cases, to events with participants from more than 80 countries. Although the features mentioned above are common to the different competitions, there are distinct differences between them [1]. The International Physics Olympiad (IPhO) is the oldest international physics competition for students at upper secondary level [2]. It dates

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM AS MEANS OF MOBILIZATION OF COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGES OF THE INDUSTRIAL ENTERPRISE

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K. B. Dobrova

2013-01-01

Full Text Available The article stresses the importance and urgency of implementing knowledge management systems for aviation enterprises to enhance the competitive advantages of aircraft. Conservation promotes knowledge management system (SMZ, developed and approved by the national standard of the Russian Federation GOST R 53894-2010 «Knowledge Management. Terms and definitions». A formula for the calculation of some indicators of competitiveness.

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM AS MEANS OF MOBILIZATION OF COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGES OF THE INDUSTRIAL ENTERPRISE

OpenAIRE

K. B. Dobrova; N. V. Kirichenko

2013-01-01

The article stresses the importance and urgency of implementing knowledge management systems for aviation enterprises to enhance the competitive advantages of aircraft. Conservation promotes knowledge management system (SMZ), developed and approved by the national standard of the Russian Federation GOST R 53894-2010 «Knowledge Management. Terms and definitions». A formula for the calculation of some indicators of competitiveness.

Creative industries, creative class and competitiveness: expert opinions critically appraised

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bontje, M.A.; Musterd, S.

2009-01-01

In the debate on urban and regional competitiveness, it has become fashionable to stress the growing importance of creativity for economic development. Especially scientist-consultants with a keen eye for what politicians and business people want to hear have taken centre stage in this discussion.

BETWEEN PSYCHOANALYSIS AND TESTIMONIAL SPACE: THE ANALYST AS A WITNESS.

Science.gov (United States)

Gondar, Jô

2017-04-01

The aim of this article is to think of the place of the witness as a third place that the analyst, in the clinical space of trauma, is able to sustain. According to Ferenczi, in traumatic dreams a third is already being summoned. It is not the witness of the realm of law, nor the place of the father or the symbolic law. This is a third space that can be called potential, interstitial space, indeterminate and formless, where something that at first would be incommunicable circulates and gradually takes shape. This space allows and supports the literalness of a testimonial narrative, its hesitations, paradoxes and silences. More than a trauma theory, the notion of a potential space would be the great contribution of psychoanalysis to the treatment of trauma survivors, establishing the difference between the task of a psychoanalyst and the one of a truth commission.

COMPETITIVENESS AND COMPETITIVE ORIENTATIONS: EVALUATION OF STUDENTS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

G. Z. Efimova

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Introduction. Education of a competitive student is a strategically significant problem of the system of higher education in modern social and economic conditions. Personal competitiveness and competitive orientations – priority quality of future expert for successful future professional experience.The aim of the present research is to study factors of competitive orientations formation and criteria for evaluation of competitiveness of student’s youth in the Russian society.Methodology and research methods. Results of theoretical researches of Russian and foreign researchers are generalized; secondary analysis of data based on results of sociological researches and analysis of official statistical data are carried out. The results of the sociological survey undertaken in 2017 on the basis of statistical methods were processed and studied by the instrumentality of IBM SPSS Statistics 23 program; 1196 students of institutions of higher and secondary vocational education of the Tyumen region took part.Results and scientific novelty. It is stated that senior students feel themselves more competitive. It is revealed that a quarter of students who took part in the survey, generally men, count themselves competitive. A continuous distance of goal-setting is recorded among these respondents; in every third case they have plans of professional growth for five and more years that allows them to build attractive competitive strategy.The level of the competitiveness is directly connected with such indicators as “social stratum”, “overall life satisfaction”, “self-esteem of health”, “tendency to lead a healthy lifestyle” and “the level of trust in the surrounding people”. Mostly the students oriented on competition look into the future with confidence and optimism.Respondents focused on the competitiveness were more tend to demonstrate their abilities and cause admiration, have a creative approach towards work, be ready for surprises

LES PREVISIONS DES ANALYSTES FINANCIERS ET LES INCORPORELS : LES IAS/IFRS APPORTENT-ELLES UNE AMELIORATION ?

OpenAIRE

Lenormand , Gaëlle; Touchais , Lionel

2017-01-01

International audience; Due to the identification and assessment difficulties, the accounting system does not always adequately take into account the intangibles. With the IFRS, there are new accounting rules for these items. The article aims to analyze whether these changes convey more useful information for intangible assets with an improvement of analysts' earnings forecasts. To test this question, we use a sample of 209 firms listed on Euronext over 9 years with the national GAAP from 200...

Perception of academic stress among Health Science Preparatory Program students in two Saudi universities.

Science.gov (United States)

Alsulami, Saleh; Al Omar, Zaid; Binnwejim, Mohammed S; Alhamdan, Fahad; Aldrees, Amr; Al-Bawardi, Abdulkarim; Alsohim, Meshary; Alhabeeb, Mohammed

2018-01-01

The Health Science Preparatory Program (HSPP) is a special program that aims to enhance the educational preparedness of students for participation in a health sciences career. Students spend their first university year in a combined extensive teaching program before they can be assigned to a particular health science specialty. It is thought that students enrolled in a highly competitive environment such as HSPP with a long list of potential stressors, including developmental, academic overload, language barriers and competition, are more disposed to stress and stress-related complications. This study aims to measure the level of academic stress and to determine its risk factors in students enrolled in HSPP-adapted local universities in Saudi Arabia. The study was conducted at two Saudi universities, King Saud University (KSU) and Imam Mohammad ibn Saud Islamic University (IMSU) with competition-based and non-competition-based HSPP learning models, respectively. Both universities adopt the HSPP system. The scale for assessing academic stress (SAAS) was used to assess students' perceived stress. A total of 290 students successfully completed the questionnaire (N=290), with a mean age of 18.66 years. Mean SAAS scores for KSU and IMSU students were 8.37 (SD = 4.641) and 7.97 (SD = 5.104), P =0.480, respectively. Only "satisfaction" and "associated social and health problems" have shown statistically significant correlation with university ( P =0.000 and P =0.049, respectively). This study has found mean SAAS score for two local universities with competition-based versus non-competition-based HSPP learning models. Academic stress correlation with age, gender and universities was discussed, and valuable future work guidance was recommended.

Perception of coaching behaviors, coping, and achievement in a sport competition.

Science.gov (United States)

Nicolas, Michel; Gaudreau, Patrick; Franche, Veronique

2011-06-01

This study examined the relationship between perceived coaching behaviors, coping strategies during a sport competition, and sport achievement. A prospective design was used in which 80 athletes from individual sports completed measures of perceived coaching behaviors two days before a competition (Time 1) and measures of coping and sport achievement within three hours after a sport competition (Time 2). As expected, results of multiple regressions indicated that supportive coaching was a positive predictor of task-oriented coping and sport achievement whereas unsupportive coaching was a positive predictor of disengagement-oriented coping. Both types of coping were significantly associated with sport achievement. Task-oriented coping was a significant partial mediator in the relation between supportive coaching and sport achievement. This study, which contributes to both the coaching and coping literatures, highlights the role of supportive coaching behaviors in the initiation of effective stress management during sport competitions.

Blurred Lines: Ethical Implications of Social Media for Behavior Analysts.

Science.gov (United States)

O'Leary, Patrick N; Miller, Megan M; Olive, Melissa L; Kelly, Amanda N

2017-03-01

Social networking has a long list of advantages: it enables access to a large group of people that would otherwise not be geographically convenient or possible to connect with; it reaches several different generations, particularly younger ones, which are not typically involved in discussion of current events; and these sites allow a cost effective, immediate, and interactive way to engage with others. With the vast number of individuals who use social media sites as a way to connect with others, it may not be possible to completely abstain from discussions and interactions on social media that pertain to our professional practice. This is all the more reason that behavior analysts attend to the contingencies specific to these tools. This paper discusses potential ethical situations that may arise and offers a review of the Behavior Analysis Certification Board (BACB) guidelines pertaining to social networking, as well as provides suggestions for avoiding or resolving potential violations relating to online social behavior.

Competitive balance in national European soccer competitions

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Haan, M.A.; Koning, R.H.; van Witteloostuijn, A.; Albert, Jim; Koning, Ruud H.

2007-01-01

According to popular belief, competitive balance in national soccer competitions in Europe has decreased due to the Bosman ruling and the introduction of the Champions League. We test this hypothesis using data from 7 national competitions, for a host of indicators. We find some evidence for

Winning isn't everything: mood and testosterone regulate the cortisol response in competition.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Samuele Zilioli

Full Text Available Dominance contests are recurrent and widespread causes of stress among mammals. Studies of activation of the stress axis in social defeat - as reflected in levels of adrenal glucocorticoid, cortisol - have generated scattered and sometimes contradictory results, suggesting that biopsychological individual differences might play an important mediating role, at least in humans. In the context of a larger study of the regulation of endocrine responses to competition, we evaluated the notion that mood states, such as self-assurance and hostility, may influence cortisol reactivity to dominance cues via an interplay with baseline testosterone, considered as a potential marker of individual differences in dominance. Seventy healthy male university students (mean age 20.02, range 18-26 provided saliva samples before and after competing for fifteen minutes on a rigged computer task. After a winner was determined, all participants were assessed on their mood states through a standardized psychometric instrument (PANAS-X. Among winners of a rigged videogame competition, we found a significant interaction between testosterone and self-assurance in relation to post-competition cortisol. Specifically, self-assurance was associated with lower post-competition cortisol in subjects with high baseline testosterone levels, but no such relationship was observed in subjects with lower baseline testosterone levels. In losers of the competition no interaction effect between basal testosterone and hostility was observed. However, in this subgroup a significant negative relationship between basal testosterone and post-competition cortisol was evident. Overall, these findings provide initial support for the novel hypothesis that biological motivational predispositions (i.e. basal testosterone and state (i.e. mood changes may interact in regulating the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis activation after a social contest.

Clearing and settlement of interbank card transactions: a MasterCard tutorial for Federal Reserve payments analysts

OpenAIRE

Susan Herbst-Murphy

2013-01-01

The Payment Cards Center organized a meeting at which senior officials from MasterCard shared information with Federal Reserve System payments analysts about the clearing and settlement functions that MasterCard performs for its client banks. These functions involve the transfer of information pertaining to card-based transactions (clearing) and the exchange of monetary value (settlement) that takes place between the banks whose customers are cardholders and those banks whose customers are ca...

The Stewardship Role of Analyst Forecasts, and Discretionary Versus Non-Discretionary Accruals

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Christensen, Peter Ove; Frimor, Hans; Sabac, Florin

We examine the interaction between discretionary and non-discretionary accruals in a stewardship setting. Contracting includes multiple rounds of renegotiation based on contractible accounting information and non-contractible but more timely non-accounting information. We show that accounting...... timely non-accounting information (analyst earnings forecasts) increases the ex ante value of the firm and reduces costly earnings management. There is an optimal level of reversible non-discretionary accrual noise introduced through revenue recognition policies. Tight rules-based accounting regulation...... regulation aimed at increasing earnings quality from a valuation perspective (earnings persistence) may have a significant impact on how firms rationally respond in terms of allowing accrual discretion in order to alleviate the impact on the stewardship role of earnings. Increasing the precision of more...

The Stewardship Role of Analyst Forecasts, and Discretionary Versus Non-Discretionary Accruals

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Christensen, Peter Ove; Frimor, Hans; Sabac, Florin

2013-01-01

We examine the interaction between discretionary and non-discretionary accruals in a stewardship setting. Contracting includes multiple rounds of renegotiation based on contractible accounting information and non-contractible but more timely non-accounting information. We show that accounting...... timely non-accounting information (analyst earnings forecasts) increases the ex ante value of the firm and reduces costly earnings management. There is an optimal level of reversible non-discretionary accrual noise introduced through revenue recognition policies. Tight rules-based accounting regulation...... regulation aimed at increasing earnings quality from a valuation perspective (earnings persistence) may have a significant impact on how firms rationally respond in terms of allowing accrual discretion in order to alleviate the impact on the stewardship role of earnings. Increasing the precision of more...

Reflections on Competition, Competition Regulation and the Current Crises

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Buch-Hansen, Hubert; Wigger, Angela

2013-01-01

competition came to enjoy such an exalted status in Europe and then challenges conventional wisdom by bringing into focus the downsides of competition. It argues that excessive competition and neoliberal competition regulation have contributed to intensify the economic, political, social and environmental...

The role of male contest competition over mates in speciation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anna QVARNSTRÖM, Niclas VALLIN, Andreas RUDH

2012-06-01

Full Text Available Research on the role of sexual selection in the speciation process largely focuses on the diversifying role of mate choice. In particular, much attention has been drawn to the fact that population divergence in mate choice and in the male traits subject to choice directly can lead to assortative mating. However, male contest competition over mates also constitutes an important mechanism of sexual selection. We review recent empirical studies and argue that sexual selection through male contest competition can affect speciation in ways other than mate choice. For example, biases in aggression towards similar competitors can lead to disruptive and negative frequency-dependent selection on the traits used in contest competition in a similar way as competition for other types of limited resources. Moreover, male contest abilities often trade-off against other abilities such as parasite resistance, protection against predators and general stress tolerance. Populations experiencing different ecological conditions should therefore quickly diverge non-randomly in a number of traits including male contest abilities. In resource based breeding systems, a feedback loop between competitive ability and habitat use may lead to further population divergence. We discuss how population divergence in traits used in male contest competition can lead to the build up of reproductive isolation through a number of different pathways. Our main conclusion is that the role of male contest competition in speciation remains largely scientifically unexplored [Current Zoology 58 (3: 490–506, 2012].

Arbuscular mycorrhizal impacts on competitive interactions between Acacia etbaica and Boswellia papyrifera seedlings under drought stress

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Birhane, E.; Sterck, F.J.; Bongers, F.; Kuyper, T.W.

2014-01-01

Aims Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi can have a substantial effect on the water and nutrient uptake by plants and the competition between plants in harsh environments where resource availability comes in pulses. In this study we focus on interspecific competition between Acaia etbaica and Boswellia

Environmental structure and competitive scoring advantages in team competitions

Science.gov (United States)

Merritt, Sears; Clauset, Aaron

2013-10-01

In most professional sports, playing field structure is kept neutral so that scoring imbalances may be attributed to differences in team skill. It thus remains unknown what impact environmental heterogeneities can have on scoring dynamics or competitive advantages. Applying a novel generative model of scoring dynamics to roughly 10 million team competitions drawn from an online game, we quantify the relationship between the structure within a competition and its scoring dynamics, while controlling the impact of chance. Despite wide structural variations, we observe a common three-phase pattern in the tempo of events. Tempo and balance are highly predictable from a competition's structural features alone and teams exploit environmental heterogeneities for sustained competitive advantage. Surprisingly, the most balanced competitions are associated with specific environmental heterogeneities, not from equally skilled teams. These results shed new light on the design principles of balanced competition, and illustrate the potential of online game data for investigating social dynamics and competition.

An exploratory study of competition scores and salivary cortisol concentrations in Warmblood horses.

Science.gov (United States)

Munk, R; Jensen, R B; Palme, R; Munksgaard, L; Christensen, J W

2017-10-01

The main objective of this explorative study was to describe the relationship between competition scores and salivary cortisol concentrations in young horses during dressage and showjumping competitions. The study also investigated whether the diurnal rhythm of salivary cortisol concentrations was affected by competition over consecutive days compared with the home environment. Saliva samples were collected from 126 dressage horses and showjumpers in their home environment and at 3 different events. The relationship between scores given by judges at the competition and cortisol concentrations at the event was assessed. The results demonstrated that competition scores correlated positively to baseline cortisol concentrations at one of 3 events (r = 0.53, P cortisol concentrations followed a diurnal rhythm with the highest concentrations measured in the morning and the lowest in the evening, both at home and in the competition environment (P cortisol concentrations were greater during the competitions than at home (P cortisol concentrations at competition, and exercise caused cortisol concentrations to increase in both showjumpers and dressage horses (P cortisol concentrations was maintained in the novel environment. Dressage horses demonstrated greater baseline cortisol concentrations at competition than showjumpers, suggesting that they may perceive the novel environment as more stressful. Furthermore, there was no consistent relationship between baseline salivary cortisol concentrations and competition scores across the events. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A Comparative Study of Automated Infrasound Detectors - PMCC and AFD with Analyst Review.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Park, Junghyun; Hayward, Chris; Zeiler, Cleat; Arrowsmith, Stephen John; Stump, Brian

2015-08-01

Automated detections calculated by the progressive multi-channel correlation (PMCC) method (Cansi, 1995) and the adaptive F detector (AFD) (Arrowsmith et al., 2009) are compared to the signals identified by five independent analysts. Each detector was applied to a four-hour time sequence recorded by the Korean infrasound array CHNAR. This array was used because it is composed of both small (<100 m) and large (~1000 m) aperture element spacing. The four hour time sequence contained a number of easily identified signals under noise conditions that have average RMS amplitudes varied from 1.2 to 4.5 mPa (1 to 5 Hz), estimated with running five-minute window. The effectiveness of the detectors was estimated for the small aperture, large aperture, small aperture combined with the large aperture, and full array. The full and combined arrays performed the best for AFD under all noise conditions while the large aperture array had the poorest performance for both detectors. PMCC produced similar results as AFD under the lower noise conditions, but did not produce as dramatic an increase in detections using the full and combined arrays. Both automated detectors and the analysts produced a decrease in detections under the higher noise conditions. Comparing the detection probabilities with Estimated Receiver Operating Characteristic (EROC) curves we found that the smaller value of consistency for PMCC and the larger p-value for AFD had the highest detection probability. These parameters produced greater changes in detection probability than estimates of the false alarm rate. The detection probability was impacted the most by noise level, with low noise (average RMS amplitude of 1.7 mPa) having an average detection probability of ~40% and high noise (average RMS amplitude of 2.9 mPa) average detection probability of ~23%.

Social-geographical essence and content of the competitiveness of the region

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Diana Gryniuk

2017-10-01

Full Text Available The current stage of market transformations in Ukraine requires the changing of existing stereotypes and management. Expecting for administrative reform and economic regionalization of the state requires detailed attention to the scientific concept of "competitiveness of the region." Being economical in nature this concept requires social and geographical understanding. The paper traced the content and nature of the economic competitiveness of the region in social and geographical interpretation. Author presents the fragments of research model components of regional competitiveness. The effective influence of socio-geographical laws, patterns, factors and competitive advantages that determine the strategic potential of the region is figured on. The importance of individual studies of functional subsystems, industrial, social, recreation and tourism, natural resources, administrative and management, investment and innovation under the influence of social transformation is noted. Based on scientific generalizations, the author's definition of region competitiveness was suggested. It is defined by the author as an integrated concept that reveals the state, the process and the outcome of the territory as a socio-economic system. The basis of regional competitiveness is the potential of the territory able to function effectively on the basis of competition (social and geographical advantages. The main goal here should be improvement of the region population quality of life. The work reveals the contribution of individual schools and social geographers’ studies to the development of regional competitiveness. The importance of further development of the theory and methodology of social and geographical research competitiveness of the region is stressed.

Elite Athletes’ In-event Competitive Anxiety Responses and Psychological Skills Usage under Differing Conditions

Science.gov (United States)

Hagan, John E.; Pollmann, Dietmar; Schack, Thomas

2017-01-01

Background and Purpose: Even though the assessment of competitive anxiety responses (intensity, interpretation, and frequency) using the time-to-event paradigm has gained much attention, literature on the account of these same experiences in-event and their corresponding psychological skills adopted under differing conditions is limited. This is a follow up investigation to establish the extent to which associated anxiety responses are stable or dynamic and whether this pattern could be related to reported psychological skills under low or high stressful conditions across gender. Methods: Twenty-three high level (N = 13 males and 10 females) Ghanaian Table Tennis players provided data through completion of modified versions of Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2, incorporated with directional and frequency of intrusion scales and the Test of Performance Strategies inventory during breaks within competitive fixtures. Results: MANCOVAs (gender × stress condition) with follow-up analyses revealed no significant interactions and no main effect for gender but significant main effects were realized for all anxiety dimensions and psychological skills for only the second factor. Specifically, the intensity and frequency of cognitive and somatic state anxiety symptoms increased and were interpreted as debilitative under the high stress condition, although self-confidence and other array of psychological skills were highly displayed under the same stressful condition. Conclusion: Findings highlight the dynamic characteristics of in-event associated anxiety responses and ineffectiveness of deployed psychological skills regardless of gender. These perhaps show the exceptionality of affective experiences in an African setting, suggesting a culturally diversified approach to psychological skills application, if desirable effects are to be attained. PMID:29312103

Performance of the life insurance industry under pressure: efficiency, competition and consolidation

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bikker, J.A.

2012-01-01

A well-performing life insurance industry benefits consumers, producers and insurance firm stockholders alike. Unfavourable market conditions stress the need for life insurers to perform well in order to remain solvent. Using a unique supervisory data set, this paper investigates competition and

Analyst Tools and Quality Control Software for the ARM Data System

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Moore, S.T.

2004-12-14

ATK Mission Research develops analyst tools and automated quality control software in order to assist the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Data Quality Office with their data inspection tasks. We have developed a web-based data analysis and visualization tool, called NCVweb, that allows for easy viewing of ARM NetCDF files. NCVweb, along with our library of sharable Interactive Data Language procedures and functions, allows even novice ARM researchers to be productive with ARM data with only minimal effort. We also contribute to the ARM Data Quality Office by analyzing ARM data streams, developing new quality control metrics, new diagnostic plots, and integrating this information into DQ HandS - the Data Quality Health and Status web-based explorer. We have developed several ways to detect outliers in ARM data streams and have written software to run in an automated fashion to flag these outliers.

Retail competition

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1998-01-01

Retail competition as the cornerstone of a competitive electricity marketplace was the subject of the seventh in the series of policy discussion papers developed at the Market Design Conference. Concern was expressed that because of the complexities involved in market design and technical implementation, the retail competition may lag behind other elements of the implementation of the new market design. A variety of key issues were debated, including the role of physical versus financial contracts, the form of retail competition and financial settlement systems in the short term, the requirement to separate 'competitive' (metering, billing, maintenance, consumer education) from non-competitive' (the transmission wires) services and the role of municipal electric utilities. It was agreed that the IMO should play an important role in defining and enforcing the separation of services, and that as a general rule, the development of policy in this area should be guided by the principle of maximizing the potential for competition

Is Student Performance on the Information Systems Analyst Certification Exam Affected by Form of Delivery of Information Systems Coursework?

Science.gov (United States)

Haga, Wayne; Moreno, Abel; Segall, Mark

2012-01-01

In this paper, we compare the performance of Computer Information Systems (CIS) majors on the Information Systems Analyst (ISA) Certification Exam. The impact that the form of delivery of information systems coursework may have on the exam score is studied. Using a sample that spans three years, we test for significant differences between scores…

Competitive intelligence as an enabler for firm competitiveness: An overview

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alexander Maune

2014-06-01

Full Text Available The purpose of this article is to provide an overview, from literature, about how competitive intelligence can be an enabler towards a firm’s competitiveness. This overview is done under the background of intense global competition that firms are currently experiencing. This paper used a qualitative content analysis as a data collection methodology on all identified journal articles on competitive intelligence and firm competitiveness. To identify relevant literature, academic databases and search engines were used. Moreover, a review of references in related studies led to more relevant sources, the references of which were further reviewed and analysed. To ensure reliability and trustworthiness, peer-reviewed journal articles and triangulation were used. The paper found that competitive intelligence is an important enabler of firm competitiveness. The findings from this paper will assist business managers to understand and improve their outlook of competitive intelligence as an enabler of firm competitiveness and will be of great academic value.

An exploration of competitiveness and caring in relation to psychopathology.

Science.gov (United States)

McEwan, Kirsten; Gilbert, Paul; Duarte, Joana

2012-03-01

Social mentality theory outlines how specialist systems have evolved to facilitate different types of social behaviour such as caring for offspring, forming alliances, and competing for resources. This research explored how different types of self-experience are linked to the different social mentalities of competitive social ranking (focusing on gaining and defending one's social position/status/rank) in contrast to caring (being helpful to others). Perceived low social rank (with feelings of being inferior and unfavourable social comparison, SC) has been linked to depression, but a caring sense of self has less so. We hypothesized therefore that depression, in both clinical and non-clinical populations, would be primarily linked to competitive and rank focused sense of self rather than a caring sense of self. Students (N = 312) and patients with depression (N = 48) completed self-report scales measuring: self-experience related to competitiveness and caring; social rank; social safeness; and depression, anxiety, and stress. The data suggest that in students, and particularly in patients, competitiveness (and feeling unsuccessful in competing for resources) is strongly associated with depression. Although caring shares a small correlation with depression in students, and with depression, anxiety, and stress in patients, when controlling for the rank variable of submissive behaviour this relationship ceases to be significant. Submissive behaviour was found to be a full mediator between caring and depression. We also found that how safe and comfortable one feels in one's social relationships (social safeness), was a full mediator between competitiveness and depression. So, it is the feeling of being unable to compete where one does not feel secure in one's social environment that is particularly linked to depression. The results of this study suggest that self-experience is complex and multifaceted and is linked to different social roles that are socially

Performance Enhancement with Low Stress and Anxiety Modulated by Cognitive Flexibility

Science.gov (United States)

Park, Hyung Woo; Kee, Baik Seok; Na, Churl; Na, Do-Hyun E.; Zaichkowsky, Leonard

2011-01-01

Objective The purpose of this study was to compare cognitive flexibility abilities, stress, and anxiety between starters and non-starter athletes. Methods A total of 30 male professional-soccer and 40 professional-baseball athletes were recruited. Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) and Trail Making Test A & B (TMT A & B) were administered to assess cognitive flexibility during competition. The Korean version of the STAI form Y (STAI-KY) and Visual analogue scale for anxiety and stress were used to assess the anxiety and stress. Results The starter group had better cognitive function (fewer perseverative errors and rapid TMTB times) (Z=3.32, panxiety (F=4.34, p=0.01; F=6.61, pcognitive performances were negatively correlated with stress and anxiety. Current results suggested that cognitive flexibility would enhance human performance by modulation of the anxiety and stress during competition. PMID:21994509

Cyber Situation Awareness through Instance-Based Learning: Modeling the Security Analyst in a Cyber-Attack Scenario

Science.gov (United States)

2012-01-01

Chocolate Avenue Hershey PA 17033 Tel: 717-533-8845 Fax: 717-533-8661 E-mail: cust@igi-global.com Web site: http://www.igi-global.com Copyright © 2011...program and obtain control on the machine (event 21st out of 25). During the course of this simple scenario, a security analyst is able to observe...G. A. (1989). Recognition-primed deci- sions. In Rouse, W. B. (Ed.), Advances in man- machine system research (Vol. 5, pp. 47–92). Greenwich, CT

1990: Twenty-Second Annual National Council on Family Relations Media Awards Competition.

Science.gov (United States)

Anson, Julie; And Others

1991-01-01

Describes winning videotapes and films of Media Competition in 12 categories: Human Development across the Life Span; Parenting Issues; Nontraditional Family Systems; Marital and Family Issues and Communication; Sexuality and Sex Role Development; Substance Abuse/Addiction; Human Reproduction and Family Planning; Stress, Transition, and Crisis…

Professional stress

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stanojević Dragana Z.

2011-01-01

Full Text Available Job stress is a line, for the person at work hired adverse physiological, psychological and behavioral reactions to situations in which job requirements are not in accordance with its capabilities, abilities and needs. Sources of stress at work are numerous. Personal factors: personality types have been most studied so far, environmental changes and demographic characteristics as well. Interpersonal stress inducing factors act and influence to the occurrence of many psychosomatic diseases. Psychosocial climate and relationships which are prevented or encouraged such as: cooperation and competition, trust and suspicion certainly affect to the appearance of professional stress. The way of leadership is very important. Organizational factors are the type of work, work time, noncompliance of the job, the introduction of new ethnologies, the conflict of personal roles, fear of job loss, bad physical conditions of working environment. The consequences of stress at work are numerous: at the cognitive level, the emotional level, the production plan, the health, plan reduces the immune system that cause a variety of psychosomatic illnesses and accidents at work.

Competitive Intelligence.

Science.gov (United States)

Bergeron, Pierrette; Hiller, Christine A.

2002-01-01

Reviews the evolution of competitive intelligence since 1994, including terminology and definitions and analytical techniques. Addresses the issue of ethics; explores how information technology supports the competitive intelligence process; and discusses education and training opportunities for competitive intelligence, including core competencies…

Healthy Competition and Unsound Comparison: Reforming Educational Competition in Singapore

Science.gov (United States)

Christensen, Søren

2015-01-01

It is frequently claimed that the "competition state" responds to external competition by making competition increasingly central to its internal processes as well. This article discusses education reform in Singapore as departing from the opposite position. In Singapore "excessive" competition in education is now targeted by…

Oxidative stress and antioxidant status response of handball athletes: implications for sport training monitoring.

Science.gov (United States)

Marin, Douglas Popp; Bolin, Anaysa Paola; Campoio, Thais Regina; Guerra, Beatriz Alves; Otton, Rosemari

2013-10-01

The chronic exposure to regular exercise training seems to improve antioxidant defense systems. However, the intense physical training imposed on elite athletes may lead to overtraining associated with oxidative stress. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effect of different training loads and competition on oxidative stress, biochemical parameters and antioxidant enzymatic defense in handball athletes during 6-months of monitoring. Ten male elite handball athletes were recruited to the study. Blood samples were collected four times every six weeks throughout the season. During most intense periods of training and competitions there were significant changes in plasma indices of oxidative stress (increased TBARS and decreased thiols). Conversely, chronic adaptations to exercise training demonstrated a significant protective effect against oxidative stress in erythrocyte (decrease in TBARs and carbonyl group levels). Erythrocyte antioxidant enzyme activities were significantly increased, suggesting a training-induced antioxidant adaptation. Biomarkers of skeletal muscle damage were significantly increased during high-intensity training period (creatine kinase, lactate dehydrogenase and aspartate aminotransferase). No significant changes were observed in plasma IL-6, TNF-α and uric acid, whereas a significant reduction was found in the IL-1β concentration and gamma-glutamyl transferase activity. Oxidative stress and antioxidant biomarkers can change throughout the season in competitive athletes, reflecting the physical stress and muscle damage that occurs as the result of competitive handball training. In addition, these biochemical measurements can be applied in the physiological follow-up of athletes. © 2013.

Quality of life threats in recreational and competitive sport

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Støckel, Jan Toftegaard

Quality of life threats in recreational and competitive sport Author: ass. Professor Jan Toftegaard Støckel Key words: sport, stress, depression, illness, Previous research has shown that personal issues (nutrition, injury, goals and expectations), coach-athlete issues (coach, coaching style......, selection) and environmental issues (team atmosphere, support structures) are key determinants for stress, depression and illness in elite sports. In a large scale survey among 4,000 Danish athletes from recreational thru to elite sport a regression analysis show an increase in risk of self-reported stress......, depression or illness (SDI) by odds ratio 6,5 in elite sport compared to recreational sport. One in eight athletes reported SDI and highest associations are related to coach behavior. The key question for this abstract is to examine whether men and women are equally vulnerable to SDI at various sport levels...

EDITORIAL: Physics competitions Physics competitions

Science.gov (United States)

Jordens, H.; Mathelitsch, L.

2010-07-01

This editorial opens the second special section on physics competitions in European Journal of Physics. In the first section last year, we asked for feedback on the idea of such a section and on the content of the articles. We received no answer whatsoever, which can be interpreted in two ways: the section is not interesting enough to raise motivation for feedback, or the reader is satisfied. Having no indication which scenario is the correct one, we are optimistic and favour the second. The section at hand contains three articles. Again, as last year, the organizer of the annual Olympiad reports on tasks and outcomes of this competition. The Olympiad took place in Merida, Mexico, and was by far the largest event with 316 contestants from 68 countries. Again, the predominance of Asian/Chinese students was manifest, showing how serious the training is taken by both their authorities and students. Unfortunately, the winners of the last International Young Physicists' Tournament (IYPT), the team from Korea, did not accept the offer to report on their prize-winning contribution. We are thankful that two students from Austria, who achieved second place with their team, took over and reported on the task which they presented in the finals of the competition. It connects the fields of sport and physics and explains a special move in skateboarding. The third contribution introduces a different competition, 'International Conference of Young Scientists'. On one hand, as in the Olympiad, it addresses individuals, not teams. On the other, as in the IYPT, students have several months to prepare and also the quality of the presentation is an important element of the judgment. In fact, this competition comes closer to real scientific research compared to the other events. Finally and again, we hope that this section will serve several purposes: To show the competitions as a very important tool in the support of gifted students. To raise awareness amongst university teachers, and

Power market competition

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kelly, J.

1998-01-01

In the Unites States the prospect of greater competition in wholesale power market was immediately eclipsed by talk of retail competition. Attempts to move to retail competition have been costly and complex. Prudent public policy and economic analyses suggest that retail competition not be implemented until it can first be demonstrated that effective competition exists in wholesale power markets [it

Lunabotics Mining Competition

Science.gov (United States)

Mueller, Rob; Murphy, Gloria

2010-01-01

This slide presentation describes a competition to design a lunar robot (lunabot) that can be controlled either remotely or autonomously, isolated from the operator, and is designed to mine a lunar aggregate simulant. The competition is part of a systems engineering curriculum. The 2010 competition winners in five areas of the competition were acknowledged, and the 2011 competition was announced.

Computational models of intergroup competition and warfare.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Letendre, Kenneth (University of New Mexico); Abbott, Robert G.

2011-11-01

This document reports on the research of Kenneth Letendre, the recipient of a Sandia Graduate Research Fellowship at the University of New Mexico. Warfare is an extreme form of intergroup competition in which individuals make extreme sacrifices for the benefit of their nation or other group to which they belong. Among animals, limited, non-lethal competition is the norm. It is not fully understood what factors lead to warfare. We studied the global variation in the frequency of civil conflict among countries of the world, and its positive association with variation in the intensity of infectious disease. We demonstrated that the burden of human infectious disease importantly predicts the frequency of civil conflict and tested a causal model for this association based on the parasite-stress theory of sociality. We also investigated the organization of social foraging by colonies of harvester ants in the genus Pogonomyrmex, using both field studies and computer models.

Stress amplifies memory for social hierarchy.

Science.gov (United States)

Cordero, María Isabel; Sandi, Carmen

2007-11-01

Individuals differ in their social status and societies in the extent of social status differences among their members. There is great interest in understanding the key factors that contribute to the establishment of social dominance structures. Given that stress can affect behavior and cognition, we hypothesized that, given equal opportunities to become either dominant or submissive, stress experienced by one of the individuals during their first encounter would determine the long-term establishment of a social hierarchy by acting as a two-stage rocket: (1) by influencing the rank achieved after a social encounter and (2) by facilitating and/or promoting a long-term memory for the specific hierarchy. Using a novel model for the assessment of long-term dominance hierarchies in rats, we present here the first evidence supporting such hypothesis. In control conditions, the social rank established through a first interaction and food competition test between two male rats is not maintained when animals are confronted 1 week later. However, if one of the rats is stressed just before their first encounter, the dominance hierarchy developed on day 1 is still clearly observed 1 week later, with the stressed animal becoming submissive (i.e., looser in competition tests) in both social interactions. Our findings also allow us to propose that stress potentiates a hierarchy-linked recognition memory between "specific" individuals through mechanisms that involve de novo protein synthesis. These results implicate stress among the key mechanisms contributing to create social imbalance and highlight memory mechanisms as key mediators of stress-induced long-term establishment of social rank.

Stress amplifies memory for social hierarchy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

María I Cordero

2007-10-01

Full Text Available Individuals differ in their social status and societies in the extent of social status differences among their members. There is great interest in understanding the key factors that contribute to the establishment of social dominance structures. Given that stress can affect behavior and cognition, we hypothesized that, given equal opportunities to become either dominant or submissive, stress experienced by one of the individuals during their first encounter would determine the long-term establishment of a social hierarchy by acting as a two-stage rocket: (1 by influencing the rank achieved after a social encounter and (2 by facilitating and/or promoting a long-term memory for the specific hierarchy. Using a novel model for the assessment of long-term dominance hierarchies in rats, we present here the first evidence supporting such hypothesis. In control conditions, the social rank established through a first interaction and food competition test between two male rats is not maintained when animals are confronted 1 week later. However, if one of the rats is stressed just before their first encounter, the dominance hierarchy developed on day 1 is still clearly observed 1 week later, with the stressed animal becoming submissive (i.e., looser in competition tests in both social interactions. Our findings also allow us to propose that stress potentiates a hierarchy-linked recognition memory between “specific” individuals through mechanisms that involve de novo protein synthesis. These results implicate stress among the key mechanisms contributing to create social imbalance and highlight memory mechanisms as key mediators of stress-induced long-term establishment of social rank.

Switch between competition and facilitation within a seasonal scale at colony level in bryophytes.

Science.gov (United States)

Spitale, Daniel

2009-06-01

The relative importance of positive and negative interaction in species assemblages is thought to be dependent on the harshness of the physical environment. I studied the consistency of this prediction in a field experiment using growth of the target species Warnstorfia exannulata as influenced by the presence or absence of two adjacent species, Sphagnum warnstorfii and Scapania undulata. In particular, I focused on the mechanism by which colony-colony interactions occur, elucidating how the balance of positive and negative interactions changes along a water gradient. Because the natural fluctuations of the environment modify the water gradient, it was expected that the competitive hierarchies of the species would not remain consistent over time. Results indicated that the different hydrological properties of the colonies, thought to be the necessary condition for the appearance of species interactions, were not sufficient to explain the outcome of the species interactions. The switch from competition to facilitation under more stressful conditions was not confirmed along a water stress gradient. In addition, natural climatic fluctuations, by affecting the length of the water gradient, changed the competitive hierarchies of the species on a seasonal scale.

Interspecific variation in growth responses to tree size, competition and climate of western Canadian boreal mixed forests.

Science.gov (United States)

Jiang, Xinyu; Huang, Jian-Guo; Cheng, Jiong; Dawson, Andria; Stadt, Kenneth J; Comeau, Philip G; Chen, Han Y H

2018-08-01

Tree growth of boreal forest plays an important role on global carbon (C) cycle, while tree growth in the western Canadian boreal mixed forests has been predicted to be negatively affected by regional drought. Individual tree growth can be controlled by many factors, such as competition, climate, tree size and age. However, information about contributions of different factors to tree growth is still limited in this region. In order to address this uncertainty, tree rings of two dominant tree species, trembling aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) and white spruce (Picea glauca (Moench.) Voss), were sampled from boreal mixed forest stands distributed across Alberta, Canada. Tree growth rates over different time intervals (10years interval, 1998-2007; 20years interval, 1988-2007; 30years interval, 1978-2007) were calculated to study the effects of different factors (tree size, competition, climate, and age) on tree growth. Results indicated that tree growth of two species were both primarily affected by competition or tree size, while climatic indices showed less effects on tree growth. Growth of trembling aspen was significantly affected by inter- and intraspecific competition, while growth of white spruce was primarily influenced by tree size, followed by competition. Positive relationship was found between growth of white spruce and competition index of coniferous group, suggesting an intraspecific mutualism mechanism within coniferous group. Our results further suggested that competition driven succession was the primary process of forest composition shift in the western Canadian boreal mixed forest. Although drought stress increased tree mortality, decline of stem density under climate change released competition stress of surviving trees, which in turn sustained growth of surviving trees. Therefore, climatic indices showed fewer effects on growth of dominant tree species compared to other factors in our study. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Competition triggers plasmid-mediated enhancement of substrate utilisation in Pseudomonas putida.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hiren Joshi

2009-06-01

Full Text Available Competition between species plays a central role in the activity and structure of communities. Stable co-existence of diverse organisms in communities is thought to be fostered by individual tradeoffs and optimization of competitive strategies along resource gradients. Outside the laboratory, microbes exist as multispecies consortia, continuously interacting with one another and the environment. Survival and proliferation of a particular species is governed by its competitive fitness. Therefore, bacteria must be able to continuously sense their immediate environs for presence of competitors and prevailing conditions. Here we present results of our investigations on a novel competition sensing mechanism in the rhizosphere-inhabiting Pseudomonas putida KT2440, harbouring gfpmut3b-modified Kan(R TOL plasmid. We monitored benzyl alcohol (BA degradation rate, along with GFP expression profiling in mono species and dual species cultures. Interestingly, enhanced plasmid expression (monitored using GFP expression and consequent BA degradation were observed in dual species consortia, irrespective of whether the competitor was a BA degrader (Pseudomonas aeruginosa or a non-degrader (E. coli. Attempts at elucidation of the mechanistic aspects of induction indicated the role of physical interaction, but not of any diffusible compounds emanating from the competitors. This contention is supported by the observation that greater induction took place in presence of increasing number of competitors. Inert microspheres mimicking competitor cell size and concentration did not elicit any significant induction, further suggesting the role of physical cell-cell interaction. Furthermore, it was also established that cell wall compromised competitor had minimal induction capability. We conclude that P. putida harbouring pWW0 experience a competitive stress when grown as dual-species consortium, irrespective of the counterpart being BA degrader or not. The immediate

Competition

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bridoux, F.; Vodosek, M.; Den Hartog, D.N.; McNett, J.M.

2014-01-01

Competition traditionally refers to the actions that firms take in a product market to outperform rivals in attracting customers and generating revenues. Yet, competition extends beyond product markets to other arenas such as factor markets, where firms compete for resources, and the political

Science, technology, environment, and competitiveness in a North American context

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Trocki, L.K.

1991-12-31

Most economic activities pollute. Environmental regulations should serve the public good by providing incentives to reduce pollution caused by economic activity. Economic incentives include pollution taxes, subsidies for pollution abatement, and tradeable permits or allowances to pollute. Because of the political unacceptability of taxes and permits, much regulation imposes command and control measures and provides less incentive to minimize pollution. Efficient incentives would encourage pollution abatement up to the point where the cost of abatement equals the social and private benefit from the improvements in the environment. While these costs and benefits are difficult to measure, many analysts contend that the way environmental laws have been formulated and implemented in the US leads to very inefficient pollution control. This inefficiency can contribute to a decline in economic competitiveness in the long run, although economic studies do not support the ``pollution haven`` hypothesis. Better analysis (foresight) of the cost of transboundary pollution, significant in the Great Lakes region and along the US- Mexico border, as well as in rivers that flow between countries, is needed to formulate more effective policies and avoid sorry hindsight. Also, application of communal experience, technologies, and methods applied to shared problems can avoid costly duplication of searches for the optimal pollution abatement measures. 14 refs.

Competition in Japan

OpenAIRE

Michael E. Porter; Mariko Sakakibara

2004-01-01

This article examines competition in Japan and its link to postwar economic prosperity. While Japan's industrial structure and competition policy seem to indicate that competition in Japan has been less intense, the empirical evidence does not support this conclusion. The sectors in which competition was restricted prove to be those where Japan was not internationally successful. In the internationally successful sectors, internal competition in Japan was invariably fierce. While the level of...

Competitive bidding in Medicare: who benefits from competition?

Science.gov (United States)

Song, Zirui; Landrum, Mary Beth; Chernew, Michael E

2012-09-01

To conduct the first empirical study of competitive bidding in Medicare. We analyzed 2006-2010 Medicare Advantage data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services using longitudinal models adjusted for market and plan characteristics. A $1 increase in Medicare's payment to health maintenance organization (HMO) plans led to a $0.49 (P service plans included, higher Medicare payments increased bids less ($0.33 per dollar), suggesting more competition among these latter plans. As a market-based alternative to cost control through administrative pricing, competitive bidding relies on private insurance plans proposing prices they are willing to accept for insuring a beneficiary. However, competition is imperfect in the Medicare bidding market. As much as half of every dollar in increased plan payment went to higher bids rather than to beneficiaries. While having more insurers in a market lowered bids, the design of any bidding system for Medicare should recognize this shortcoming of competition.

Competitive Priorities and Competitive Advantage in Jordanian Manufacturing

OpenAIRE

Awwad, Abdulkareem S.; Al Khattab, Adel A.; Anchor, J.R

2013-01-01

The purpose of this research was to explore and predict the relationship between the competitive priorities (quality, cost, flexibility and delivery) and the competitive advantage of firms in the Jordanian Industrial Sector. A population of 88 Jordanian manufacturing firms, registered on the Amman Stock Exchange, was targeted using a cross-sectional survey employing a questionnaire method of data collection. The results of the data analysis indicate a significant relationship between competit...

Evaluation of nondestructive evaluation size measurement for integrity assessment of axial outside diameter stress corrosion cracking in steam generator tubes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Joo, Kyung Mun; Hong, Jun Hee

2015-01-01

Recently, the initiation of outside diameter stress corrosion cracking (ODSCC) at the tube support plate region of domestic steam generators (SG) with Alloy 600 HTMA tubes has been increasing. As a result, SGs with Alloy 600 HTMA tubes must be replaced early or are scheduled to be replaced prior to their designed lifetime. ODSCC is one of the biggest threats to the integrity of SG tubes. Therefore, the accurate evaluation of tube integrity to determine ODSCC is needed. Eddy current testing (ECT) is conducted periodically, and its results could be input as parameters for evaluating the integrity of SG tubes. The reliability of an ECT inspection system depends on the performance of the inspection technique and ability of the analyst. The detection probability and ECT sizing error of degradation are considered to be the performance indices of a nondestructive evaluation (NDE) system. This paper introduces an optimized evaluation method for ECT, as well as the sizing error, including the analyst performance. This study was based on the results of a round robin program in which 10 inspection analysts from 5 different companies participated. The analysis of ECT sizing results was performed using a linear regression model relating the true defect size data to the measured ECT size data.

Evaluation of nondestructive evaluation size measurement for integrity assessment of axial outside diameter stress corrosion cracking in steam generator tubes

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Joo, Kyung Mun [Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power Company Ltd., Central Research Institute, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of); Hong, Jun Hee [Dept. of mechanical Engineering, Chungnam National University, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

2015-02-15

Recently, the initiation of outside diameter stress corrosion cracking (ODSCC) at the tube support plate region of domestic steam generators (SG) with Alloy 600 HTMA tubes has been increasing. As a result, SGs with Alloy 600 HTMA tubes must be replaced early or are scheduled to be replaced prior to their designed lifetime. ODSCC is one of the biggest threats to the integrity of SG tubes. Therefore, the accurate evaluation of tube integrity to determine ODSCC is needed. Eddy current testing (ECT) is conducted periodically, and its results could be input as parameters for evaluating the integrity of SG tubes. The reliability of an ECT inspection system depends on the performance of the inspection technique and ability of the analyst. The detection probability and ECT sizing error of degradation are considered to be the performance indices of a nondestructive evaluation (NDE) system. This paper introduces an optimized evaluation method for ECT, as well as the sizing error, including the analyst performance. This study was based on the results of a round robin program in which 10 inspection analysts from 5 different companies participated. The analysis of ECT sizing results was performed using a linear regression model relating the true defect size data to the measured ECT size data.

The Literature Review of a New Form of Competitiveness Called City Competitiveness

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Osman EROĞLU

2014-06-01

Full Text Available With globalization, the rapid development of information technologies and the rapid changes in the economic structure, the country’s borders at a time increasingly depreciate and the importance of city competitiveness reveals. Although it is an ongoing debate around the world whether cities compete with each other, city competitiveness is a new form of competitiveness. Cities compete with each other to increase their competitiveness. City competitiveness is defined as having better values compared to other cities. In this study, a new form of competitiveness called city competitiveness is examined.

Data analyst technician: an innovative role for the pharmacy technician.

Science.gov (United States)

Ervin, K C; Skledar, S; Hess, M M; Ryan, M

2001-10-01

The development of an innovative role for the pharmacy technician is described. The role of the pharmacy technician was based on a needs assessment and the expertise of the pharmacy technician selected. Initial responsibilities of the technician included chart reviews, benchmarking surveys, monthly financial impact analysis, initiative assessment, and quality improvement reporting. As the drug-use and disease-state management (DUDSM) program expanded, pharmacist activities increased, requiring the expansion of data analyst technician (DAT) duties. These new responsibilities included participation in patient assessment, data collection and interpretation, and formulary enforcement. Most recently, technicians' expanded duties include maintenance of a physician compliance profiling database, quality improvement reporting and graphing, active role in patient risk assessment and database management for adult vaccination, and support of financial impact monitoring for other institutions within the health system. This pharmacist-technician collaboration resulted a threefold increase in patient assessments completed per day. In addition, as the DUDSM program continues to expand across the health system, an increase in DAT resources from 0.5 to 1.0 full-time equivalent was obtained. The role of the DAT has increased the efficiency of the DUDSM program and has provided an innovative role for the pharmacy technician.

Biofilm Formation As a Response to Ecological Competition.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nuno M Oliveira

2015-07-01

Full Text Available Bacteria form dense surface-associated communities known as biofilms that are central to their persistence and how they affect us. Biofilm formation is commonly viewed as a cooperative enterprise, where strains and species work together for a common goal. Here we explore an alternative model: biofilm formation is a response to ecological competition. We co-cultured a diverse collection of natural isolates of the opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa and studied the effect on biofilm formation. We show that strain mixing reliably increases biofilm formation compared to unmixed conditions. Importantly, strain mixing leads to strong competition: one strain dominates and largely excludes the other from the biofilm. Furthermore, we show that pyocins, narrow-spectrum antibiotics made by other P. aeruginosa strains, can stimulate biofilm formation by increasing the attachment of cells. Side-by-side comparisons using microfluidic assays suggest that the increase in biofilm occurs due to a general response to cellular damage: a comparable biofilm response occurs for pyocins that disrupt membranes as for commercial antibiotics that damage DNA, inhibit protein synthesis or transcription. Our data show that bacteria increase biofilm formation in response to ecological competition that is detected by antibiotic stress. This is inconsistent with the idea that sub-lethal concentrations of antibiotics are cooperative signals that coordinate microbial communities, as is often concluded. Instead, our work is consistent with competition sensing where low-levels of antibiotics are used to detect and respond to the competing genotypes that produce them.

Motor Third Party Liability Insurance in Russia: Gaining Competitive Advantage

OpenAIRE

Rogozin, Konstantin

2006-01-01

The report identifies which factors of service-based offerings are of utmost importance for customers, considers the areas of MTPL insurance that may contain a potential sources for differentiation, and stresses importance of knowing customer needs and requirements. This report should assist the insurance company to categorise and systematise relevant information so as to develop a product position, which may give a competitive advantage.

Productive and Unproductive Competition

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Guerra, Alice; Luppi, Barbara; Parisi, Francesco

Conventional theories of competition classify contests as being either “productive,” when the competitive efforts generate a surplus for society, or “unproductive,” when competition generates no social surplus and merely distributes already existing resources. These two discrete categories of com...... and socially optimal levels of competition in the full range of intermediate cases, as well as in the extremum cases of destructive and super-productive competition.......Conventional theories of competition classify contests as being either “productive,” when the competitive efforts generate a surplus for society, or “unproductive,” when competition generates no social surplus and merely distributes already existing resources. These two discrete categories...... of competition create a division of real-world situations into analytical categories that fails to recognize the entire spectrum of competitive activities. Taking the existing models of productive and unproductive competition as benchmark idealizations, this paper explores the relationship between the privately...

Mixing, entropy and competition

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Klimenko, A Y

2012-01-01

Non-traditional thermodynamics, applied to random behaviour associated with turbulence, mixing and competition, is reviewed and analysed. Competitive mixing represents a general framework for the study of generic properties of competitive systems and can be used to model a wide class of non-equilibrium phenomena ranging from turbulent premixed flames and invasion waves to complex competitive systems. We demonstrate consistency of the general principles of competition with thermodynamic description, review and analyse the related entropy concepts and introduce the corresponding competitive H-theorem. A competitive system can be characterized by a thermodynamic quantity—competitive potential—which determines the likely direction of evolution of the system. Contested resources tend to move between systems from lower to higher values of the competitive potential. There is, however, an important difference between conventional thermodynamics and competitive thermodynamics. While conventional thermodynamics is constrained by its zeroth law and is fundamentally transitive, the transitivity of competitive thermodynamics depends on the transitivity of the competition rules. Intransitivities are common in the real world and are responsible for complex behaviour in competitive systems. This work follows ideas and methods that have originated from the analysis of turbulent combustion, but reviews a much broader scope of issues linked to mixing and competition, including thermodynamic characterization of complex competitive systems with self-organization. The approach presented here is interdisciplinary and is addressed to the general educated readers, whereas the mathematical details can be found in the appendices. (comment)

Heart rate variability and pre-competitive anxiety in BMX discipline.

Science.gov (United States)

Mateo, Manuel; Blasco-Lafarga, Cristina; Martínez-Navarro, Ignacio; Guzmán, José F; Zabala, Mikel

2012-01-01

Altered neural mechanisms implying autonomic functioning have been described related to anxiety. Pre-competitive stress may be considered as an anxiety-state associated with disorders (i.e. somatic and cognitive alterations, and self-confidence worsening) that severely impair sport performance, conditioning short-lasting strength-related disciplines like BMX. From the psychological perspective, coaches use questionnaires like CSAI-2R to identify these alterations. However, with the emergence of psycho-physiological and non-linear approaches, recent studies suggest that HRV analysis provides a non-invasive tool to assess them. Hence, our purpose was to analyze how BMX competition affects subjective perception of anxiety, and if this emotional alteration is reflected in HR dynamics, analyzed both linear and nonlinearly, exploring the evolution of this relationship in a 2-day competition. Eleven male athletes from the BMX Spanish National Team were assessed from baseline HRV the morning of a training session (rT) and on two successive days of competition (rC1 and rC2), repeating HRV recording with CSAI-2R 20 min prior to training (aT) and competition (pre-competitive: aC1 and aC2). Repeated measures MANOVA showed significant vagal slow-down responses in aC1 and aC2 comparing not only with aT, but also comparing with rT, rC1 and rC2, coinciding with significant greater scores for the somatic and cognitive anxiety (SA and CA) in aC1 and aC2 versus aT. Pearson analysis showed a large and positive correlation between α1 and SA in C1, and close to it between SampEn and CA in aC2; both were confirmed by Bland-Altman chart analysis. Our results confirm that HRV analysis provide a complementary tool to assess competitive pressure.

Dancing in the Dark: Competition over the "Meaning of Competition"

OpenAIRE

Metcalfe John Stanley

2009-01-01

Competing concepts of competition provide a sharp divide between theories of economic order and theories of economic transformation. The shift from competition as a state of affairs and competition as a creative process provides the divergence of perspective that is the topic of this paper. We link the Smith Marshall approach of rivalry and open competition to the more modern evolutionary view based on variation cum selection perspectives on innovation and the adaptive role of market processe...

Competitive intelligence: An instrument to enhance South Africa’s competitiveness

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wilma Viviers

2014-10-01

Full Text Available The case for Competitive Intelligence (CI as an instrument that can enhance the competitiveness of South African companies and South Africa as a country is strong. Various global competitive rankings measurements have indicated over a number of years the areas in which competitiveness is lacking. Moreover, these rankings have indicated that South Africa has failed to improve its position year on year. The fact that the world is becoming increasingly competitive for South African entities is undisputed. Coupled with a fluctuating exchange rate and the country’s geographical proximity, this poses unique challenges facing South African managers who have to deal with various regulations and legislative matters. In order to create and sustain an effective knowledge economy and to enhance global competitiveness, South Africa however has to put appropriate strategies/measures in place to stimulate, encourage and grow knowledge practices. Competitive Intelligence (CI as a means of making more sense of the competitive business environment and to identify opportunities and risks in time to act upon can be effectively used as a means to enhance competitiveness. Valuable lessons from successful CI practices in the business sector and government can be learnt from elsewhere in the world. CI should be investigated and adapted for South Africa’s business environment. It is therefore the aim of this article to first attempt to describe the role of CI in enhancing competitiveness, specifically in South Africa and secondly, to stimulate thought on how to secure momentum in enhancing CI as an academic field by developing relevant CI courses as well as demonstrating the value of CI to companies in South Africa through research and collaboration between academics and the private and public sectors.

COMPETITIVENESS THROUGH INFORMATION

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Raluca Daniela RIZEA

2013-10-01

Full Text Available Intelligence competitiveness has already started to build its road in the company’s long term strategies. Nonetheless, business executives continue to look for ways to apply information technology strategically to their businesses. Using information managers manage to communicate, to convey their knowledge about markets, competitors, products, services and operations. Even if data and information are all over there are few amounts of managers that realize the importance of them to the success of the business. This article will review competitive forces and competitive information systems strategies for gaining competitive advantages, explain concepts of value chain, value co-opetition (competition and cooperation, and discuss innovation strategy. Co-opetition is a strategy whereby companies cooperate and compete at the same time with their competitors, complementors (i.e. hardware and software businesses, customers, suppliers. The article discuss an important dimension of information system, identifies competitive advantages and enhancing competitive strategies thought information systems.

Putting competition into perspective

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jones, L. III.

1993-01-01

This paper examines the current level of competition in the electric industry in the context of the history of the industry and the development of electric markets in other counties. The topics of the paper include competition in the history of the American electric industry, the current state of competition, the competitive situation in Texas, competition in other electric markets, and competitive changes in the US market

Manganese scavenging and oxidative stress response mediated by type VI secretion system in Burkholderia thailandensis.

Science.gov (United States)

Si, Meiru; Zhao, Chao; Burkinshaw, Brianne; Zhang, Bing; Wei, Dawei; Wang, Yao; Dong, Tao G; Shen, Xihui

2017-03-14

Type VI secretion system (T6SS) is a versatile protein export machinery widely distributed in Gram-negative bacteria. Known to translocate protein substrates to eukaryotic and prokaryotic target cells to cause cellular damage, the T6SS has been primarily recognized as a contact-dependent bacterial weapon for microbe-host and microbial interspecies competition. Here we report contact-independent functions of the T6SS for metal acquisition, bacteria competition, and resistance to oxidative stress. We demonstrate that the T6SS-4 in Burkholderia thailandensis is critical for survival under oxidative stress and is regulated by OxyR, a conserved oxidative stress regulator. The T6SS-4 is important for intracellular accumulation of manganese (Mn 2+ ) under oxidative stress. Next, we identified a T6SS-4-dependent Mn 2+ -binding effector TseM, and its interacting partner MnoT, a Mn 2+ -specific TonB-dependent outer membrane transporter. Similar to the T6SS-4 genes, expression of mnoT is regulated by OxyR and is induced under oxidative stress and low Mn 2+ conditions. Both TseM and MnoT are required for efficient uptake of Mn 2+ across the outer membrane under Mn 2+ -limited and -oxidative stress conditions. The TseM-MnoT-mediated active Mn 2+ transport system is also involved in contact-independent bacteria-bacteria competition and bacterial virulence. This finding provides a perspective for understanding the mechanisms of metal ion uptake and the roles of T6SS in bacteria-bacteria competition.

Multinationals and Institutional Competitiveness

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hull Kristensen, Peer; Morgan, Glenn

This article discusses how institutional competitiveness and multinationals are mutually enriching concepts. Seen from the perspective of Multinationals, institutional competitiveness becomes expressed at two levels. At the level of corporate HQs institutional competitiveness proves itself...... competitiveness of Liberal Market Economies and Coordinated Markets Economies under the current competitive regime....

The diagnosis of stress fractures of runners by an isotope scintigraphy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Karvonen, J.; Nieminen, M.

1988-01-01

By means of isotope scintigraphy the suspected stress fractures in the lower limb bones of ten competitive runners were verified in nine cases (9/10). In all cases the X-rays were normal. By conservative treatment avoiding excessive stress, the intensive local isotope uptake in the bone and pain symptoms of the stress fracture disappeared after 2-4 months. (orig.)

Interfacing a biosurveillance portal and an international network of institutional analysts to detect biological threats.

Science.gov (United States)

Riccardo, Flavia; Shigematsu, Mika; Chow, Catherine; McKnight, C Jason; Linge, Jens; Doherty, Brian; Dente, Maria Grazia; Declich, Silvia; Barker, Mike; Barboza, Philippe; Vaillant, Laetitia; Donachie, Alastair; Mawudeku, Abla; Blench, Michael; Arthur, Ray

2014-01-01

The Early Alerting and Reporting (EAR) project, launched in 2008, is aimed at improving global early alerting and risk assessment and evaluating the feasibility and opportunity of integrating the analysis of biological, chemical, radionuclear (CBRN), and pandemic influenza threats. At a time when no international collaborations existed in the field of event-based surveillance, EAR's innovative approach involved both epidemic intelligence experts and internet-based biosurveillance system providers in the framework of an international collaboration called the Global Health Security Initiative, which involved the ministries of health of the G7 countries and Mexico, the World Health Organization, and the European Commission. The EAR project pooled data from 7 major internet-based biosurveillance systems onto a common portal that was progressively optimized for biological threat detection under the guidance of epidemic intelligence experts from public health institutions in Canada, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The group became the first end users of the EAR portal, constituting a network of analysts working with a common standard operating procedure and risk assessment tools on a rotation basis to constantly screen and assess public information on the web for events that could suggest an intentional release of biological agents. Following the first 2-year pilot phase, the EAR project was tested in its capacity to monitor biological threats, proving that its working model was feasible and demonstrating the high commitment of the countries and international institutions involved. During the testing period, analysts using the EAR platform did not miss intentional events of a biological nature and did not issue false alarms. Through the findings of this initial assessment, this article provides insights into how the field of epidemic intelligence can advance through an

Salivary hormones and anxiety in winners and losers of an international judo competition.

Science.gov (United States)

Papacosta, Elena; Nassis, George P; Gleeson, Michael

2016-01-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate the responses of salivary hormones and salivary secretory immunoglobulin A (SIgA) and anxiety in winners and losers during an international judo competition. Twenty-three trained, male, national-level judo athletes provided three saliva samples during a competition day: morning, in anticipation of competition after an overnight fast, mid-competition, and post-competition within 15 min post-fight for determination of salivary cortisol, salivary testosterone, salivary testosterone/cortisol ratio, SIgA absolute concentrations, SIgA secretion rate and saliva flow rate. The competitive state anxiety inventory questionnaire was completed by the athletes (n = 12) after the first saliva collection for determination of somatic anxiety, cognitive anxiety and self-confidence. Winners were considered 1-3 ranking place (n = 12) and losers (n = 11) below third place in each weight category. Winners presented higher anticipatory salivary cortisol concentrations (p = 0.03) and a lower mid-competition salivary testosterone/cortisol ratio (p = 0.003) compared with losers with no differences for salivary testosterone. Winners tended to have higher SIgA secretion rates (p = 0.07) and higher saliva flow rates (p = 0.009) at mid-competition. Higher levels of cognitive anxiety (p = 0.02) were observed in the winners, without differences according to the outcome in somatic anxiety and self-confidence. The results suggest that winners experienced higher levels of physiological arousal and better psychological preparedness in the morning, and as the competition progressed, the winners were able to control their stress response better.

What Performance Analysts Need to Know About Research Trends in Association Football (2012-2016): A Systematic Review.

Science.gov (United States)

Sarmento, Hugo; Clemente, Filipe Manuel; Araújo, Duarte; Davids, Keith; McRobert, Allistair; Figueiredo, António

2018-04-01

Evolving patterns of match analysis research need to be systematically reviewed regularly since this area of work is burgeoning rapidly and studies can offer new insights to performance analysts if theoretically and coherently organized. The purpose of this paper was to conduct a systematic review of published articles on match analysis in adult male football, identify and organize common research topics, and synthesize the emerging patterns of work between 2012 and 2016, according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. The Web of Science database was searched for relevant published studies using the following keywords: 'football' and 'soccer', each one associated with the terms 'match analysis', 'performance analysis', 'notational analysis', 'game analysis', 'tactical analysis' and 'patterns of play'. Of 483 studies initially identified, 77 were fully reviewed and their outcome measures extracted and analyzed. Results showed that research mainly focused on (1) performance at set pieces, i.e. corner kicks, free kicks, penalty kicks; (2) collective system behaviours, captured by established variables such as team centroid (geometrical centre of a set of players) and team dispersion (quantification of how far players are apart), as well as tendencies for team communication (establishing networks based on passing sequences), sequential patterns (predicting future passing sequences), and group outcomes (relationships between match-related statistics and final match scores); and (3) activity profile of players, i.e. playing roles, effects of fatigue, substitutions during matches, and the effects of environmental constraints on performance, such as heat and altitude. From the previous review, novel variables were identified that require new measurement techniques. It is evident that the complexity engendered during performance in competitive soccer requires an integrated approach that considers multiple aspects. A

EDITORIAL: Physics competitions Physics competitions

Science.gov (United States)

Jordens, H.; Mathelitsch, L.

2011-07-01

International tests on competences, such as TIMSS or PISA, and knowledge of young students have revealed low average scores in many countries, often unexpectedly. One effective measure to increase the average standard of a population is to bring the last third of the group to a higher level. Therefore, many nations put some effort into this activity. This brings the danger that not enough attention is paid to students at the other end, those who are talented. Indeed, it is a very difficult task for a teacher to support the less able and at the same time challenge the gifted students, to lead them to the limits of their abilities and provide for a smooth transition to university study. Physics competitions have been proven to fulfil these last demands to a large degree, and therefore are an important additional and, to some extent, complementary tool for the promotion of talented students. This third special section on physics competitions in European Journal of Physics contains three papers, each dealing with a different form of science contest. The first continues the series of presentations of tasks performed at the International Young Physicists' Tournament, which was held in Vienna in 2011. First place went to the team from Singapore, and they have put their investigation on vertical oscillations of coupled magnets into written form (not required by the tournament, where an oral presentation and a defence and discussion are the central aspects). Their paper shows how rich in physics this problem is, and what level of solutions high-school students can already achieve. Sadly, those responsible for the organization of last year's International Physics Olympiad did not provide us with a report on this competition. This is unfortunate, since the Olympiad in Zagreb was very successful and, in particular, the experimental tasks were creative and demanding. Very similar to the aims and the execution of the Physics Olympiad is the International Olympiad on Astronomy

Group-level competition influences urinary steroid hormones among wild red-tailed monkeys, indicating energetic costs.

Science.gov (United States)

Jaeggi, Adrian V; Trumble, Benjamin C; Brown, Michelle

2018-04-10

Various theories emphasize that intergroup competition should affect intragroup cooperation and social relationships, especially if the cost of intergroup competition outweighs that of intragroup competition. This cost of intergroup competition may be quantified by changes in physiological status, such as in the steroid hormones cortisol (C) and testosterone (T), which rise or are depressed during periods of energetic stress, respectively. Here we tested for changes in urinary C and T after intergroup encounters (IGEs) among wild red-tailed monkeys (Cercopithecus ascanius), a species that experiences frequent intergroup feeding competition, at the Ngogo station in Kibale National Park, Uganda. We assayed 108 urine samples, of which 36 were collected after IGEs, from 23 individuals in four social groups. Bayesian multilevel models controlling for various confounds revealed that IGEs increased C and decreased T relative to baseline, consistent with an energetic cost to IGEs. The C change was more apparent in samples collected early after IGEs, suggesting an anticipatory increase, whereas the T change was stronger in later samples, suggesting sustained energetic trade-offs. Hormone responses were not affected by the IGE outcome. This cost to intergroup competition, together with little evidence for intragroup competition in redtails and other guenons, establishes an interesting test case for theories emphasizing the effect of intergroup competition on intragroup cooperation. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Exploring an Age Difference in Preschool Children's Competitiveness Following a Competition.

Science.gov (United States)

Hu, Yu; Zhu, Yi

2018-01-01

Literature suggests that resource acquisition compels competition in young children. However, little is still known about the development of preschool children's competitiveness. In this preliminary study, 166 children (aged 2-4 and 5-6 years) engaged in a dyadic competition which resulted in a winning and a losing group (in a control/non-competition group, participants engaged in a similar task which did not lead to winning/losing outcome), and then experimenters tracked their decisions to compete again with a rival (i.e., an individual they interacted in the previous competition task) and a non-rival competitor (i.e., an anonymous classmate they did not interact in the previous competition task) for a reward, respectively. As expected, results showed an age-related decreasing trend in the percentage of choices to compete with a competitor. However, this age difference was only significant in the control group when participants played with the partner with whom they interacted in the previous game and in the losing group when participants competed with a non-rival competitor. This study contributes to our knowledge of how competitiveness develop in preschool childhood, and calls for further research on the roles of motivation and cognitive control in children's competitiveness.

Novice Shooters With Lower Pre-shooting Alpha Power Have Better Performance During Competition in a Virtual Reality Scenario

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Michael Pereira

2018-04-01

Full Text Available Competition changes the environment for athletes. The difficulty of training for such stressful events can lead to the well-known effect of “choking” under pressure, which prevents athletes from performing at their best level. To study the effect of competition on the human brain, we recorded pilot electroencephalography (EEG data while novice shooters were immersed in a realistic virtual environment representing a shooting range. We found a differential between-subject effect of competition on mu (8–12 Hz oscillatory activity during aiming; compared to training, the more the subject was able to desynchronize his mu rhythm during competition, the better was his shooting performance. Because this differential effect could not be explained by differences in simple measures of the kinematics and muscular activity, nor by the effect of competition or shooting performance per se, we interpret our results as evidence that mu desynchronization has a positive effect on performance during competition.

Changes in perceived stress and recovery in overreached young elite soccer players

NARCIS (Netherlands)

C. Visscher; Koen A.P.M. Lemmink; M.S. Brink; A.J. Coutts

2012-01-01

Abstract: The aim of this study was to prospectively monitor sport-specific performance and assess the stress-recovery balance in overreached (OR) soccer players and controls. During two competitive seasons, 94 players participated in the study. The stress-recovery balance (RESTQ-Sport) and

Competition-colonization trade-offs, competitive uncertainty, and the evolutionary assembly of species.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pradeep Pillai

Full Text Available We utilize a standard competition-colonization metapopulation model in order to study the evolutionary assembly of species. Based on earlier work showing how models assuming strict competitive hierarchies will likely lead to runaway evolution and self-extinction for all species, we adopt a continuous competition function that allows for levels of uncertainty in the outcome of competition. We then, by extending the standard patch-dynamic metapopulation model in order to include evolutionary dynamics, allow for the coevolution of species into stable communities composed of species with distinct limiting similarities. Runaway evolution towards stochastic extinction then becomes a limiting case controlled by the level of competitive uncertainty. We demonstrate how intermediate competitive uncertainty maximizes the equilibrium species richness as well as maximizes the adaptive radiation and self-assembly of species under adaptive dynamics with mutations of non-negligible size. By reconciling competition-colonization tradeoff theory with co-evolutionary dynamics, our results reveal the importance of intermediate levels of competitive uncertainty for the evolutionary assembly of species.

Trabalho, saúde e gênero: estudo comparativo sobre analistas de sistemas Work and health: a gender study on systems analysts

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lys Esther Rocha

2001-12-01

�o Paulo were studied. Data was collected using work ergonomic assessments, individual and group semi-structured interviews and a self-applied questionnaire. Data analysis was based on contingency tables, Chi-square values at 5% level, prevalence rates and ratios, and their 95% confidence intervals. RESULTS: Of the participants, 40.7% were women who on average were younger that the studied men (59.6% of women and 39% of men were in the age range 25 to 34. Though fatherhood was more frequently seen among men (57.6% x 34.2% for women, women spent more time with household tasks, including children care. There were more men in leading management positions. Work-related discomfort factors were seen in both sexes at similar frequencies. Men most commonly complained of work overload due to tight deadlines, high degree of responsibility, mental strain, and work complexity. Women more frequently complained of postural discomfort, higher exposure to video display terminal, and obsolete equipment. Women reported more visual, musculoskeletal and stress related symptoms, and higher work dissatisfaction and mental fatigue. CONCLUSIONS: The study suggests that the health impact on female systems analysts is associated with the work demands and the women's social role. There is a need of further studies associating health, work and gender and an assessment of the intersection between the domestic and productive roles.

Romania's Competitiveness and Competitive Position in Global Context

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Valentin NECULITA

2012-08-01

Full Text Available Competitiveness increase has become a primordial framework of the social and economic development strategies of most world countries (mainly the most developed ones over the last decades. The vigorous boost of the contemporary phenomenon of globalization, which has widened the global area of economies, sectors and firms confrontation, has laid an emphasis on their competitiveness importance for their favorable position in the international competition and has therefore force the status to take proper, broad and concerted measures to stimulate the determining factors of action and to take better advantage of their effects. The purpose of the paper is to determine whether an increase in competitiveness could reduce the disparities between regions. The E.U. Member States and regions need significant financial help to solve various structural problems and to achieve their potential of growth. Romania is no exception, one of the main problems being the low rate in attracting European funds.

The GIS and data solution for advanced business analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Carmen RADUT

2009-12-01

Full Text Available The GIS Business Analyst is a suite of Geographic Information System (GIS-enabled tools, wizards, and data that provides business professionals with a complete solution for site evaluation, selective customer profiling, and trade area market analysis. Running simple reports, mapping the results, and performing complex probability models are among the capabilities The GIS Business Analyst offers in one affordable desktop analysis solution. Data and analyses produced by The GIS Business Analyst can be shared across departments, reducing redundant research and marketing efforts, speeding analysis of results, and increasing employee efficiency. The GIS Business Analyst is the first suite of tools for unlocking the intelligence of geography, demographic, consumer lifestyle, and business data. It is a valuable asset for business decision making such as analyzing market share and competition, determining new site expansions or reductions, and targeting new customers. The ability to analyze and visualize the geographic component of business data reveals trends, patterns, and opportunities hidden in tabular data. By combining information, such as sales data of the organization, customer information, and competitor locations, with geographic data, such as demographics, territories, or store locations, the GIS Business Analyst helps the user better understand organization market, organization customers, and organization competition. The business intelligence systems bring geographic information systems, marketing analysis tools, and demographic data products together to offer the user powerful ways to compete in today's business strategies.

Diversifying evolution of competitiveness.

Science.gov (United States)

Baldauf, Sebastian A; Engqvist, Leif; Weissing, Franz J

2014-10-29

In many species, individuals express phenotypic characteristics that enhance their competitiveness, that is, the ability to acquire resources in competition with others. Moreover, the degree of competitiveness varies considerably across individuals and in time. By means of an evolutionary model, we provide an explanation for this finding. We make the assumption that investment into competitiveness enhances the probability to acquire a high-quality resource, but at the same time reduces the ability of exploiting acquired resources with maximal efficiency. The model reveals that under a broad range of conditions competitiveness either converges to a polymorphic state, where individuals differing in competitive ability stably coexist, or is subject to perpetual transitions between periods of high and low competitiveness. The dynamics becomes even more complex if females can evolve preferences for (or against) competitive males. In extreme cases, such preferences can even drive the population to extinction.

Managing Multiple Sources of Competitive Advantage in a Complex Competitive Environment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alexandre Howard Henry Lapersonne

2013-12-01

Full Text Available The aim of this article is to review the literature on the topic of sustained and temporary competitive advantage creation, specifically in dynamic markets, and to propose further research possibilities. After having analyzed the main trends and scholars’ works on the subject, it was concluded that a firm which has been experiencing erosion of its core sources of economic rent generation, should have diversified its strategy portfolio in a search for new sources of competitive advantage, ones that could compensate for the decline of profits provoked by intensive competitive environments. This review concludes with the hypothesis that firms, who have decided to enter and manage multiple competitive environments, should have developed a multiple strategies framework approach. The management of this source of competitive advantage portfolio should have allowed persistence of a firm’s superior economic performance through the management of diverse temporary advantages lifecycle and through a resilient effect, where a very successful source of competitive advantage compensates the ones that have been eroded. Additionally, the review indicates that economies of emerging countries, such as the ones from the BRIC block, should present a more complex competitive environment due to their historical nature of cultural diversity, social contrasts and frequent economic disruption, and also because of recent institutional normalization that has turned the market into hypercompetition. Consequently, the study of complex competition should be appropriate in such environments.

Crop–weed competition

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Gallandt, Eric R.; Weiner, Jacob

2015-01-01

importantly, weed density and time of emergence relative to the crop. Practices that (1) reduce the density of weeds, (2) maximise occupation of space or uptake of resources by the crop or (3) establish an early-season size advantage of the crop over the weeds will minimise the competitive effects of weeds...... on crops. Longer term management of crop–weed competition can be achieved through crop rotations, specifically crop sequences that reduce the weed seed bank, and therefore seedling density, and prevent proliferation of perennial weeds. Key ConceptsKey Concepts * Plant growth requires sunlight, water...... an early-season competitive advantage to the crop and (3) maximising resource capture by the crop using competitive species, competitive cultivars, high sowing densities, optimal spatial arrangement, intercropping complimentary species or transplanting....

A Conceptual Mapping Resource Advantage Theory, Competitive Advantage Theory, and Transient Competitive Advantage

OpenAIRE

Jasanta PERANGINANGIN

2015-01-01

Competitive advantage is the main purposed of the business entity focusing on market base view. Resource advantage theorists put their concern to empowering resources development with resources based view, in the other side needs to redefining competitive advantage. All the competitive advantage are transient, concluded the end of competitive advantage. Redefining competitive advantage by selling migration and shrewdness outward. This research to emphasize innovation capability rarely appears...

ON THE ANALYST'S IDENTIFICATION WITH THE PATIENT: THE CASE OF J.-B. PONTALIS AND G. PEREC.

Science.gov (United States)

Schwartz, Henry P

2016-01-01

The writer Georges Perec was in psychoanalysis with Jean-Bertrand Pontalis for four years in the early 1970s. In this essay, the author presents the exceptional interest this analyst took in this patient and the ways in which that interest manifested itself in his work, psychoanalytic and otherwise. Many correlative factors suggest that identificatory processes persisted beyond the treatment and were maintained into Pontalis's later life. While this paper is primarily intended to provide evidence to support this view of a specific case, the author closes by reflecting that this may be a more general phenomenon and the reasons for this. © 2016 The Psychoanalytic Quarterly, Inc.

Application of photoelasticity to study stress in component of the fuel element of nuclear reator

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Diniz, S.M.C.

1987-11-01

The fuel assembly, in the core of the nuclear reactor, is submitted to a system of forces (weight, buoyancy and hydraulic lift-up) with a resultant oriented in the direction of the coolant flow. To assure the assembly stability, under all operation conditions of the nuclear reactor, a holding-down device composed of four leaf springs is used. The safe/operation of the reactor depends on the capacity of such springs to support the maximum loads applied on them. The strictly mathematical methods for stress analysis of these springs are very complex, due to several factors such as: tri-dimensional geometry, changing loading, plastic strains and stress concentration. The stress analysis of these springs was performed using the photoelastic method. This technique has been proved to be adequate to the leaf spring analysis. In order to permit the evaluation of the potentialities of the employed method the Photoelasticity is decribed in its multiples purposes; that is, two-dimensional problems, stress frozen technique and reflection photoelasticity. The results obtained certify the role of the Photoelasticity, as a powerfull tool to the stress analyst and to the nuclear industry as well. (author) [pt

Robotics Competitions: An Overview of First© Events and VEX© Competitions

Science.gov (United States)

Habib, Maria A.

2012-01-01

Robotics competitions generate excitement and raise the profile of a robotics program. This article provides an overview of robotics competitions, concentrating on those sponsored by FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) and RECF (Robotics Education and Competition Foundation). FIRST® LEGO® League and VEX® robotics…

Changes in perceived stress and recovery in overreached young elite soccer players

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Brink, Michel; Visscher, Chris; Coutts, A.J.; Lemmink, Koen

2012-01-01

The aim of this study was to prospectively monitor sport-specific performance and assess the stress-recovery balance in overreached (OR) soccer players and controls. During two competitive seasons, 94 players participated in the study. The stress-recovery balance (RESTQ-Sport) and sport-specific

Anti- versus Pro-Competitive Mergers

OpenAIRE

Fridolfsson, Sven-Olof

2007-01-01

In a framework where mergers are mutually excluding, I show that firms pursue anti- rather than (alternative) pro-competitive mergers. Potential outsiders to anti-competitive mergers refrain from pursuing pro-competitive mergers if the positive externalities from anti-competitive mergers are strong enough. Potential outsiders to pro-competitive mergers pursue anti-competitive mergers if the negative externalities from the pro-competitive mergers are strong enough. Potential participants in an...

Approximate kernel competitive learning.

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, Jian-Sheng; Zheng, Wei-Shi; Lai, Jian-Huang

2015-03-01

Kernel competitive learning has been successfully used to achieve robust clustering. However, kernel competitive learning (KCL) is not scalable for large scale data processing, because (1) it has to calculate and store the full kernel matrix that is too large to be calculated and kept in the memory and (2) it cannot be computed in parallel. In this paper we develop a framework of approximate kernel competitive learning for processing large scale dataset. The proposed framework consists of two parts. First, it derives an approximate kernel competitive learning (AKCL), which learns kernel competitive learning in a subspace via sampling. We provide solid theoretical analysis on why the proposed approximation modelling would work for kernel competitive learning, and furthermore, we show that the computational complexity of AKCL is largely reduced. Second, we propose a pseudo-parallelled approximate kernel competitive learning (PAKCL) based on a set-based kernel competitive learning strategy, which overcomes the obstacle of using parallel programming in kernel competitive learning and significantly accelerates the approximate kernel competitive learning for large scale clustering. The empirical evaluation on publicly available datasets shows that the proposed AKCL and PAKCL can perform comparably as KCL, with a large reduction on computational cost. Also, the proposed methods achieve more effective clustering performance in terms of clustering precision against related approximate clustering approaches. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Stress among Malaysian Academics: A Conceptual Study

OpenAIRE

Zafir Mohd Makhbul; Sheikh Muhamad Hizam Sheikh Khairuddin

2013-01-01

Academic stress had been prevalent in universities all around the world. This shows that the academic environment no longer provides the low-stress working environment that the academician once enjoyed. Rapid development, global competition, technology and changes in the nature of jobs today could make the job more demanding than ever, and workers are more prone to injuries and illnesses. Stressors such as work relationship, work-life balance, job overload, job control, job security, pay and ...

Coal competitiveness?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rogeaux, B.

2006-01-01

Will coal electrical plants be more competitive in the coming years? Answering this one cannot be limited to merely comparing estimates based on reference electricity production costs. The competitiveness of coal will indeed depend on the final product marketed, as the MWhs are not equal: is the purpose to produce base, half-base MWh? Does the electrical equipment structure require flexible MWh (for instance in the event of significant intermittent renewable energy amounts), and therefore plants able to adjust their power rapidly? But the competitiveness of coal will also depend on many factors that will correct reference cost estimates: uncertainties, risks, externalities. These factors will need to be appreciated on a case by case basis. We introduce some of the reasoning used to better appreciate the future competitiveness of coal, and the main factors conditioning it in three contrasting regions of the world: Europe, USA, china. (author)

Influence of training and competitive sessions on peripheral β-endorphin levels in training show jumping horses.

Science.gov (United States)

Cravana, Cristina; Medica, P; Ragonese, G; Fazio, E

2017-01-01

To investigate the effects of training sessions on circulating β-endorphin changes in sport horses before and after competition and to ascertain whether competition would affect this response. A total of 24 trained jumping horses were randomly assigned to one of two training groups: Group A (competing) and Group B (not competing). To determined plasma β-endorphin concentrations, two pre- and post-competition training weeks at aerobic workout and two competitive show jumping event days at anaerobic workout were measured before, 5 and 30 min after exercise. Exercise intensity is described using lactate concentrations and heart rate. The circuit design, intensity, and duration of training sessions were the same for both groups. In Group A, one-way analysis of variance for repeated measures (RM-ANOVA) showed significant effects of exercise on β-endorphin changes (F=14.41; prelease of β-endorphin and it may depend on the duration of the exercise program. Moreover, the responses during exercise in the course of post-competition training sessions seem to be significantly different from those the pre-competition training. These data show that the preliminary competitive stress induced additional significant changes of β-endorphin pattern. It would reflect the need of a long-lasting modulation of fatigue and pain perception related to the effect of an additional physical and mental effort for the consecutive competitive and training sessions.

GLOBAL COMPETITION AND ROMANIA’S NATIONAL COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pop Nicolae Alexandru

2013-07-01

Full Text Available Analyzing products and services around us it is clear that most of them are the result of production factors, labor and capital becoming more international and increasingly less and less national. We are witnessing the globalization of markets and production, to a large global integration and interdependence, increase personalization of production and services as a result of new communication systems interaction and flexible production processes. Markets will continue to homogenize and diversify at the same time, so it is important that as a global marketer one addresses a market segment defined by income, age, and consumption habits and not by membership of a nation. The most visible and polarized is the premium segment fighting for high income clients where brand value plays an important role. Instead identification of large segments of customers offers the advantages of scale economy in production and marketing for global enterprises. Consumer profile is the dominant global consumer requesting and accepting global products and services easily. In fact, what can force an economic alignment to achieve the best performance, rather than the global consumer. The research methodology used includes literature review, comparative analysis, synthesis of data based on bibliographic resources and official documents.The aim of the paper is to highlight current models that underlie the competitive advantage of nations and assess the competitive advantage of Romania in the context of the global market. A case study is used to offer an overview of competitive advantage of Antibiotice Iasi SA, a competitive player, in a global pharmaceutical market with strong global competition. Countries moderate companies’ achievements of global efficiency objectives due to the countries’ rivalry. Romania has to understand that it is in competition with other countries in order to fulfill economic, political and social objectives. The scope in the end is the well

Exploring an Age Difference in Preschool Children’s Competitiveness Following a Competition

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yu Hu

2018-03-01

Full Text Available Literature suggests that resource acquisition compels competition in young children. However, little is still known about the development of preschool children’s competitiveness. In this preliminary study, 166 children (aged 2–4 and 5–6 years engaged in a dyadic competition which resulted in a winning and a losing group (in a control/non-competition group, participants engaged in a similar task which did not lead to winning/losing outcome, and then experimenters tracked their decisions to compete again with a rival (i.e., an individual they interacted in the previous competition task and a non-rival competitor (i.e., an anonymous classmate they did not interact in the previous competition task for a reward, respectively. As expected, results showed an age-related decreasing trend in the percentage of choices to compete with a competitor. However, this age difference was only significant in the control group when participants played with the partner with whom they interacted in the previous game and in the losing group when participants competed with a non-rival competitor. This study contributes to our knowledge of how competitiveness develop in preschool childhood, and calls for further research on the roles of motivation and cognitive control in children’s competitiveness.

Exploring an Age Difference in Preschool Children’s Competitiveness Following a Competition

Science.gov (United States)

Hu, Yu; Zhu, Yi

2018-01-01

Literature suggests that resource acquisition compels competition in young children. However, little is still known about the development of preschool children’s competitiveness. In this preliminary study, 166 children (aged 2–4 and 5–6 years) engaged in a dyadic competition which resulted in a winning and a losing group (in a control/non-competition group, participants engaged in a similar task which did not lead to winning/losing outcome), and then experimenters tracked their decisions to compete again with a rival (i.e., an individual they interacted in the previous competition task) and a non-rival competitor (i.e., an anonymous classmate they did not interact in the previous competition task) for a reward, respectively. As expected, results showed an age-related decreasing trend in the percentage of choices to compete with a competitor. However, this age difference was only significant in the control group when participants played with the partner with whom they interacted in the previous game and in the losing group when participants competed with a non-rival competitor. This study contributes to our knowledge of how competitiveness develop in preschool childhood, and calls for further research on the roles of motivation and cognitive control in children’s competitiveness. PMID:29593610

Behavior Analysts to the Front! A 15-Step Tutorial on Public Speaking.

Science.gov (United States)

Friman, Patrick C

2014-10-01

Mainstream prominence was Skinner's vision for behavior analysis. Unfortunately, it remains elusive, even as we approach the 110th anniversary of his birth. It can be achieved, however, and there are many routes. One that seems overlooked in many (most?) behavior analytic training programs is what I call the front of the room. The front of the room is a very powerful locus for influencing people. Mastering it can turn a commoner into a king; a middling man into a mayor; or a group of disorganized, dispirited people into an energized force marching into battle. The most powerful members of our species had their most memorable moments at the front of the room. If so much is available there, why is mastery of it in such short supply, not just in behavior analysts but in the population at large? In this paper, I address why, argue that the primary reason can be overcome, and supply 15 behaviorally based steps to take in pursuit of front of the room mastery.

FIRST 2002, 2003, 2004 Robotics Competition(s)

Science.gov (United States)

Purman, Richard

2004-01-01

The New Horizons Regional Education Center (NHREC) in Hampton, VA sought and received NASA funding to support its participation in the 2002, 2003, and 2004 FIRST Robotics Competitions. FIRST, Inc. (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) is an organization which encourages the application of creative science, math, and computer science principles to solve real-world engineering problems. The FIRST competition is an international engineering contest featuring high school, government, and business partnerships.

Teleconsultation in school settings: linking classroom teachers and behavior analysts through web-based technology.

Science.gov (United States)

Frieder, Jessica E; Peterson, Stephanie M; Woodward, Judy; Crane, Jaelee; Garner, Marlane

2009-01-01

This paper describes a technically driven, collaborative approach to assessing the function of problem behavior using web-based technology. A case example is provided to illustrate the process used in this pilot project. A school team conducted a functional analysis with a child who demonstrated challenging behaviors in a preschool setting. Behavior analysts at a university setting provided the school team with initial workshop trainings, on-site visits, e-mail and phone communication, as well as live web-based feedback on functional analysis sessions. The school personnel implemented the functional analysis with high fidelity and scored the data reliably. Outcomes of the project suggest that there is great potential for collaboration via the use of web-based technologies for ongoing assessment and development of effective interventions. However, an empirical evaluation of this model should be conducted before wide-scale adoption is recommended.

Competition policy and environmental protection, obstacles to competition in the waste sector

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Alanen, J.; Marttinen, K.; Steiner, N.

2000-08-01

This study deals with the legal rules that affect the conditions of competition in the waste sector at both the EU level and national level in Finland. This study describes further, on a more general level, the relation between the EC's internal market rules and competition rules and the actions involving environmental protection taken by public authorities (EG, Member States) and enterprises. Hazardous waste is not studied in this report. The study comprises two parts: The first part deals with the free movement of waste, EG rules on the transportation of waste between Member States, and the specific EG rules and Finnish laws and regulations on waste. The aim of this study has been, on the one hand, to discuss cases where restrictions of competition in the waste sector are a direct consequence of EG rules on waste and, on the other hand, situations where EG rules or the large margin of manoeuvre left with the Member States create problems with a view to a well functioning competition at the national level. Part two deals with the application of EG rules and Finnish competition rules to companies' agreements on actions involving environmental protection and especially waste management, and to their operations in general and, in certain cases, also to the measures taken by Member States. The EG rules on waste do not pay enough attention to competition aspects. The different requirements set by Member States result in distortion of competition while the rules governing the shipments of waste are not effective enough. From the internal market point of view, more binding and detailed rules are motivated. Competition rules are fully applicable to enterprises' measures aimed at environmental protection that restrict competition. Environmental protection aspects in connection with a case-to-case consideration of interests is, however, gaining importance. Those restrictions of competition in the waste sector that EC has dealt with have without exception concerned the

Complexity Analysis of Industrial Organizations Based on a Perspective of Systems Engineering Analysts

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

I. H. Garbie

2011-12-01

Full Text Available Complexity in industrial organizations became more difficult and complex to be solved and it needs more attention from academicians and technicians. For these reasons, complexity in industrial organizations represents a new challenge in the next decades. Until now, analysis of industrial organizations complexity is still remaining a research topic of immense international interest and they require reduction in their complexity. In this paper, analysis of complexity in industrial organizations is shown based on the perspective of systems engineering analyst. In this perspective, analysis of complexity was divided into different levels and these levels were defined as complexity levels. A framework of analyzing these levels was proposed and suggested based on the complexity in industrial organizations. This analysis was divided into four main issues: industrial system vision, industrial system structure, industrial system operating, and industrial system evaluating. This analysis shows that the complexity of industrial organizations is still an ill-structured and a multi-dimensional problem.

PSYCHOLOGICAL PREPARATION OF COMPETITIVE JUDOKAS - A REVIEW

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gal Ziv

2013-09-01

Full Text Available The purpose of this article was to review a series of studies (n = 18 on psychological preparation of competitive judokas. These studies were grouped according to the type of study performed - observational, experimental, and case studies. In addition, five psychological categories were identified: (a imagery, (b motivation, (c stress, anxiety, and mood states, (d eating attitudes and weight control, and (e coach/athlete interactions. The main findings of this review are that (a there is a lack of data regarding the use of imagery to improve judo performance; (b goal involvement states of competitive judokas fluctuate and undergo abrupt changes during actual combat, according to the ecological constraints of the situation; (c cortisol levels and somatic and cognitive anxiety tend to increase prior to and during a judo combat; (d weight reduction programs that judokas undergo prior to a judo combat can lead to unpleasant moods, and cultural differences can lead to conflicting results; (e psychological preparation plans should be tailored to each individual judoka, as there can be significant individual differences among the judokas. Based on the findings of our review, a number of research limitations and methodological concerns are discussed

Competition Policies in Emerging Economies : Lessons and ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

30 juil. 2008 ... Il s'adresse principalement aux décideurs et aux analystes des politiques en matière de commerce et d'économie internationale, et intéressera également les chercheurs, les universitaires, les étudiants et les spécialistes dans les domaines de l'économie institutionnelle, de l'économie du développement, ...

Training the next generation analyst using red cell analytics

Science.gov (United States)

Graham, Meghan N.; Graham, Jacob L.

2016-05-01

We have seen significant change in the study and practice of human reasoning in recent years from both a theoretical and methodological perspective. Ubiquitous communication coupled with advances in computing and a plethora of analytic support tools have created a push for instantaneous reporting and analysis. This notion is particularly prevalent in law enforcement, emergency services and the intelligence community (IC), where commanders (and their civilian leadership) expect not only a birds' eye view of operations as they occur, but a play-by-play analysis of operational effectiveness. This paper explores the use of Red Cell Analytics (RCA) as pedagogy to train the next-gen analyst. A group of Penn State students in the College of Information Sciences and Technology at the University Park campus of The Pennsylvania State University have been practicing Red Team Analysis since 2008. RCA draws heavily from the military application of the same concept, except student RCA problems are typically on non-military in nature. RCA students utilize a suite of analytic tools and methods to explore and develop red-cell tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs), and apply their tradecraft across a broad threat spectrum, from student-life issues to threats to national security. The strength of RCA is not always realized by the solution but by the exploration of the analytic pathway. This paper describes the concept and use of red cell analytics to teach and promote the use of structured analytic techniques, analytic writing and critical thinking in the area of security and risk and intelligence training.

Theoretical aspects of competitive advantage and competition

OpenAIRE

Hudakova, Ivana

2009-01-01

The concept of competitive advantage is well-known for many of us and a number of literary resources focused on entrepreneurship and functioning of economies deal with it, either directly or indirectly. The understanding of the term competitive advantage though sometimes varies. One can only perceive it when looking at it as a whole, a live organism that is constantly developing in a complex dynamic entrepreneurial environment, the individual parts of which do not function when separated from...

Ireland's Competitiveness Challenge 2011

OpenAIRE

2012-01-01

The NCC publishes two annual competitiveness reports. Ireland's Competitiveness Challenge focuses on the national competitiveness issues of most importance to the enterprise sector and identifies policy recommendations required to address these issues. The report focuses on pursuing policies to improve competitiveness, particularly those to reduce the cost base for enterprise, to enhance the performance of the entire education system, and to deliver meaningful public sector reform. Ireland's ...

Analyzing Sustainable Competitive Advantage: Strategically Managing Resource Allocations to Achieve Operational Competitiveness

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Abdul Malek Nurul Aida

2015-12-01

Full Text Available In today’s dynamic business environment, a key challenge for all companies is to make adaptive adjustments to their manufacturing strategy. This study demonstrates the competitive priorities of manufacturing strategy in hydro-power case company to evaluate the level of sustainable competitive advantage and also to further analyze how business strategies are aligned with manufacturing strategies. This research is based on new holistic analytical evaluation of manufacturing strategy index, sense and respond, and sustainable competitive advantage models. These models help to describe, evaluate, and optimize resource allocation to meet the performance requirements in dynamic decision making. Furthermore, these models evaluate operational competitiveness for manufacturing strategies according to the multi-criteria priority. The results show that the adjustments of competitive priorities in manufacturing strategies by implementing the proposed holistic analytical models are helpful in strategically managing business operations. The discussion derives the most critical attributes in business operations while alignment of resource allocation with competitive priorities help to strategically focus those attributes. In conclusion, we argue that resource allocation and manufacturing strategies have become the most important capabilities in a business environment where companies focus to get a sustainable competitive advantage.

Competitive differentiation through brand extensions in the era of hyper competition

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Claudiu-Catalin Munteanu

2015-03-01

Full Text Available In the era of hyper competition, competitive differentiation has become increasingly important. Brand extensions are used by companies across various industries for competitive differentiation. But in the era of hyper competition, a successful differentiation strategy requires that a brand emphasizes on uniqueness rather than commoditization. In this article, we make a case for creating a meaningful differentiation strategy. We emphasize the role of brand extensions for competitive differentiation and highlight the main perils of using brand extensions as a primary differentiation strategy. By using qualitative research, we identify primary objectives for brand extensions in practice. This investigation uses in-depth interviews with 14 senior brand managers across various industries to highlight brand portfolio strategies in relation to the brand differentiation strategy. Findings reveal that for business at the base of the pyramid, in markets such as Romania, brand managers are using brand extensions to increase sales or to boost short-term revenue rather than to implement a coherent differentiation strategy. We conclude with multiple recommendations for improving brand extension usage as a strategic instrument for creating meaningful differentiation in the era of hyper competition.

Getting Competitive: Competitive Intelligence Is a Smart next Step for Information Pros

Science.gov (United States)

Correia, Cynthia Cheng

2006-01-01

Competitive Intelligence (CI) has become an attractive concept for Library and Information Science professionals, as information and research functions have become commoditized by end users, and financial, competitive, and performance pressures increase the need to demonstrate value. In the current competitive and cost-cutting environment,…

When does stress help or harm? The effects of stress controllability and subjective stress response on Stroop performance.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Roselinde Kaiser Henderson

2012-06-01

Full Text Available The ability to engage in goal-directed behavior despite exposure to stress is critical to resilience. Questions of how stress can impair or improve behavioral functioning are important in diverse settings, from athletic competitions to academic testing to clinical therapy. Previous research suggests that controllability is a key factor in the impact of stress on behavior: learning how to control stressors buffers people from the negative effects of stress on subsequent cognitively demanding tasks. In addition, research suggests that the impact of stress on cognitive functioning depends on an individual’s response to stressors: moderate responses to stress can lead to improved performance while extreme (high or low responses can lead to impaired performance. The present studies tested the hypothesis that 1 learning to behaviorally control stressors leads to improved performance on a test of general executive functioning, the color-word Stroop, and that 2 this improvement emerges specifically for people who report moderate (subjective responses to stress. Experiment 1: Stroop performance, measured before and after a stress manipulation, was compared across groups of undergraduate participants (n=109. People who learned to control a noise stressor and received accurate performance feedback demonstrated reduced Stroop interference compared with people exposed to uncontrollable noise stress and feedback indicating an exaggerated rate of failure. In the group who learned behavioral control, those who reported moderate levels of stress showed the greatest reduction in Stroop interference. In contrast, in the group exposed to uncontrollable events, self-reported stress failed to predict performance. Experiment 2: In a second sample (n=90, we specifically investigated the role of controllability by keeping the rate of failure feedback constant across groups. In the group who learned behavioral control, those who reported moderate levels of stress

The Competitive Perception

OpenAIRE

Lima, João Tiago

2012-01-01

This paper aims to define what competitive perception is. Using Dufrenne’s phenomenological analysis of the art spectator’s experience, namely the concept of aesthetic perception, I will claim that it is useful to apply this phenomenological approach to the experience of watching sport events. I will argue that the concepts of uncertainty and auto teleology, being two main features in sport competition, are helpful to define competitive perception.

ANALYSIS OF COMPETITION INDUSTRIAL ENTERPRISES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. O. Egorova

2014-01-01

Full Text Available The paper analyzed and systematized the definition of "competition" proposed by domestic and foreign scholars in the field of strategic management, based on these discovered and refined essence of the concept of "competition". We consider the price and non-price competition. Examples are given of the methods of competition used in the practice of industrial activities. Substantiated that the forms and methods of competition must be constantly improved through the search for new competitive advantages.

Competition in energy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Haynes, Warren

1995-01-01

With changes occurring within both the gas and electricity industries and both sectors undergoing simultaneous reforms at the State and national levels it is timely to look at some major aspects of the energy-reform processes in Australia and to attempt to offer some perspectives from the viewpoint of an industry user of energy. From an industry user's viewpoint there is quantifiable evidence that competition in the energy sector will deliver major economic benefits to industry and the nation. The reform process currently in train will increase Australia's international competitiveness. Commonwealth-State collaboration is useful on economic issues which require a national consistent approach. Many significant and complex arrangement apply to the gas and electricity sectors which add to the complexity of the respective reform processes. More competitive arrangements are therefore required more quickly at several stages of the gas-sector reform process, such as in the commercialization of government utilities, resolving the issue of third-party transmission pricing, and the removal of State governments' impediments to competitive trading. The Hilmer Report on National Competition Policy will help deal with some difficult structural and transitional issues, e.g. third-party access, competitive structures, regulatory regimes, and a consistent national approach.(author). 1 fig., 1 photo

Architectural Competition and BIM

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sørensen, Nils Lykke; Frandsen, Anne Kathrine; Øien, Turid Borgestrand

2015-01-01

on architecturalcompetitions, a series of interviews was conducted with building clients as well as architects, focusing on the impact of the above-mentioned changes within the building sector on architectural competitions as an institution. In the interviews, ICT and notleast BIM was a recurring theme that both parties saw...... as having a positive impact on competitions. But when looking closely into the answers, these revealed diverse understandings of how and why the impact of BIM on competitions could be said to be positive. The paper sheds light on the interaction between the actors (building clients, architects and client...... consultants) and the applied technologies (competition forms, ICT tools, directives) in architectural competitions in a theoretical actor-network perspective. The diverging understandings of the role of BIM are demonstrating one of many negotiations in progress in the network of architectural competitions...

Competition, Anxiety, and Depression in the College Classroom: Variations by Student Identity and Field of Study

Science.gov (United States)

Posselt, Julie R.; Lipson, Sarah Ketchen

2016-01-01

In light of rising academic stress and an increase in diagnosed mental illnesses among adolescents and young adults, this article offers the first comprehensive analysis of relationships between perceived competition and depression/anxiety among college students. Analyses were conducted by using clinically validated instruments for depression and…

Quality and Competition

OpenAIRE

Rajiv D. Banker; Inder Khosla; Kingshuk K. Sinha

1998-01-01

In recent years, the practitioner literature in operations management has seen a dramatic surge in articles on quality management. It reflects the increased emphasis on quality by U.S. firms, which has been attributed largely to increased competition faced by them. The question of how quality is influenced by competitive intensity, however, has not received much attention, either in the practitioner or the academic research literatures. The notion of competitive intensity itself has not been ...

Can Competition Keep the Restrooms Clean? Price, Quality and Spatial Competition

OpenAIRE

Pennerstorfer, Dieter

2017-01-01

This article investigates the influence of competition on price and product quality among Austrian camping sites, a market characterized by both horizontal (spatial) and vertical product differentiation. Theoretically, the effect of competition on quality is ambiguous and depends on the degree of cost substitutability between output and quality. Estimating a system of equations shows that intense competition has a positive impact on product quality and a negative effect on prices (conditional...

Competition for Assistance Agreements

Science.gov (United States)

It is EPA policy to promote competition in the award of assistance agreements to the maximum extent practicable.When assistance agreements are awarded competitively, it is EPA policy that the competitive process be fair and open & that no applicant receive

Odczucia triathlonistów przed rywalizacją sportową = The triathletes feeling before sports competitions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Agnieszka Kostyra

2016-09-01

Abstract Triathlon is a combination of three sport disciplines - swimming, cycling and running. As it is known sport achievements are made not only by physical efficiency but also by sportsmen’s psyche. A survey carried out on a group of triathletes, both men and women, was intended to show what are their feelings and how this group deals with stress and other negative emotion they feel before sport competition. There were also shown the observed differences between men’s and women’s feelings.   Keywords: triathlon, stress, psychological training, negative emotions

Behavior analysts in the war on poverty: A review of the use of financial incentives to promote education and employment.

Science.gov (United States)

Holtyn, August F; Jarvis, Brantley P; Silverman, Kenneth

2017-01-01

Poverty is a pervasive risk factor underlying poor health. Many interventions that have sought to reduce health disparities associated with poverty have focused on improving health-related behaviors of low-income adults. Poverty itself could be targeted to improve health, but this approach would require programs that can consistently move poor individuals out of poverty. Governments and other organizations in the United States have tested a diverse range of antipoverty programs, generally on a large scale and in conjunction with welfare reform initiatives. This paper reviews antipoverty programs that used financial incentives to promote education and employment among welfare recipients and other low-income adults. The incentive-based, antipoverty programs had small or no effects on the target behaviors; they were implemented on large scales from the outset, without systematic development and evaluation of their components; and they did not apply principles of operant conditioning that have been shown to determine the effectiveness of incentive or reinforcement interventions. By applying basic principles of operant conditioning, behavior analysts could help address poverty and improve health through development of effective antipoverty programs. This paper describes a potential framework for a behavior-analytic antipoverty program, with the goal of illustrating that behavior analysts could be uniquely suited to make substantial contributions to the war on poverty. © 2017 Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior.

Competition Law and the Nuclear Sector: An EU Outlook

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sousa Ferro, M.

2010-01-01

of nuclear forums has been more detailed.4 Yet, 53 years after the entry into force of the Treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Community (EURATOM Treaty) and the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (EEC Treaty), such basic issues as the extent of the applicability of competition law to the nuclear sector are still disputed. The attempt to understand the precise practical implications of the lex specialis nature of the EURATOM Treaty has led to further controversies concerning, in particular, the reconciliation of opposing primary law objectives. These issues shall be tackled in Sections 2 and 3. Section 4 shall provide an overview of previous market definitions by European competition authorities in the nuclear sector so as to assist legal practitioners in the complex procedure of applying economic principles and methods to determine the extent of a market. This also serves as a list of the types of activities that have already been subject to antitrust scrutiny. Finally, Sections 5 to 8 shall distinguish the precedents that relate, respectively, to anti-competitive agreements, abuse of a dominant position, merger control and state aid. It should be stressed that the national precedents indicated are by no means exhaustive

The relative importance of seed competition, resource competition and perturbations on community structure

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

K. Bohn

2011-05-01

Full Text Available While the regional climate is the primary selection pressure for whether a plant strategy can survive, however, competitive interactions strongly affect the relative abundances of plant strategies within communities. Here, we investigate the relative importance of competition and perturbations on the development of vegetation community structure. To do so, we develop DIVE (Dynamics and Interactions of VEgetation, a simple general model that links plant strategies to their competitive dynamics, using growth and reproduction characteristics that emerge from climatic constraints. The model calculates population dynamics based on establishment, mortality, invasion and exclusion in the presence of different strengths of perturbations, seed and resource competition. The highest levels of diversity were found in simulations without competition as long as mortality is not too high. However, reasonable successional dynamics were only achieved when resource competition is considered. Under high levels of competition, intermediate levels of perturbations were required to obtain coexistence. Since succession and coexistence are observed in plant communities, we conclude that the DIVE model with competition and intermediate levels of perturbation represents an adequate way to model population dynamics. Because of the simplicity and generality of DIVE, it could be used to understand vegetation structure and functioning at the global scale and the response of vegetation to global change.

Can competition reduce quality?

OpenAIRE

Brekke, Kurt; Siciliani, Luigi; Straume, Odd Rune

2017-01-01

In a spatial competition setting there is usually a non-negative relationship between competition and quality. In this paper we offer a novel mechanism whereby competition leads to lower quality. This mechanism relies on two key assumptions, namely that the providers are motivated and risk-averse. We show that the negative relationship between competition and quality is robust to any given number of firms in the market and whether quality and price decisions are simultaneous or sequential. We...

Competition Policy in Malaysia

OpenAIRE

Lee, Cassey

2004-01-01

Malaysia does not have a national competition law. Competition is regulated at the sectoral level in the country. Two economic sectors have legal provisions for competition law but these have been relatively ineffectively enforced. The benefits of Malaysia's industrial policy as well as the policy reforms in regulation and trade have been compromised by the lack of a formal institution to address competition related issues. Hence, the future priority and direction of regulatory reform is obvi...

Competitive strategy : Sorrin Puutarha

OpenAIRE

Haaristo, Emilia

2010-01-01

The thesis handles the fresh food product industry in Finland and especially one company operating in the industry and its competitive position. Sorrin Puutarha manufactures ready-to-use fresh cut salad bag, which is sold in the grocery stores. The objective of the thesis was to find competitive advantages of the case company. Once the competitive advantages were identified the purpose was to choose a fitting competitive strategy that would strengthen those advantages. The field study was con...

Stress fracture and premenstrual syndrome in Japanese adolescent athletes: a cross-sectional study.

Science.gov (United States)

Takeda, Takashi; Imoto, Yoko; Nagasawa, Hiroyo; Takeshita, Atsuko; Shiina, Masami

2016-10-18

To investigate the relationship between the occurrence of stress fracture and premenstrual syndrome (PMS)/premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) in Japanese adolescent athletes. Cross-sectional study. Osaka, Japan. A school-based survey on menstruation and school life was conducted using a sample of 1818 Japanese female students who belonged to two public high schools in Japan. Among them, we recruited 394 athletes who had regular menstrual cycles (25-38 days) and completed a questionnaire about their premenstrual symptoms and their competitive career. Premenstrual symptoms and the occurrence of stress fracture. The prevalences of moderate-to-severe PMS and PMDD were 8.9% and 1.3%, respectively, which were the same as in collegiate athletes in a previous study. Premenstrual symptoms disturbed 'Work efficiency or productivity, home responsibilities', 'Relationships with coworkers or family' and 'Athletic performance in training or competition' more severely than menstrual pain (p=0.031, p=0.004 and p<0.001, respectively). 66 athletes (16.8%) reported having experienced a stress fracture. The severity of 'Overeating or food cravings', 'Physical symptoms' and 'Performance in training or competition' in athletes with previous stress fractures were much higher than in those without a history of stress fractures (p=0.015, p=0.008 and p=0.006, respectively). In terms of premenstrual symptoms, 'Physical symptoms' was associated with an increased risk of stress fractures in athletes (OR 1.66, 95% CI 1.06 to 2.62). The results from this study indicated that premenstrual symptoms may affect athletic performance and has the risk of stress fractures in adolescent athletes. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/.

Talar body fatigue stress fractures: three cases observed in elite female gymnasts

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rossi, F.; Dragoni, S.

2005-01-01

To introduce and emphasize the clinical and radiological findings of three talar body fatigue stress fractures in competitive athletes. Clinical and radiographic skeletal records of 24,562 athletes taken between 1962 and 2002 were retrospectively reviewed. Among these, 6851 files related to acute foot and ankle injuries or chronic post-traumatic sequelae were found. There were 925 (3.76%) stress fatigue fractures selected from the whole collection. Among these there were three cases (0.32%) of talar body stress fractures diagnosed in elite female gymnasts 15 - 17 years old. The negative first radiograph become positive 4-6 weeks later. Scintigraphy was positive at an early stage and consistent for the diagnosis. CT and MRI gave positive results 1-2 weeks after the beginning of symptoms which were always greatly diagnostic. The sports medicine literature lacks reports of talar body fatigue stress fractures. The poor initial sensitivity of radiography makes it problematic to establish an early diagnosis. A wise combination of scintigraphy, CT and MRI has therefore to be relied upon. Familiarity with this rare location for a stress fracture may prevent delayed diagnosis and long-lasting damage, both of which are important factors in competitive athletes. (orig.)

Talar body fatigue stress fractures: three cases observed in elite female gymnasts

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Rossi, F. [National Institute of Sports Medicine of the Italian Olympic Committee, Rome (Italy); Dragoni, S. [National Institute of Sports Medicine of the Italian Olympic Committee, Rome (Italy); Istituto Nazionale di Medicina dello Sport, Rome (Italy)

2005-07-01

To introduce and emphasize the clinical and radiological findings of three talar body fatigue stress fractures in competitive athletes. Clinical and radiographic skeletal records of 24,562 athletes taken between 1962 and 2002 were retrospectively reviewed. Among these, 6851 files related to acute foot and ankle injuries or chronic post-traumatic sequelae were found. There were 925 (3.76%) stress fatigue fractures selected from the whole collection. Among these there were three cases (0.32%) of talar body stress fractures diagnosed in elite female gymnasts 15 - 17 years old. The negative first radiograph become positive 4-6 weeks later. Scintigraphy was positive at an early stage and consistent for the diagnosis. CT and MRI gave positive results 1-2 weeks after the beginning of symptoms which were always greatly diagnostic. The sports medicine literature lacks reports of talar body fatigue stress fractures. The poor initial sensitivity of radiography makes it problematic to establish an early diagnosis. A wise combination of scintigraphy, CT and MRI has therefore to be relied upon. Familiarity with this rare location for a stress fracture may prevent delayed diagnosis and long-lasting damage, both of which are important factors in competitive athletes. (orig.)

Competitive societies are happy if the women are less competitive than the men

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Van de Vliert, E.; Janssen, O.

2002-01-01

Societies are less happy to the extent that their members are more competitive. A 42-nation regression study, based on aggregated indicators of female competitiveness, male competitiveness, four components of happiness, and national development restricts this negative cultural link between overall

Competition Law in Action: Experiences from Developing Countries ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

29 avr. 2007 ... It should also interest practicing lawyers and consultant economists, researchers and policy analysts, as well as civil society organizations and interest group ... La promotion du leadership en matière d'élaboration de politiques économiques dans les États fragiles et dans les États d'après-conflit en Afrique.

The State of Competition and the Competition Regime of Ethiopia ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

The socialist regime's economic policies are further compounding the problems that businesses face. ... This project seeks to investigate the barriers to competition, the potential gaps in Ethiopia's revised competition law (Trade Practices Proclamation), and the possible challenges that ... Bulletin de BRAS - Janvier 2018.

The Competitive Advantages of Retail Enterprises: the Factor and the Result of Competitive Relations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chorna Maryna V.

2018-03-01

Full Text Available The article is aimed at systematization and development of a conceptual-categorical apparatus of the essence of competitive advantages. The approaches to their interpretation have been allocated. The essential characteristics and stages of the life cycle of competitive advantages are considered. As active stages it is suggested to consider the following: formation, implementation, and development. The basic properties of competitive advantages such as dual character have been substantiated and supplemented. Both the factor and the effective nature of competitive advantages are characterized. On the basis of the mentioned approaches together with the identified features, a definition of the concept of «competitive advantages» as economic category has been proposed. Its use as a base along with taking into consideration the functional specificity of trade enterprises has allowed: clarifying the essence of competitive advantages of retail enterprises; suggesting their definition as a factor and as a result of competitive relations. The identification of dual character will increase the possibilities to assess competitive advantages. Prospects for further researches in this direction are connected with allocating of peculiarities and kinds of competitive advantages of retail trade enterprises with the purpose of increasing the of validity of decisions on their formation, implementation, and development.

REGULATION AND ENFORCEMENT OF COMPETITION POLICY

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Liviana Andreea Niminet

2014-12-01

Full Text Available Competition policy starts by shaping a legislative framework. This is aimed to establish boundaries for conducting competition and also sets limits of licit and illicit demarcation, for competitive and anticompetitive practices. The Romanian Competition Law has a divalent approach and it aims to provide specific behavioral conditions in order to stimulate and protect free-market competition, with the ultimate goal of developing a balanced, efficient and competitive economy. Our country’s Competition policy is based on punishing the behavior. There are three such types of anti-competitive behavior, namely: agreements between undertakings, abuse of dominant position and mergers and other concentrations between undertakings. Recent Practice proved that this “enforcement-conduct-punishment” structure is not necessary the best way to address competition and it is high time for authorities to switch both regulation and enforcement of competition from the “classical perspective” towards concepts like “competition advocacy” and “soft power” and give competition policy a new, reshaped face.

PRICES IN COMPETITIVE SYSTEM

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

VADUVA MARIA

2017-08-01

Full Text Available Regularities of competitive market determine rules for determining prices and their dynamics. Orientation prices to competition (competitive pricing is the strategy most frequently used in countries with market economies and especially for exports. Moreover, in an economy dominated by market competition it cannot be ignored without certain risks the prices resulting from competition between products bidders. Companies that use this type of strategy seek to maintain a level of prices linked to that charged by other competitors (or exporting producers generally no longer covering production costs or demand, relying on the assumption that the average market price is a reasonable basis of costs. But the way how practical guidance and reporting to the competition in every price strategy, will be determined by the company's market position, by the available power and enjoyed prestige, objectives and prospects of its market share etc. according to these elements, there may be several versions of pricing strategies oriented to competitors.

Changes in Subjective Sleep Quality Before a Competition and Their Relation to Competitive Anxiety.

Science.gov (United States)

Ehrlenspiel, Felix; Erlacher, Daniel; Ziegler, Matthias

2016-12-09

The aim of this study was to examine the effects of competitions on subjective sleep quality. Previous studies have been inconclusive and lack differentiated and standardized measurements of subjective sleep quality. Furthermore the temporal relation between precompetitive anxiety and sleep quality was investigated. Anxiety and nervousness associated with competitions are considered to cause sleep impairments. A convenience sample of N = 79 elite male athletes from various sports participated. In a time-to-event paradigm, sleep quality and competitive anxiety were assessed via standardized self-report measurements 4 days before a competition and on the day of the competition. Univariate analyses were used to examine differences between time points. To examine cross-lagged effects between anxiety and sleep quality a latent change score model (LCSM) was specified that tested an effect of anxiety on changes in sleep quality. Evaluations of nocturnal sleep deteriorated significantly from 4 days before competition to the day of competition, but there were no differences regarding perceptions of the restorative value of sleep. LCSM revealed that athletes who reported more intense worry symptoms 4 days before competition also reported greater deterioration in evaluations of nocturnal sleep. The findings support earlier reports of impaired subjective sleep quality before competitions. Precompetitive sleep impairments appear also to be preceded by cognitive anxiety. Whereas interventions should thus address worry-cognitions associated with competition and sleep, research should address the practical importance of these perceptions of sleep impairments.

Ginástica rítmica – análise dos fatores competitivos motivadores e estressantes da Seleção Brasileira Juvenil =Rhythmical gymnastics – analysis of competitive, motivating and stress factors of the teenager Brazilian National Football Team

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lenamar Fiorese Vieira

2005-07-01

Full Text Available Este estudo objetivou investigar a trajetória de desenvolvimento das atletas de ginástica rítmica da Seleção Brasileira Juvenil, com foco na identificação dos fatores competitivos (motivadores e estressantes que ocorrem em diferentes fases da carreira esportiva. A população alvo foi de dez atletas. Como instrumentos de medida foramutilizados o Teste de Carga Psíquica de Frester e entrevista semi-estruturada. Para análise utilizou-se estatística descritiva e a análise de conteúdo do tipo categorial. Os resultados demonstraram que na ginástica rítmica o processo de especialização motora das atletas inicia aos 12 anos; os fatores motivadores evidenciados foram o gosto pelo esporte e ser o favorito; os fatores estressantes foram ser prejudicado pelos juizes e falta de tempo para divertimento.Concluindo em uma análise geral, as atletas perceberam o contexto esportivo competitivo como mais estressante do que motivador; esta afirmação acentuou-se a partir da fase de prática motora em que o estresse competitivo para o rendimento se intensificou.This study aimed to investigate the developmental trajectory of the Brazilian Rhythmic Gymnastics Youth Team, focusing on the identification of competitive factors (motivator and stressful thatoccurs in different sport’s career phases. The sample was composed ten athletes. As measure instruments were used the Frester’s Test Psychic Load and a semi-structured interview. The data were analyzed through the descriptive statistics and categorical type of content’s analysis. The results demonstrated that in the rhythmic gymnastics the process of the athletes’ motor specialization begins at 12 years; the motivator factors evidenced were fun for sport and being the favorite; the stressful factors were being harmed by the judges and not time for fun. Concluding in a general analysis the athletes perceived the competitive sporting context as more stressful than motivator; this affirmation

Ireland’s Competitiveness Challenge 2014

OpenAIRE

2014-01-01

Ireland’s Competitiveness Challenge 2014, which is produced under the Action Plan for Jobs 2014, outlines the National Competitiveness Council’s view of the main competitiveness issues confronting the business sector in Ireland over the medium term, and sets out a series of policy responses required to address these challenges. Building on their earlier benchmarking of Irish competitiveness, the Council focus on six major themes in the 2014 report: addressing cost competitiveness; broadening ...

Mid-sized manufacturing companies the new driver of Italian competitiveness

CERN Document Server

Resciniti, Riccardo; Tunisini, Annalisa; Varaldo, Riccardo

2013-01-01

The structure of Italian industry is characterized by a predominance of small sized companies and the presence of very few large companies. For a long time a conviction was shared among scholars and practitioners that the strength and safety of Italian industry were based on its industrial districts, that is, the system of interdependent and co-localized small companies which derive their competitive force from an effective and efficient division of labour. This book stresses the idea that a new, vital and promising phenomenon for the competitiveness of Italian industry is focused on mid-sized companies, and the systems of interconnected firms that form a constituent part of their business model. These companies, which originate largely from districts and other local production systems, are a strong entrepreneurial force complementing the districts that have characterized Italy and made Italian industry famous worldwide. A quantitative and qualitative analysis of these firms is provided in this book. Business...

Corporate competitiveness and sustainability risks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Udo Braendle

2017-12-01

Full Text Available This paper aims at providing a theoretical analysis of the existing research on corporate competition and sustainability risks that occur when companies aspire to reach maximum competitive advantages and gain competitive benefits compared to their rivals. Competitiveness has been described as a multidimensional, theoretical and relative concept linked with the market mechanism. The concept of competitiveness may refer to different levels of aggregation: national, regional, industrial and individual companies. This paper contributes to the theoretical research on corporate competitiveness by the analysis of old and new definitions of this category. It also notes that the sustainability risks connected to competition can be divided into several groups where the authors highlight environmental, legal, financial risks, behaviour risks and state-related risks as the most crucial ones. For companies to be fit for the competitive challenge, the paper identifies main characteristics of such risks and gives policy guidance for their avoidance

A Neural Network Model for the Correlation between Sprinters’ Pre-competition Anxiety and Competition Performance

OpenAIRE

Jiwei Yao; Yongliang Yang; Xiang Xie; Wenxin Xu; Xiushi Ding

2013-01-01

Sprint is an important sporting event in track and field competition, in which, athletes’ pre-competition anxiety will greatly affect them in bringing into play their competence, which will then influence their final performance in the competition. For this reason, to study the correlation between sprinters’ pre-competition anxiety and their competition performance is of great significance in predicting athletes’ performance under difference anxiety state. After having analyzed domestic and f...

COMPETITION: CLASSICAL VERSUS NEOCLASSICAL VIEW

OpenAIRE

Mihaela Cornelia Sandu

2013-01-01

Competition is an important element from economical theory. Over time it has experienced several definitions and classifications much of them being contradictory. In this paper I will make a parallel between classical and neoclassical point of view according to competition. Keywords. Competition; neoclassical theory; classical theory; monopolistic; perfect competition.

The effects of nurse staffing on hospital financial performance: competitive versus less competitive markets.

Science.gov (United States)

Everhart, Damian; Neff, Donna; Al-Amin, Mona; Nogle, June; Weech-Maldonado, Robert

2013-01-01

Hospitals facing financial uncertainty have sought to reduce nurse staffing as a way to increase profitability. However, nurse staffing has been found to be important in terms of quality of patient care and nursing-related outcomes. Nurse staffing can provide a competitive advantage to hospitals and as a result of better financial performance, particularly in more competitive markets. In this study, we build on the Resource-Based View of the Firm to determine the effect of nurse staffing on total profit margin in more competitive and less competitive hospital markets in Florida. By combining a Florida statewide nursing survey with the American Hospital Association Annual Survey and the Area Resource File, three separate multivariate linear regression models were conducted to determine the effect of nurse staffing on financial performance while accounting for market competitiveness. The analysis was limited to acute care hospitals. Nurse staffing levels had a positive association with financial performance (β = 3.3, p = .02) in competitive hospital markets, but no significant association was found in less competitive hospital markets. Hospitals in more competitive hospital markets should reconsider reducing nursing staff, as these cost-cutting measures may be inefficient and negatively affect financial performance.

Un estudio preliminar del fundamento pulsional de la "aptitud de analista" Preliminary study of the instinctual foundation of the "analyst's competence"

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Osvaldo Delgado

2007-12-01

Full Text Available Este trabajo presenta algunas preguntas y desarrollos preliminares surgidos en un recorrido teórico realizado por los textos freudianos del término "aptitud". - Se presentan las referencias a textos anteriores a 1920, aunque se privilegie, en función de los objetivos de la investigación en curso, el ordenamiento y relación de la "aptitud de analista" con los conceptos fundamentales de la segunda tópica freudiana. ¿Se puede elevar el término castellano aptitud y sus originales alemanes al estatuto de un concepto? Finalmente se planteará que la dimensión pulsional del término es lo que permite darle a la "aptitud de analista" un estatuto conceptual, ya que la aptitud como "tauglich" en el advenimiento de un nuevo analista implica una transmutación pulsional específica. La pregunta por cuál es la relación entre lo que porta el carácter y la recomposición de las alteraciones del yo en el período posterior al análisis quedará como orientación para otro trabajo.This work presents some questions and preliminary developments which erased during the theoretical examinations realized on the Freud's texts concerning the term ¨competence¨. The references to the texts earlier than 1920 are given, however, in function of the objectives of the investigation in course, the order and relation of the ¨analyst' s competence¨ to the fundamental concepts of Freud's second topography are favored. Can we give a Spanish term ¨aptitud¨ and its German originals a status of a concept? Final consideration will be that the instinctual dimension of the term is what permits to give it a conceptual status to the ¨analyst's competence¨, since ¨competence¨ as ¨tauglich¨ in making a new analyst implies a specific instinctual transmutation. The question about what is the relation between what makes a character and the reparation of the alteration of ¨I ¨ in the period following the analysis will remain an orientation for further work.

The new competitive intelligence agents: "Programming" competitive intelligence ethics into corporate cultures

OpenAIRE

Betsy Van der Veer Martens; Emilie Steele Giustozzi

2011-01-01

This article examines some of the ethical issues involved in competitive intelligence activities on the Internet. We discuss the importance of an ethical framework for the performance of competitive intelligence, especially the Code of Ethics of SCIP (the leading professional association for strategic and competitive professionals), in the context of today's networked global environment. The virtual borderlines separating national economic and military territories online are becoming increasi...

Defining competitiveness through the theories of new economic geography and regional economy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vuković Darko

2012-01-01

Full Text Available The subject of work is defining competitiveness through a multidisciplinary approach of the theories of new economic geography and regional economy. The paper describes in detail the theory of competitiveness, defined by numerous authors in this area, with special emphasis on the opposing views of Michael Porter and Paul Krugman. A regional competitiveness that is colsely related to economic geography and regional economy, the development of regional economy and typology of regions have been defined in the work. One of the first authors that stressed the importance of geographical location was Michael Porter. In his model called “diamond“, the author emphasizes that geographical concentration of a business enhances the productivity, innovativity and sector export. After this theory, many authors have foccussed on the location problem research, which resulted in better interconnection of economy and geography. As the result of such activities, new directions have been developed, such as the new theory of economic geography and regional economy. New economic geography has been mentioned mostly in connection with the Nobel Prize winner, Paul Krugman, whose theories are often opposed to Porter's ones. Krugman had the most credit for the development of New Economic Geography. At the end of the work, the differences between comparative and competitive adventages were explained. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. 47007, br. 47009 i br. 179015

The interplay of stress and mowing disturbance for the intensity and importance of plant interactions in dry calcareous grasslands.

Science.gov (United States)

Maalouf, Jean-Paul; Le Bagousse-Pinguet, Yoann; Marchand, Lilian; Touzard, Blaise; Michalet, Richard

2012-09-01

There is still debate regarding the direction and strength of plant interactions under intermediate to high levels of stress. Furthermore, little is known on how disturbance may interact with physical stress in unproductive environments, although recent theory and models have shown that this interplay may induce a collapse of plant interactions and diversity. The few studies assessing such questions have considered the intensity of biotic interactions but not their importance, although this latter concept has been shown to be very useful for understanding the role of interactions in plant communities. The objective of this study was to assess the interplay between stress and disturbance for plant interactions in dry calcareous grasslands. A field experiment was set up in the Dordogne, southern France, where the importance and intensity of biotic interactions undergone by four species were measured along a water stress gradient, and with and without mowing disturbance. The importance and intensity of interactions varied in a very similar way along treatments. Under undisturbed conditions, plant interactions switched from competition to neutral with increasing water stress for three of the four species, whereas the fourth species was not subject to any significant biotic interaction along the gradient. Responses to disturbance were more species-specific; for two species, competition disappeared with mowing in the wettest conditions, whereas for the two other species, competition switched to facilitation with mowing. Finally, there were no significant interactions for any species in the disturbed and driest conditions. At very high levels of stress, plant performances become too weak to allow either competition or facilitation and disturbance may accelerate the collapse of interactions in dry conditions. The results suggest that the importance and direction of interactions are more likely to be positively related in stressful environments.

Effects of social stress on heart rate and heart rate variability in growing pigs

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Jong, de I.C.; Sgoifo, A.; Lambooij, E.; Korte, S.M.; Blokhuis, H.J.; Koolhaas, J.M.

2000-01-01

The effects of social stress on heart rate, heart rate variability and the occurrence of cardiac arrhythmias were studied in 12 growing pigs. Social stress was induced during a good competition test with a pen mate, and subsequently during a resident-intruder test with an unacquainted pig in which

Effects of social stress on heart rate and heart rate variability in growing pigs

NARCIS (Netherlands)

de Jong, IC; Sgoifo, A; Lambooij, E; Korte, SM; Blokhuis, HJ; Koolhaas, JM

The effects of social stress on heart rate, heart rate variability and the occurrence of cardiac arrhythmias were studied in 12 growing pigs. Social stress was induced during a good competition test with a pen mate, and subsequently during a resident-intruder test with an unacquainted pig in which

Gender and Competition in Adolescence

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Dreber, Anna; Essen, Emma von; Ranehill, Eva

2013-01-01

We look at gender differences among adolescents in Sweden in preferences for competition, altruism and risk. For competitiveness, we explore two different tasks that differ in associated stereotypes. We find no gender difference in competitiveness when comparing performance under competition...... to that without competition. We further find that boys and girls are equally likely to self-select into competition in a verbal task, but that boys are significantly more likely to choose to compete in a mathematical task. This gender gap diminishes and becomes nonsignificant when we control for actual...... performance, beliefs about relative performance, and risk preferences, or for beliefs only. Girls are also more altruistic and less risk taking than boys....

Is healthy competition healthy? New evidence of the impact of hospital competition.

Science.gov (United States)

Gift, Thomas L; Arnould, Richard; DeBrock, Larry

2002-01-01

Competition among hospitals is commonly regarded as inefficient due to the medical arms race phenomenon, but most evidence for this hypothesis predates the Medicare prospective payment system and preferred provider legislation. Recent studies indicate hospital competition reduces costs and prices, but nearly all such research has focused on California. We add to the body of literature that analyzes the effects of competition in hospital markets. Using data from the state of Washington, we show that hospitals assume more risk in competitive markets by being more likely to accept prospective payment arrangements with insurers. If the arrangement is retrospective, the hospital is more likely to offer a discount as the number of competing hospitals increases. Both findings indicate that competitive forces operate the same in hospital markets as in most others: as the number of competitors increases, prices decrease and market power shifts from the suppliers to purchasers. The medical arms race hypothesis that favors more concentrated hospital markets no longer appears to be valid.

When does stress help or harm? The effects of stress controllability and subjective stress response on stroop performance.

Science.gov (United States)

Henderson, Roselinde K; Snyder, Hannah R; Gupta, Tina; Banich, Marie T

2012-01-01

The ability to engage in goal-directed behavior despite exposure to stress is critical to resilience. Questions of how stress can impair or improve behavioral functioning are important in diverse settings, from athletic competitions to academic testing. Previous research suggests that controllability is a key factor in the impact of stress on behavior: learning how to control stressors buffers people from the negative effects of stress on subsequent cognitively demanding tasks. In addition, research suggests that the impact of stress on cognitive functioning depends on an individual's response to stressors: moderate responses to stress can lead to improved performance while extreme (high or low) responses can lead to impaired performance. The present studies tested the hypothesis that (1) learning to behaviorally control stressors leads to improved performance on a test of general executive functioning, the color-word Stroop, and that (2) this improvement emerges specifically for people who report moderate (subjective) responses to stress. Experiment 1: Stroop performance, measured before and after a stress manipulation, was compared across groups of undergraduate participants (n = 109). People who learned to control a noise stressor and received accurate performance feedback demonstrated reduced Stroop interference compared with people exposed to uncontrollable noise stress and feedback indicating an exaggerated rate of failure. In the group who learned behavioral control, those who reported moderate levels of stress showed the greatest reduction in Stroop interference. In contrast, in the group exposed to uncontrollable events, self-reported stress failed to predict performance. Experiment 2: In a second sample (n = 90), we specifically investigated the role of controllability by keeping the rate of failure feedback constant across groups. In the group who learned behavioral control, those who reported moderate levels of stress showed the greatest Stroop

Current and future competitiveness of bioenergy - Conceptions about competitiveness

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ling, E.; Lundgren, K.; Maartensson, Kjell

1998-01-01

It is important to visualize the conceptions that guide the behaviour of the actors within the energy system to be able to, in an efficient manner, increase the share of renewable energy in the energy mix. A major issue is to elucidate explicit and implicit presumptions within judgements on the competitiveness of bioenergy. This study focuses on how conceptions of bioenergy in the form of patterns of thinking, influence whether bioenergy can become competitive. The aim of the study is to develop a framework that will enable an increased understanding of the competitiveness of bioenergy today and in the future. The conceptions that the actors of the energy system uphold are studied and analysed. The conceptions of the actors are seen as key factors for the understanding of the function of the energy system and accordingly also for the understanding of the competitiveness of bioenergy. The over-all method perspective in the study is an actor approach. The actors' conceptions have been identified from interviews with 30 significant actors within the energy system. The material from the interviews has been synthesised into nine ideal types of actors. These nine 'model actors' are seen as representing the whole material and form the basis for the further analysis of the competitiveness of bioenergy as depending on patterns of thinking called logics. Three idealized logics are developed. The three logics developed in the study are production logic, market logic and socio-economic logic. (Upholders of the logics rank energy sources after production cost, profitability, and socio-economic legitimacy, respectively.) The logics co-exist within the different parts of the energy system. A single person can even uphold more than one logic. The three logics have however different weight in different organisations and in different parts of the energy system. Finally, the study proposes an enlarged description of the competitiveness of bioenergy in three dimensions: price

The Effects of Nurse Staffing on Hospital Financial Performance: Competitive Versus Less Competitive Markets

Science.gov (United States)

Everhart, Damian; Neff, Donna; Al-Amin, Mona; Nogle, June; Weech-Maldonado, Robert

2013-01-01

Background Hospitals facing financial uncertainty have sought to reduce nurse staffing as a way to increase profitability. However, nurse staffing has been found to be important in terms of quality of patient care and nursing related outcomes. Nurse staffing can provide a competitive advantage to hospitals and as a result better financial performance, particularly in more competitive markets Purpose In this study we build on the Resource-Based View of the Firm to determine the effect of nurse staffing on total profit margin in more competitive and less competitive hospital markets in Florida. Methodology/Approach By combining a Florida statewide nursing survey with the American Hospital Association Annual Survey and the Area Resource File, three separate multivariate linear regression models were conducted to determine the effect of nurse staffing on financial performance while accounting for market competitiveness. The analysis was limited to acute care hospitals. Findings Nurse staffing levels had a positive association with financial performance (β=3.3; p=0.02) in competitive hospital markets, but no significant association was found in less competitive hospital markets. Practice Implications Hospitals in more competitive hospital markets should reconsider reducing nursing staff, as these cost cutting measures may be inefficient and negatively affect financial performance. PMID:22543824

Competitive intransitivity promotes species coexistence.

Science.gov (United States)

Laird, Robert A; Schamp, Brandon S

2006-08-01

Using a spatially explicit cellular automaton model with local competition, we investigate the potential for varied levels of competitive intransitivity (i.e., nonhierarchical competition) to promote species coexistence. As predicted, on average, increased levels of intransitivity result in more sustained coexistence within simulated communities, although the outcome of competition also becomes increasingly unpredictable. Interestingly, even a moderate degree of intransitivity within a community can promote coexistence, in terms of both the length of time until the first competitive exclusion and the number of species remaining in the community after 500 simulated generations. These results suggest that modest levels of intransitivity in nature, such as those that are thought to be characteristic of plant communities, can contribute to coexistence and, therefore, community-scale biodiversity. We explore a potential connection between competitive intransitivity and neutral theory, whereby competitive intransitivity may represent an important mechanism for "ecological equivalence."

Heterogeneous logics of competition

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Mossin, Christiane

2015-01-01

of competition are only realized as particular forms of social organization by virtue of interplaying with other kinds of logics, like legal logics. (2) Competition logics enjoy a peculiar status in-between constructedness and givenness; although competition depends on laws and mechanisms of socialization, we...... still experience competition as an expression of spontaneous human activities. On the basis of these perspectives, a study of fundamental rights of EU law, springing from the principle of ‘free movement of people’, is conducted. The first part of the empirical analysis seeks to detect the presence...... of a presumed logic of competition within EU law, whereas the second part focuses on particular legal logics. In this respect, the so-called ‘real link criterion’ (determining the access to transnational social rights for certain groups of unemployed people) is given special attention. What is particularly...

Recent progress in competitive intelligence, competitive technical intelligence and knowledge management

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dou Henri

2011-04-01

Full Text Available This paper discusses the role of competitive intelligence and knowledge management to create, maintain and sustain competitive advantages. The triple helix model, based on the integration of the public sector (government, business models (private corporations and universities to promote innovation is examined. Research trends in competitive intelligence are presented. It concludes that the systematic use of the technology monitoring should support the comparison between various business models of companies that hold the market best practices and form a basis to knowledge for the decision making process and strategies development.

Strategies for Revitalizing Organizations: Regaining the Competitive Edge

Science.gov (United States)

Nysmith, C. Robert

1987-01-01

During the last decade, the United States has lost competitive stature in the world. Challenged daily by a technically sophisticated and vitalized global economy, industry and Government are examining quality and productivity initiatives with which to meet the foreign competitive challenge. At stake are our quality of life and our standard of living for the remainder of this century and beyond. Being competitive is an ongoing process, tuned to an awareness and understanding of the dynamics of the world marketplace and to the changing nature of the work environment. Solutions to America's quality and productivity problems do not exist independently within any organization or industry or at any given level of society. Success depends on commitment, partnership, meshing of goals and responsibilities, mutual respect and understanding, and a desire to be first. A change in organizational management culture is required. Traditional authoritarian management practices must give way to enlightened leadership initiatives that stress employee involvement and participation. There must be a lessening of adversarial relationships between management and labor and between industry and Government. Quality and productivity are understood to be the end result of an integrated process which begins with vigorous, committed leadership and ends with a satisfied customer. The essential elements in the revitalization process are organized in this report into seven strategies which represent the major findings of the Second NASA Symposium on Quality and Productivity. Each strategy is then broken down into its principal themes which are presented as recommendations. No one strategy can stand apart from any other; all are interrelated and work together.

Interaction between stress induced by competition, predation, and an insecticide on the response of aquatic invertebrates

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Brink, Van den Paul J.; Klein, Sylvan L.; Rico, Andreu

2017-01-01

The present study investigated the effects of species interactions like competition and (intraguild) predation on the sensitivity of aquatic organisms to the insecticide chlorpyrifos. In the first experiment, combined effects of chlorpyrifos and different levels of intraspecific and interspecific

Interactive effects of juvenile defoliation, light conditions, and interspecific competition on growth and ectomycorrhizal colonization of Fagus sylvatica and Pinus sylvestris seedlings.

Science.gov (United States)

Trocha, Lidia K; Weiser, Ewa; Robakowski, Piotr

2016-01-01

Seedlings of forest tree species are exposed to a number of abiotic (organ loss or damage, light shortage) and biotic (interspecific competition) stress factors, which may lead to an inhibition of growth and reproduction and, eventually, to plant death. Growth of the host and its mycorrhizal symbiont is often closely linked, and hence, host damage may negatively affect the symbiont. We designed a pot experiment to study the response of light-demanding Pinus sylvestris and shade-tolerant Fagus sylvatica seedlings to a set of abiotic and biotic stresses and subsequent effects on ectomycorrhizal (ECM) root tip colonization, seedling biomass, and leaf nitrogen content. The light regime had a more pronounced effect on ECM colonization than did juvenile damage. The interspecific competition resulted in higher ECM root tip abundance for Pinus, but this effect was insignificant in Fagus. Low light and interspecific competition resulted in lower seedling biomass compared to high light, and the effect of the latter was partially masked by high light. Leaf nitrogen responded differently in Fagus and Pinus when they grew in interspecific competition. Our results indicated that for both light-demanding (Pinus) and shade-tolerant (Fagus) species, the light environment was a major factor affecting seedling growth and ECM root tip abundance. The light conditions favorable for the growth of seedlings may to some extent compensate for the harmful effects of juvenile organ loss or damage and interspecific competition.

Competition Regime

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Danilo Icaza Ortiz

2013-01-01

Full Text Available This paper is a review of the competition regime works of various authors, published under the auspices of the University of the Hemispheres and the Corporation for Studies and Publications. Analyzes the structure, the general concepts, case law taken for development. Includes comments on the usefulness of this work for the study of competition law and the contribution to the lawyers who want to practice in this branch of economic law.

COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE IN THE ENTERPRISE PERFORMANCE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

PRUNEA Ana Daniela

2014-07-01

Full Text Available Rapid changes in market characteristics and the technological innovations are common and faster challenges, resulting in products, processes and technologies. The competitive advantage is volatile, difficult to obtain and more difficult to maintain and strengthened with consumers who through their individual choices polarization confirms the recognition performance and award competitive advantages, thus causing the competitive ranking of companies present in a particular market. The competitive advantage lies in the focus of the performance of companies in competitive markets and innovation is a source for obtaining and consolidating it. Companies will need to demonstrate the capacity to adapt to changes in the business environment so as to maintain the helded positions. This paper treats this aspect behavior that companies should adopt to get on the account of innovation a sustainable competitive advantage. I started of the work in the elaboration from the theory of developed by Michael Porter in his book "Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance" we applied methods listed thus trying to point out possible ways of creating competitive advantage by companies. We have presented the sources of competitive advantage and the factors on which depends its creation. Walking theoretical research revealed how lack of competitive advantage leads to a lack of competitiveness of companies and the benefits that arise with the creation of this type of asset. Among the most important benefits is to increase performances. Once the competitive advantage is achieved, it must be maintained and updated market conditions and the methods that can be created a sustainable competitive advantage represent the answers to many of the companies questions are fighting for survival in an environment of fierce competition. The implementation of methods for obtaining competitive advantages, but also exist dangers, that every company should know them

5 CFR 351.403 - Competitive level.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 5 Administrative Personnel 1 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Competitive level. 351.403 Section 351... FORCE Scope of Competition § 351.403 Competitive level. (a)(1) Each agency shall establish competitive levels consisting of all positions in a competitive area which are in the same grade (or occupational...

Competition in education

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Knudsen, Hanne; Christensen, Søren

Competition in education has two functions: selection and motivation. How do these two functions correlate, contradict or co-exist? How has the educational system reflected on the relation between competition as motivational technology and as a technology for selection? The aim of this paper...... is to formulate the problem of competition in education as a relation between selection and motivation and provide an analytical strategy to grasp this problem. Our ambition is to theorize the problem and give empirical illustrations of how the connection between selection and motivation has been articulated...... in various educational institutions and programs....

5 CFR 351.402 - Competitive area.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 5 Administrative Personnel 1 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Competitive area. 351.402 Section 351.402... Competition § 351.402 Competitive area. (a) Each agency shall establish competitive areas in which employees compete for retention under this part. (b) A competitive area must be defined solely in terms of the...

Interspecific competition changes photosynthetic and oxidative stress response of barley and barnyard grass to elevated CO2 and temperature

OpenAIRE

Irena Januskaitiene; Jūratė Žaltauskaitė; Austra Dikšaitytė; Gintarė Sujetovienė; Diana Miškelytė; Giedrė Kacienė; Sandra Sakalauskienė; Jurga Miliauskienė; Romualdas Juknys

2018-01-01

This work focuses on the investigation of competition interaction between C3 crop barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) and C4 weed barnyard grass (Echinochloa crus-galli L.) at 2 times higher than ambient [CO2] and +4 0C higher ambient temperature climate conditions. It was hypothesized that interspecific competition will change the response of the investigated plants to increased [CO2] and temperature. The obtained results showed that in the current climate conditions, a higher biomass and photosynth...

RESEARCH ON INVESTMENT APPEAL AND COMPETITIVE CAPACITY OF INDUSTRIAL ENTERPRISES OF UKRAINE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Olena Khadzhynova

2017-12-01

Full Text Available The purpose of the research is an elaboration of theoretical, methodological, and methodical approaches to forming and developing competitive capacity and investment appeal of steel industry enterprises. The achievement of the given purpose has led to the necessity of formulating such scientific research concept, which bottom line is in the relevance of using modern management methods implemented in foreign manufacturing practices. These are innovative economic, technical, organizational, and corporate methods of managing enterprises with the help of developed systems of managing strategic changes in enterprise activities, the steel industry in particular, which will contribute to achieving the high level of effectiveness and competitiveness of domestic business units. The research methodology is based on the combination of theories of managing economic systems in the globalized market economy. The empirical base for the research consists of the works by domestic and foreign scientists on problems of formation and development of strategic change management systems at industrial enterprises, statistical records, companies’ public records in the Internet, data of international information agencies, Ukrainian legislation on regulating economic activity of enterprises. In carrying out the research, such methods were used as: general academic analysis and synthesis, systemic generalization, statistic and correlation analysis (when justifying the directions of development before carrying out the economic analysis of activities of metallurgical enterprises. There is a conclusion that the industry is concentrated and, consequently, long-term trends are quite predictable, but they require additional clarifications, taking into consideration the uncertainty in the modern state of world economy. It is determined that metallurgy development depends on GBP. The analysis shows that the countries with the high GDP level have quite developed metallurgy. One

Does increased salinity influence the competitive outcome of two producer species?

Science.gov (United States)

Venâncio, C; Anselmo, E; Soares, A; Lopes, I

2017-02-01

Within the context of global climate changes, it is expected that low-lying coastal freshwater ecosystems will face seawater intrusion with concomitant increase in salinity levels. Increased salinity may provoke disruption of competitive relationships among freshwater species. However, species may be capable of acclimating to salinity, which, in turn, may influence the resilience of ecosystems. Accordingly, this work aimed at assessing the effects of multigenerational exposure to low levels of salinity in the competitive outcome of two species of green microalgae: Raphidocelis subcapitata and Chlorella vulgaris. To attain this, three specific objectives were delineated: (1) compare the toxicity of natural seawater (SW) and NaCl (as a surrogate of SW) to the two microalgae, (2) determine the capacity of the two microalgae species to acclimate to low salinity levels, and (3) assess the influence of exposure to low salinity levels in the competitive outcome of the two microalgae. Results revealed SW to be slightly less toxic than NaCl for the two microalgae. The EC 25,72 h for growth rate was 4.63 and 10.3 mS cm -1 for R. subcapitata and 6.94 and 15.4 mS cm -1 for C. vulgaris, respectively for NaCl and SW. Both algae were capable of acclimating to low levels of salinity, but C. vulgaris seemed to acclimate faster than R. subcapitata. When exposed in competition, under control conditions, the growth rates of C. vulgaris were lower than those of R. subcapitata. However, C. vulgaris was capable of acquiring competitive advantage equaling or surpassing the growth rate of R. subcapitata with the addition of NaCl or SW, respectively. The multigenerational exposure to low levels of salinity influenced the competitive outcome of the two algae both under control and salinity exposure. These results suggest that long-term exposure to low salinity stress can cause shifts in structure of algae communities and, therefore, should not be neglected since algae are at the basis

Heart Rate Variability Discriminates Competitive Levels in Professional Soccer Players.

Science.gov (United States)

Proietti, Riccardo; di Fronso, Selenia; Pereira, Lucas A; Bortoli, Laura; Robazza, Claudio; Nakamura, Fabio Y; Bertollo, Maurizio

2017-06-01

Heart rate variability (HRV) has been increasingly used to monitor team sports athletes. Besides the traditional time domain indices (i.e., the SD of successive RR intervals [SDNN] and the root mean square difference of successive normal RR intervals [RMSSD]), recently the use of the stress score (SS), which is an inverse function of the SD2 index derived from the Poincaré plot, and the sympathetic/parasympathetic ratio (S/PS) to monitor soccer players has been proposed. However, the reliability of these new indices and the ability of HRV to differentiate between soccer competitive levels are unknown. The aim of this study was to analyze the reliability of the different HRV-derived indices in professional soccer players during the competitive period and to compare HRV of professional soccer players from 3 teams of distinct competitive levels (i.e., Italian Second Division [2D], European League [EL], and Champions League [CL]). Fifty-four male professional soccer players from 3 different teams of 2 European countries (Italy and Germany) participated in the study. The intraclass correlation coefficient values of the HRV indices varied from 0.78 (very large) to 0.90 (near perfect). The coefficient of variation (CV) values for RMSSD and SDNN were all soccer players and is able to differentiate between international- and national-level players.

Challenging the other: exploring the role of opponent gender in digital game competition for female players.

Science.gov (United States)

Vermeulen, Lotte; Núñez Castellar, Elena; Van Looy, Jan

2014-05-01

Abstract The present study investigated the effect of opponent gender on the game experience of female players. Concretely, it looked into skill perception and player emotions of women in same gender and cross-gender game competition. We set up a 2×2×2 (male vs. female opponent×low vs. high competitive women×lost vs. won game) experimental design in which women were instructed to play against a proclaimed male and female competitor. Unknowingly, however, participants played against an AI, which was configured to produce a winning and a losing condition for each opponent by manipulating difficulty. Results indicated that opponent gender only had an effect on perceived stress, which was higher with male opponents. Moreover, players evaluated their own gaming skills as lower and the skills of presumed male opponents as higher when they thought they were playing against men. Importantly, our results also showed that the above described pattern for self-perceived skills and perceived opponent skills was modulated by trait competitiveness with a larger effect size for low competitive women. Overall, this study illustrates that gender dynamics affect the play experience of women in cross-gender gaming competition. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Apparent competition and native consumers exacerbate the strong competitive effect of an exotic plant species.

Science.gov (United States)

Orrock, John L; Dutra, Humberto P; Marquis, Robert J; Barber, Nicholas

2015-04-01

Direct and indirect effects can play a key role in invasions, but experiments evaluating both are rare. We examined the roles of direct competition and apparent competition by exotic Amur honeysuckle (Lonicera maackii) by manipulating (1) L. maackii vegetation, (2) presence of L. maackii fruits, and (3) access to plants by small mammals and deer. Direct competition with L. maackii reduced the abundance and richness of native and exotic species, and native consumers significantly reduced the abundance and richness of native species. Although effects of direct competition and consumption were more pervasive, richness of native plants was also reduced through apparent competition, as small-mammal consumers reduced richness only when L. maackii fruits were present. Our experiment reveals the multiple, interactive pathways that affect the success and impact of an invasive exotic plant: exotic plants may directly benefit from reduced attack by native consumers, may directly exert strong competitive effects on native plants, and may also benefit from apparent competition.

Competitive Pressure: Competitive Dynamics as Reactions to Multiple Rivals

OpenAIRE

Zucchini, Leon; Kretschmer, Tobias

2011-01-01

Competitive dynamics research has focused primarily on interactions between dyads of firms. Drawing on the awareness-motivation-capability framework and strategic group theory we extend this by proposing that firms’ actions are influenced by perceived competitive pressure resulting from actions by several rivals. We predict that firms’ action magnitude is influenced by the total number of rival actions accumulating in the market, and that this effect is moderated by strategic group membership...

Escape from Lethal Bacterial Competition through Coupled Activation of Antibiotic Resistance and a Mobilized Subpopulation

Science.gov (United States)

Stubbendieck, Reed M.; Straight, Paul D.

2015-01-01

Bacteria have diverse mechanisms for competition that include biosynthesis of extracellular enzymes and antibiotic metabolites, as well as changes in community physiology, such as biofilm formation or motility. Considered collectively, networks of competitive functions for any organism determine success or failure in competition. How bacteria integrate different mechanisms to optimize competitive fitness is not well studied. Here we study a model competitive interaction between two soil bacteria: Bacillus subtilis and Streptomyces sp. Mg1 (S. Mg1). On an agar surface, colonies of B. subtilis suffer cellular lysis and progressive degradation caused by S. Mg1 cultured at a distance. We identify the lytic and degradative activity (LDA) as linearmycins, which are produced by S. Mg1 and are sufficient to cause lysis of B. subtilis. We obtained B. subtilis mutants spontaneously resistant to LDA (LDAR) that have visibly distinctive morphology and spread across the agar surface. Every LDAR mutant identified had a missense mutation in yfiJK, which encodes a previously uncharacterized two-component signaling system. We confirmed that gain-of-function alleles in yfiJK cause a combination of LDAR, changes in colony morphology, and motility. Downstream of yfiJK are the yfiLMN genes, which encode an ATP-binding cassette transporter. We show that yfiLMN genes are necessary for LDA resistance. The developmental phenotypes of LDAR mutants are genetically separable from LDA resistance, suggesting that the two competitive functions are distinct, but regulated by a single two-component system. Our findings suggest that a subpopulation of B. subtilis activate an array of defensive responses to counter lytic stress imposed by competition. Coordinated regulation of development and antibiotic resistance is a streamlined mechanism to promote competitive fitness of bacteria. PMID:26647299

Oncology Modeling for Fun and Profit! Key Steps for Busy Analysts in Health Technology Assessment.

Science.gov (United States)

Beca, Jaclyn; Husereau, Don; Chan, Kelvin K W; Hawkins, Neil; Hoch, Jeffrey S

2018-01-01

In evaluating new oncology medicines, two common modeling approaches are state transition (e.g., Markov and semi-Markov) and partitioned survival. Partitioned survival models have become more prominent in oncology health technology assessment processes in recent years. Our experience in conducting and evaluating models for economic evaluation has highlighted many important and practical pitfalls. As there is little guidance available on best practices for those who wish to conduct them, we provide guidance in the form of 'Key steps for busy analysts,' who may have very little time and require highly favorable results. Our guidance highlights the continued need for rigorous conduct and transparent reporting of economic evaluations regardless of the modeling approach taken, and the importance of modeling that better reflects reality, which includes better approaches to considering plausibility, estimating relative treatment effects, dealing with post-progression effects, and appropriate characterization of the uncertainty from modeling itself.

Competitiveness and Management of Technology

OpenAIRE

Cheng, Ming Yu

2015-01-01

This paper delves into competition and technology management as a means of economic development. Expanding from Porter's framework on competitiveness and using a novel framework of PTGE（People, Technology, Government and Environment）, this paper argues that three types of competitive advantage could be created. These competitive advantages range from passive to active advantages, i.e. natural advantage, duplicated advantage and niche advantage. Technology and effective management of technolog...

LENIENCY POLICY FOR COMPETITIVE ACTIVITY

OpenAIRE

Ilie Moga

2013-01-01

A market driven economy is inconceivable without competition. In this system, the competition is beneficial firstly for consumers, but also for producers. The former have the ability to satisfy their needs according to taste and financial ability, while the latter are incentivized to innovate and increase efficiency. Competition induces natural selection among companies. This selection must adhere to strictly abiding by competition law regulation, while regulation must benefit both consumers ...

Competitive versus comparative advantage

OpenAIRE

Neary, J. Peter

2002-01-01

I explore the interactions between comparative, competitive and absolute advantage in a two-country model of oligopoly in general equilibrium. Comparative advantage always determines the direction of trade, but both competitive and absolute advantage affect resource allocation, trade patterns and trade volumes. Competitive advantage in the sense of more home firms drives foreign firms out of marginal sectors but also makes some marginal home sectors uncompetitive. Absolute advantage in the se...

COMPETITION AS MARKET MECHANISM

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

N. Ya. Kazhuro

2015-01-01

Full Text Available The essence of a competition as an objective law for development of the commodities production based on private ownership of the means of production and commodity exchange has been revealed in the paper. The paper presents an economic basis of market economy (private ownership which generates a corresponding production objective. Such purpose is a maximization of profit and a minimization of market subject expenses. Therefore, a struggle for the most favourable conditions on commodity production and sales is inevitable in such situation. The struggle is considered in the community with developed market economy as a competition.The competition is regarded not as an exogenic factor exerting its influence on market economic system from the outside, but as an objective phenomenon which is inherent to management market system in itself. Such treatment is substantiated by economic disintegration of individual commodity producers. Being an important engine of market economy, the competition does not establish its laws, and its role is to be an executive of data which are internally inherent in commodity production laws and firstly it concerns a profit maximization law which defines a purpose and guiding motif of economic entities in the given economy.The competition plays a contradictory role under conditions of market economy. On the one hand, it makes manufacturers constantly to aspire to expense reduction for the sake of profit increase. This has resulted in labour productivity increase, production cost decrease and a company receives an opportunity to reduce retail price for its products. Consequently, the competition acts as a potential factor for lowering of prices while increasing production efficiency. On the other hand, sellers have more freedom in price fixing under conditions of imperfect competition as they sell their products under the conditions of a monopolistic competition or an oligopoly. This is the main weakest point of the market

Marketing Aspect of Banking Competition

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nieizviestna Olena V.

2015-03-01

Full Text Available The aim of the article is to study the need for application of marketing tools in order to improve competitiveness and competitive advantages of banks. By analyzing, systematizing and summarizing the scientific works of many scientists, the relationship between the competitiveness of the commercial bank and its share in the banking market has been discovered. In the process of studying the integration of the strategy of maximizing customer satisfaction in the practice of strategic competition in the banking market there was presented the author’s position regarding the need to take into account the structure of the customer loyalty, as it is it that helps to properly distribute the bank’s marketing efforts. It has been proved that the technology of bank marketing should not only include the systems of identifying customer needs, creation of new financial products, but also contribute to the formation of the multi-factor strategic model of competitive strategy of the bank competitive development. It has been proposed to use the SWOT-analysis in order to effectively manage the bank’s competitiveness.

Competition Advocacy: the Italian Experience

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Salvatore Rebecchini

2014-07-01

Full Text Available Competition advocacy is considered, together with enforcement, the core business of an antitrust authority. Broadly speaking there are at least three main tasks regularly performed by most, if not all, antitrust agencies that are amenable to the advocacy function: addressing laws and regulations in order to remove unnecessary impediments to competition; engaging in sector enquiries to understand markets behavior and identify critical issues; explaining the benefits of open competitive markets to the public opinion. This article examines these three main tasks and outlines the challenges for competition agencies, with references to the experience of the Italian Competition Authority (ICA and the initiatives undertaken at international level.

The Effects of Resistance Training on Golf Performance and Physiological Stress Response During Competition in Intercollegiate Golfers

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Doan, Brandon

2002-01-01

...) on clubhead speed, consistency, and putting distance control. 2) To investigate the effects of 36 continuous holes of competitive golf on testosterone and cortisol response and their relation to performance. Study #1...

40 CFR 35.6555 - Competition.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... current and include enough qualified sources to ensure maximum open and free competition. Recipients must... transactions in a manner providing maximum full and open competition. (a) Restrictions on competition... bonding requirements; (3) Noncompetitive pricing practices between firms or between affiliated companies...

Legal Guarantees of Economic Competition in the European Union Public Procurement Regulation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

E. Kosiński

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Purpose: the purpose of this publication is to assess legal guaranties of competition (free competition between contractors in broadly perceived process of granting public procurement, which means not only entering into a contract subject to the specific legal regime, concluded by a public purchaser, or possible private purchaser subordinated to that legal regime, with a contractor (contractors in order to satisfy its demand for certain goods or services, but also a due course of the whole process of granting public procurement, perceived as a sequence of factual and legal actions beginning with the moment of public announcement of a procurement, sending an invitation for submitting offers or sending invitation to negotiate for selection of an offer of a given contractor, up till final fulfilment of all obligations of the parties under the public procurement contract. Methods: the major research method is the dogmatic-legal method, namely an analysis of legal text of different laws. Moreover, there is a critical analysis of scholar literature. The most important in this context is to indicate mutual co-relations between competition and fair competition in area of public procurement system and to point other major principles of the public procurement process, such as non-discrimination rule, transparency, impartiality and objectiveness rule, legality rule, openness, rule of written form, primate of using tender mode (competitive mode, in another words it is a rule of extraordinary application of non-competitive modes or primate of granting public procurement in a tender mode. All of those rules constitute together components of the guarantee of genuine competition within the whole process of granting a public procurement. It must be stressed that the literature in the area of research in not really rich. This is accurate in terms of Polish literature and EU literature, too. Results. Conclusions and relevance: results of the research are such

Public healthcare interests require strict competition enforcement.

Science.gov (United States)

Loozen, Edith M H

2015-07-01

Several countries have introduced competition in their health systems in order to maintain the supply of high quality health care in a cost-effective manner. The introduction of competition triggers competition enforcement. Since healthcare is characterized by specific market failures, many favor healthcare-specific competition enforcement in order not only to account for the competition interest, but also for the healthcare interests. The question is whether healthcare systems based on competition can succeed when competition enforcement deviates from standard practice. This paper analyzes whether healthcare-specific competition enforcement is theoretically sound and practically effective. This is exemplified by the Dutch system that is based on regulated competition and thus crucially depends on getting competition enforcement right. Governments are responsible for correcting market failures. Markets are responsible for maximizing the public healthcare interests. By securing sufficient competitive pressure, competition enforcement makes sure they do. When interpreted according to welfare-economics, competition law takes into account both costs and benefits specific market behavior may have for healthcare. Competition agencies and judiciary are not legitimized to deviate from standard evidentiary requirements. Dutch case law shows that healthcare-specific enforcement favors the healthcare undertakings concerned, but to the detriment of public health care. Healthcare-specific competition enforcement is conceptually flawed and counterproductive. In order for healthcare systems based on competition to succeed, competition enforcement should be strict. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

The competitiveness of national tourism industry

OpenAIRE

Rūtelionė, Aušra

2005-01-01

The purpose of the scientific research is to suggest the model of national tourism industry competitiveness and determine the main factors that increase national tourism industry competitiveness basing on fundamental national competitiveness theories and national tourism industry competitiveness conceptions.

Competition in electricity markets

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Taylor, W.

1996-01-01

This article examines expanded wholesale and retail competition and the effect that they are likely to have on the electric power industry. The author believes that expanded wholesale competition is good and will bring immediate benefit to all electric consumers; however, based on the experience of the natural gas industry and the electric power industry in California and other parts of the world, the author counsels caution in moving toward expanded retail competition

On the multidimensionality of political competition: Measuring political competition in a Bartolinian Way

OpenAIRE

Bühlmann, M; Zumbach, D

2011-01-01

Political competition plays a crucial role in the democratic cycle, be it as a possible mainspring of political participation or as the essential element of democratic accountability and responsiveness. Thus, it is not surprising that many scholars focus on the impact and meaning of political competition. Unfortunately, such is very often misspecified as a unidimensional concept. At least since Stefano Bartolini's seminal paper Collusion, Competition and Democracy (1999, 2000), however, th...

Competitive Intelligence and Social Advantage.

Science.gov (United States)

Davenport, Elisabeth; Cronin, Blaise

1994-01-01

Presents an overview of issues concerning civilian competitive intelligence (CI). Topics discussed include competitive advantage in academic and research environments; public domain information and libraries; covert and overt competitive intelligence; data diversity; use of the Internet; cooperative intelligence; and implications for library and…

Integrated model of destination competitiveness

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Armenski Tanja

2011-01-01

Full Text Available The aim of this paper is to determine the weakest point of Serbian destination competitiveness as a tourist destination in comparation with its main competitors. The paper is organized as follows. The short introduction of the previous research on the destination competitiveness is followed by description of the Integrated model of destination competitiveness (Dwyer et al, 2003 that was used as the main reference framework. Section three is devoted to the description of the previous studies on competitiveness of Serbian tourism, while section four outlines the statistical methodology employed in this study and presents and interprets the empirical results. The results showed that Serbia is more competitive in its natural, cultural and created resources than in destination management while, according to the Integrated model, Serbia is less competitive in demand conditions that refer to the image and awareness of the destination itself.

A model for competitiveness level analysis in sports competitions: Application to basketball

Science.gov (United States)

de Saá Guerra, Y.; Martín González, J. M.; Sarmiento Montesdeoca, S.; Rodríguez Ruiz, D.; García-Rodríguez, A.; García-Manso, J. M.

2012-05-01

The degree of overall competitiveness of a sport league is a complex phenomenon. It is difficult to assess and quantify all elements that yield the final standing. In this paper, we analyze the general behavior of the result matrices of each season and we use the corresponding results as a probably density. Thus, the results of previous seasons are a way to investigate the probability that each team has to reach a certain number of victories. We developed a model based on Shannon entropy using two extreme competitive structures (a hierarchical structure and a random structure), and applied this model to investigate the competitiveness of two of the best professional basketball leagues: the NBA (USA) and the ACB (Spain). Both leagues’ entropy levels are high (NBA mean 0.983; ACB mean 0.980), indicating high competitiveness, although the entropy of the ACB (from 0.986 to 0.972) demonstrated more seasonal variability than that of the NBA (from 0.985 to 0.990), a possible result of greater sporting gradients in the ACB. The use of this methodology has proven useful for investigating the competitiveness of sports leagues as well as their underlying variability across time.

Competition Experiments for Legume Infection Identify Burkholderia phymatum as a Highly Competitive β-Rhizobium

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Martina Lardi

2017-08-01

Full Text Available Members of the genus Burkholderia (β-proteobacteria have only recently been shown to be able to establish a nitrogen-fixing symbiosis with several legumes, which is why they are also referred to as β-rhizobia. Therefore, very little is known about the competitiveness of these species to nodulate different legume host plants. In this study, we tested the competitiveness of several Burkholderia type strains (B. diazotrophica, B. mimosarum, B. phymatum, B. sabiae, B. symbiotica and B. tuberum to nodulate four legumes (Phaseolus vulgaris, Macroptilium atropurpureum, Vigna unguiculata and Mimosa pudica under our closely defined growth conditions. The assessment of nodule occupancy of these species on different legume host plants revealed that B. phymatum was the most competitive strain in the three papilionoid legumes (bean, cowpea and siratro, while B. mimosarum outcompeted the other strains in mimosa. The analysis of phenotypes known to play a role in nodulation competitiveness (motility, exopolysaccharide production and additional in vitro competition assays among β-rhizobial strains suggested that B. phymatum has the potential to be a very competitive legume symbiont.

Business Ideas Competition

CERN Multimedia

2003-01-01

Business Ideas Competition "The Rainbow Seed Fund is a UK fund, which provides finance to support the commercialization of good ideas founded on scientific research; it is for the benefit of the UK industry in particular. To encourage ideas from CERN the Rainbow Seed Fund is running a business ideas competition.The winner of this competition will receive an immediate cash prize of GBP £1,000. In addition the Rainbow Seed Fund may well provide finance for market research, for protection of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) and for prototyping to take the idea forward. Further awards of GBP £750 will be made for ideas which gain investment from the Fund.Candidates will only be required to prepare a 2-4-page summary of their business idea, and not a full business plan. Full details and an entry form are available at www.rainbowseedfund.com ." ALL Members of the Personnel seeking participation in the business ideas competition are asked to submit their ideas via the CERN TT Unit (Jean-Marie.Le Goff@cern.ch) th...

Innovation and strategic competitiveness

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jović Mile B.

2003-01-01

Full Text Available Paper discussed relationships of innovation to achieving strategic competitiveness in today globalized economic environment. Special attention is devoted to the nature of competitive advantages on global industries as well national level. Competitive advantage is a firm's ability to transform inputs into goods and services at a profit on a sustained basis, better than competitors. Comparative advantage resides in the factor endowments and created endowments of particular regions. Beside the traditional endowment approach (land, natural resources, labor and the size of the local population it is emphasized the importance of created one such as skilled labor, the technology and knowledge base, government support and culture. Creating corporate or country competitiveness roadmap there are no substantial difference - innovative as well strategic approach is essential.

Evaluation of stem cell reserve using serial bone marrow transplantation and competitive repopulation in a murine model of chronic hemolytic anemia

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Maggio-Price, L.; Wolf, N.S.; Priestley, G.V.; Pietrzyk, M.E.; Bernstein, S.E.

1988-01-01

Serial transplantation and competitive repopulation were used to evaluate any loss of self-replicative capacity of bone marrow stem cells in a mouse model with increased and persistent hemopoietic demands. Congenic marrows from old control and from young and old mice with hereditary spherocytic anemia (sphha/sphha) were serially transplanted at 35-day intervals into normal irradiated recipients. Old anemic marrow failed or reverted to recipient karyotype at a mean of 3.5 transplants, and young anemic marrow reverted at a mean of 4.0 transplants, whereas controls did so at a mean of 5.0 transplants. In a competitive assay in which a mixture of anemic and control marrow was transplanted, the anemic marrow persisted to 10 months following transplantation; anemic marrow repopulation was greater if anemic marrow sex matched with the host. It is possible that lifelong stress of severe anemia decreases stem cell reserve in the anemic sphha/sphha mouse marrow. However, marginal differences in serial transplantation number and the maintenance of anemic marrow in a competition assay would suggest that marrow stem cells, under prolonged stress, are capable of exhibiting good repopulating and self-replicating abilities

BUSINESS COMPETITORS AND COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

SUCIU TITUS

2013-08-01

Full Text Available The paper presents the concept of competition, both from the perspective of the economic sector –where it is characteristic for pure monopole, oligopoly, monopole competition and pure competition, as well asfrom the market’s point of view – where it determines the strategies, objectives, advantages and weaknesses of acompany. The main point of the paper is the criticism of the pure and perfect competition theory. Concluding,the author insists on innovation, especially on the model of open innovation.

Improving competitive ability of chickpea with sowthistle

OpenAIRE

Cici, S.-Z.-H.; Kristiansen, P.; Sindel, B.M.

2005-01-01

An experiment was conducted to examine the extent of root and canopy interference of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) with sowthistle (Sonchus oleraceus L.). Sowthistle was surrounded with either two or eight chickpea plants. There were different types of competition: no competition, shoot competition, root competition and full competition (root and shoot). The performance of sowthistle grown in full competition with two chickpea plants was the same as that grown with root competition only. Al...

How well do financial experts perform? A review of empirical research on performance of analysts, day-traders, forecasters, fund managers, investors, and stockbrokers

OpenAIRE

Andersson, Patric

2004-01-01

In this manuscript, empirical research on performance of various types of financial experts is reviewed. Financial experts are used as the umbrella term for financial analysts, stockbrokers, money managers, investors, and day-traders etc. The goal of the review is to find out about the abilities of financial experts to produce accurate forecasts, to issue profitable stock recommendations, as well as to make successful investments and trades. On the whole, the reviewed studies show discouragin...

The competitive challenge

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Burr, M.T.

1992-01-01

This article examines the strategies necessary to succeed in the increasingly competitive independent power industry. The topics of the article include the factors encouraging mergers, acquisitions, and joint ventures, the availability of financing, changes in the market, regulatory climate changes, competition and power planning, Not In My Back Yard and project siting, and the road ahead

Temperament and Character Personality Profile and Illness-Related Stress in Central Serous Chorioretinopathy

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Rupert Conrad

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Psychological stress is a risk factor as well as a consequence of central serous chorioretinopathy (CSC. Impulsiveness, overachievement, emotional instability, and hard-driving competitiveness have been discussed as personality features in CSC patients. We investigated 57 consecutive CSC patients and 57 age- and gender-matched controls by means of the Symptom Checklist 90-R and the Temperament and Character Inventory. Somatic risk factors, illness characteristics, subjective assessment of severity of illness, and illness-related stress in different areas of life (work, private life were evaluated. CSC patients showed significantly higher emotional distress as measured by the Global Severity Index. The CSC personality was characterized by lower scoring on the character dimension cooperativeness and the temperament dimension reward dependence. Cooperativeness as well as subjective assessment of severity of CSC has been recognized as significant predictors of illness-related work stress accounting for 30% of variance. Implicating competitiveness, hostility and emotional detachment, lower level of cooperativeness, and reward dependence support the existence of specific aspects of type A behaviour in CSC patients. Low perceived social support and loss of control may explain the significant contribution of this personality dimension to illness-related work stress. Treatment of CSC should thus incorporate psychoeducation about factors contributing to illness-related stress.

The Competitiveness of Alternative Hydrogen Pathways

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hansen, Anders Chr.

to transport services and in market competitiveness and societal competitiveness. The major societal competitive advantage of hydrogen is its convertibility to electricity and from any other source of energy. This enables a flexible use of natural gas and primary electricity as transport fuels. The major...... advantage in market competitiveness is the energy efficiency of the fuel cell. This advantage is, however, to some extent balanced by the costs associated with conversion, transport, and storage. The balance between these factors required for market competitiveness is identified.......The paper surveys the literature on the competitiveness of alternative hydrogen pathways in the transport sector. The competitiveness of the alternative systems can be differentiated in the “well-to-tank (WtT)” and “tank-to-wheel (TtW)” sections of the pathway transforming primary energy...

40 CFR 35.382 - Competitive process.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 1 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Competitive process. 35.382 Section 35...)(3)) § 35.382 Competitive process. State Wetlands Development Grants are awarded on a competitive... established by EPA. After the competitive process is complete, the recipient can, at its discretion, accept...

40 CFR 35.603 - Competitive process.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 1 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Competitive process. 35.603 Section 35... (section 104(b)(3)) § 35.603 Competitive process. EPA will award water quality cooperative agreement funds through a competitive process in accordance with national program guidance. After the competitive process...

Stress in biological invasions: Introduced invasive grey squirrels increase physiological stress in native Eurasian red squirrels.

Science.gov (United States)

Santicchia, Francesca; Dantzer, Ben; van Kesteren, Freya; Palme, Rupert; Martinoli, Adriano; Ferrari, Nicola; Wauters, Lucas Armand

2018-05-23

Invasive alien species can cause extinction of native species through processes including predation, interspecific competition for resources or disease-mediated competition. Increases in stress hormones in vertebrates may be associated with these processes and contribute to the decline in survival or reproduction of the native species. Eurasian red squirrels (Sciurus vulgaris) have gone extinct across much of the British Isles and parts of Northern Italy following the introduction of North American invasive grey squirrels (Sciurus carolinensis). We extracted glucocorticoid metabolites from faecal samples to measure whether the presence of the invasive species causes an increase in physiological stress in individuals of the native species. We show that native red squirrels in seven sites where they co-occurred with invasive grey squirrels had glucocorticoid concentrations that were three times higher than those in five sites without the invasive species. Moreover, in a longitudinal study, stress hormones in native red squirrels increased after colonisation by grey squirrels. When we experimentally reduced the abundance of the invasive grey squirrels, the concentration of faecal glucocorticoid metabolites in co-occurring red squirrels decreased significantly between pre- and postremoval periods. Hence, we found that the invasive species acts as a stressor which significantly increases the concentrations of glucocorticoids in the native species. Given that sustained elevations in glucocorticoids could reduce body growth and reproductive rate, our results are consistent with previous studies where the co-occurrence of the invasive grey squirrel was associated with smaller size and lower reproductive output in red squirrels. © 2018 The Authors. Journal of Animal Ecology © 2018 British Ecological Society.

Strengthening the European Union Climate and Energy Package. To build a low carbon, competitive and energy secure European Union

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Guerin, E.; Spencer, Th.

2011-01-01

As the EU's climate and energy goals defined in its Climate and Energy Package (CEP) are to protect the climate, to protect EU economic competitiveness, and to protect EU energy security, the authors first define these notions (time consistency, competitiveness, energy security) and stress the importance of strengthening the CEP, notably by fostering low carbon technology investment and low carbon products and services innovation. They discuss several policy recommendations for the development of a low carbon, competitive and energy secure EU. These recommendations are notably based on the strengthening of current instruments and on the implementation of new tools to reach the 20% energy efficiency target, on an increase stringency and predictability of the EU ETS, and on the use of direct public financial support to facilitate the transition towards a EU low carbon economy

Growth and nutritive quality of Poa pratensis as influenced by ozone and competition

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bender, J.; Muntifering, R.B.; Lin, J.C.; Weigel, H.J.

2006-01-01

Interspecific plant competition has been hypothesized to alter effects of early-season ozone (O 3 ) stress. A phytometer-based approach was utilized to investigate O 3 effects on growth and nutritive quality of Poa pratensis grown in monoculture and in mixed cultures with four competitor-plant species (Anthoxanthum odoratum, Achillea millefolium, Rumex acetosa and Veronica chamaedrys). Mesocosms were exposed during April/May 2000-2002 to charcoal-filtered air + 25 ppb O 3 (control) or non-filtered air + 50 ppb O 3 (elevated O 3 ). Biomass production was not affected by O 3 , but foliar injury symptoms were observed in May 2002. Early-season O 3 exposure decreased relative food value of P. pratensis by an average of 8%, which is sufficient to have nutritional implications for its utilization by herbivores. However, forage quality response to O 3 was not changed by interspecific competition. Lack of injury and nutritive quality response in P. pratensis harvested in September may reflect recovery from early-season O 3 exposure. - Early-season O 3 exposure decreased nutritive quality of Poa pratensis, and nutritive quality response to O 3 was not altered by interspecific competition

COMPETITION IN ROMANIAN BANKING SECTOR

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Capraru Bogdan

2011-07-01

Full Text Available Recent turmoil in the global financial system has impacted severely on the banking sector with many banks suffering large losses and necessitating the need to raise additional capital privately or through their respective national governments. In our study we investigate the impact of structural reforms performed throughout the European Union (EU accession process on competition and contestability of banking systems in Romania. The literature of the measurement of competition can be divided into two major approaches: structural and non-structural. The structural approach to the assessment of competition embraces the Structure-Conduct-Performance Hypothesis (SCP and the Efficient Structure Hypothesis (ESH. The structural approach, as the name suggests, assesses bank competition by examining measures of market structure such as concentration ratios (the share of assets held by the top 3 or 5 institutions or indices (e.g., the Herfindhal-Hirschman index and supposes that higher concentration in the banking market causes less competitive bank conduct and leads to higher bank profitability. The SCP model is originally developed by Bain (1956. The second approach, ESH, developed by Demsetz (1973 and Peltzmann (1977 suggests that the superior performance of the market leaders determines the market structure, implying that higher efficiency produces both higher concentration and greater profitability. The non-structural indicators of competition are mainly based on the measures of monopoly power developed by Lerner (1934. The Lerner Index suggests the mark-up of price over marginal cost. An alternative non-structural indicator of the degree of market competition is the Panzar and Rosse (1987 H-statistic. The H-statistic measures the extent to which changes in banking costs are reflected in changes in banking revenues. In order to examine the level of competition and market power of banks in Romania for period 2003 - 2009, we estimate the non

Competitiveness on the International Tourism Market

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anca Gabriela Turtureanu

2012-08-01

Full Text Available This paper comes to present and analyse the features of tourism in the main countries in Central and Western Europe, as well as the different strategies these countries adopt in order to maintain the competitiveness of the field.In the beginning, we have defined competitiveness, as the prerequisite of market success, we have analysed its components and the main factors that determine it, as well as the competitiveness – competitive advantage relation.During the last years, competitiveness has turned into one of the common concepts used in order to approach and describe the sustainable development of the tourism and travel industry. Expert literature has defined concepts such as tourism and travel competitiveness or touristic destinations competitiveness, suggesting not only the significance of the concept but also the emphasis that touristic organizations should lay on this aspect.The competitiveness of touristic destinations and, generally speaking, the global competitiveness of the tourism industry became vital for the survival and growth of the touristic organizations on the international market, provided by the growth of spare time and the growth of the level of income that is available for spending the time.

SOCIAL ASPECTS OF COMPETITIVENESS

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Klimova A. V.

2014-06-01

Full Text Available One of the most important conditions of the existence of every organization, every enterprise is to insure the long-term sustainable development, one of the conditions of which is the increase of an organizational competitiveness. In modern economic conditions, social aspects of competitiveness are now in the foreground of interest, because just the strategy of social responsibility (SSR of modern enterprises can assure some commercial benefits, in responding, at the same time, to the social demands and in creating its well-being. Such an approach is in the basis of the notion of competitiveness. Along with «rigid parameters», such as price characteristics, the capability to deal with competitors, effective financial and production policies, «flexible factors» of competitiveness are of a big importance: a personnel potential, individual and collective competencies, organizational and managerial capabilities. As a result, we have formulated a research hypothesis: the organizational competitiveness is defined by individual and collective competencies of an organization, is based on socially responsible actions, confirms the demand for the object and insures its sustainable long-term development. Any organization should base all its actions aimed to increase its competitiveness on its intellectual potential, or on the management of individual and collective competencies that assure the sustainable development and the goal achievement. For every organizational strategic action, an effective combination of these competencies exists. So, we suggest a new definition of competitiveness: it is a social and economic category of understanding of the social responsibility, having as a central element individual and collective competencies, based on socially responsible actions of an enterprise, insuring its long-term sustainable development.

Designing competitions for education in robotics

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersen, Nils Axel; Ravn, Ole

2012-01-01

The paper describes design considerations for making a robot competition. Topics as level of participants, learning objective, evaluation form, task design and competition rules are treated. It is shown that careful design considering these topics are necessary for a succesful outcome of a compet......The paper describes design considerations for making a robot competition. Topics as level of participants, learning objective, evaluation form, task design and competition rules are treated. It is shown that careful design considering these topics are necessary for a succesful outcome...... of a competition. The conclusions are based on examples from more than 15 years of experience with robotic competitions....

PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANIES BETWEEN CRISIS AND COMPETITIVENESS - SECTORAL DIAGNOSIS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mihaela\tBÎRSAN

2015-06-01

Full Text Available The evolution of the pharmaceutical industry was a positive constant with the indicators of industrial production even in years of crisis. Although the economic crisis in Romania decreased average growth rate of pharmaceutical companies, market value is expected to increase. The explanation comes from the fact that in order to boost productivity, pharmaceutical companies are turning to emerging countries with aging populations such as open new markets for future development. Add to this the recent health policies implemented by newly industrialized countries that are aimed at ensuring increased access to care. Analysts see the field phenomenon called "Farma-merger" a good chance for European pharmaceutical companies oriented to developing countries where drug sales should record a double-digit annual growth until 2017. In Erste Group reports stated that the impact of the crisis on the pharmaceutical industry should be limited markets for EU only their economic slowdown. This will be possible because the external indebtedness of pharmaceutical companies in the EU remains at a minimum, they are able to finance their investment plans without tapping financial markets, are not adversely affected by the current limited availability of credit resources. Therefore major pharmaceutical companies in the EU will remain a solid investment on the long term, the negative developments are limited due to high resistance to the crisis their business model segment "generic". The consequence of these developments is reflected in the recognition for the first time, the pharmaceutical sector as a strategic sector for the Romanian economy. In the context of public debate launching the National Strategy for Competitiveness 2014-2020, Generic Medicines Industry Association of Romania (APMGR local pharmaceutical industry reminds the Government proposals on correcting the current fiscal and operational regulatory framework, to allow unlocking investments in facilities

Understanding mechanisms of rarity in pteridophytes: competition and climate change threaten the rare fern Asplenium scolopendrium var. americanum (Aspleniaceae).

Science.gov (United States)

Testo, Weston L; Watkins, James E

2013-11-01

Understanding the ecology of rare species can inform aspects of conservation strategies; however, the mechanisms of rarity remain elusive for most pteridophytes, which possess independent and ecologically distinct gametophyte and sporophyte generations. To elucidate factors contributing to recent declines of the rare fern Asplenium scolopendrium var. americanum, we studied the ecology and ecophysiology of its gametophyte generation, focusing on responses to competition, temperature, and water stress. Gametophytes of A. scolopendrium var. americanum, its widespread European relative A. scolopendrium var. scolopendrium, and five co-occurring fern species were grown from spores. Gametophytes were grown at 20°C and 25°C, and germination rates, intra- and interspecific competition, desiccation tolerance, and sporophyte production were determined for all species. Gametophytes of A. scolopendrium var. americanum had the lowest rates of germination and sporophyte production among all species studied and exhibited the greatest sensitivity to interspecific competition, temperature increases, and desiccation. Mature gametophytes of A. scolopendrium var. americanum grown at 25°C were 84.6% smaller than those grown at 20°C, and only 1.5% produced sporophytes after 200 d in culture. Similar responses were not observed in other species studied. The recent declines and current status of populations of A. scolopendrium var. americanum are linked to its gametophyte's limited capacity to tolerate competition and physiological stress linked to climate change. This is the first study to develop a mechanistic understanding of rarity and decline in a fern and demonstrates the importance of considering the ecology of the gametophyte in plants with independent sporophyte and gametophyte generations.

MACROECONOMIC ASPECTS OF COMPETITIVENESS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Oleg Hooke

2017-09-01

Full Text Available In the process of globalization of world economic processes, the role of individual national economies increases, comparative advantages of the development of a country are formed, and their competitiveness is ensured. That is why it is worth emphasizing the importance of increasing the competitiveness of each individual country, based on its internal capacity. In a broad aspect, the competitiveness of the national economy is perceived as the ability of the country to ensure the balance of its external proportions and to avoid those constraints imposed by the foreign economic sphere, to self-organizing the improvement of their world economic ties. The competitiveness of the economy at the macro level is associated with the duration of the cycle of reproduction of the main productive assets and, accordingly, the jobs, productive forces of society and determined by the overall economic efficiency of investment. The criteria of competitiveness of the national economy are the growth of social productivity of labor, increase of social and economic efficiency of production and standard of living of the population. The competitiveness of the national economy determines sustainable socio-economic development of the country, as well as sustainable development predetermines the competitiveness of not only the country, but also all its levels. Scientific results are obtained using special methods of research of economic objects and phenomena, that is, based on the correlation and regressive, comparative analysis (establishing the relationship between the indicator factor, as well as economic modeling. Findings. Generalizing analysis and the importance of the macroeconomic aspect of competitiveness were used in the research paper, which will allow to better respond to the economic situation, in accordance with the trends of the “green” transformation of the economy; which in turn will solve important problems of the development and implementation of its

Competition Policy and Innovation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Møllgaard, Peter; Lorentzen, Jo

2005-01-01

We briefly review the rationale behind technological alliances and provide a snapshot oftheir role in global competition, especially insofar as it is based around intellectual capital.They nicely illustrate the increased importance of horizontal agreements and thusestablish the relevance of the t......We briefly review the rationale behind technological alliances and provide a snapshot oftheir role in global competition, especially insofar as it is based around intellectual capital.They nicely illustrate the increased importance of horizontal agreements and thusestablish the relevance...... of the topic. We move on to discuss the organisation of industriesin a dynamic context and draw out consequences for competition policy. We concludewith an outlook on the underlying tensions between technology alliances, competitionpolicy, and industrial policy.JEL codes: L4, L5, O31Keywords: Competition...

COMPETITIVENESS FOR SUSTAINABLE ECONOMIES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nelu Eugen POPESCU

2014-04-01

Full Text Available The current economic environment puts pressure on all national economies which struggle to improve their competitiveness and innovativeness in a sustainable way. This article aims to present the current state of the competitiveness by reviewing the main literature and worldwide researches, in order to provide a brief overview of the determinants that drive productivity and economic success at global and national level, taking into consideration the entrepreneurial activity for a country’s competitiveness and economic growth. The paper identifies the ways in which efficiency driven countries can improve their policies and get a better return on their investments, underlining a set of competitiveness enhancing policies (measures that can be implemented by public and private institutions in order to strengthen the economic fundamentals of the economies.

77 FR 4821 - Public Health Service Act, Non-competitive Replacement Award

Science.gov (United States)

2012-01-31

... DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES Health Resources and Services Administration Public Health... is September 1, 2011, to August 31, 2012. Authority: Section 330I(d)(2) of the Public Health Service... health care systems in California. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Monica Cowan, Public Health Analyst...

78 FR 79411 - Announcement of Competition Under the America COMPETES Act

Science.gov (United States)

2013-12-30

... manually discovering vulnerabilities. At the present time, automated program analysis capabilities are able... Base, and the continual discovery of potential vulnerabilities in this software base has led to a... analysis of code and threats is an artisan process, often requiring skilled analysts to spend weeks or...

Product market competition and corporate governance

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Julia Chou

2011-04-01

Full Text Available This paper investigates whether product market competition acts as an external mechanism for disciplining management and also whether there is any relationship between the degree of competition a firm faces and its corporate governance. We find that firms in competitive industries or with low market power tend to have weak corporate governance structures. Results are robust to various competition measures at firm and industry levels, even after controlling for firm-specific variables. We further find that corporate governance quality has a significant effect on performance only when product market competition is weak. The overall evidence suggests that product market competition has a substantial impact on corporate governance and that it substitutes for corporate governance quality. Finally, we provide evidence that the disciplinary force of competition on management is from the fear of liquidation.

The Necessity of ASEAN Competition Law: Rethinking

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Udin Silalahi

2017-12-01

Full Text Available As outlined in the AEC Blueprint, all ASEAN member states (AMSs will endeavour to introduce competition policy by 2015. At present 7 (seven AMSs, namely: Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines, Myanmar have the national competition laws to supervise anti-competitive conduct in the domestic market. But the question is what if happened unfair competition between ASEAN member states, due to the agreement or businesses activities by business actors that harm competition? ASEAN has an ASEAN Regional Guidelines on Competition Policy (ARGCP that developed by ASEAN Experts Group on Competition (AEGC as framework for member states to develop its own competition law or policy and as a guideline in measuring that directly affect the behaviour of enterprises and the structure of industry and markets. Regional Guideline is just to help AMSs in increasing of awareness of important policy, not to sustain the competition among ASEAN member countries. Until now there is no ASEAN Competition Law and Institution to oversee competition among ASEAN member countries. In this era, ASEAN economic integration it is a certainty that anti-competitive among AMSs will happen.

Agile supply chain capabilities: emerging patterns as a determinant of competitive objectives

Science.gov (United States)

Yusuf, Yahaya Y.; Adeleye, E. O.; Sivayoganathan, K.

2001-10-01

Turbulent change caused by factors such as changing customer and technological requirements threatens manufacturers through lower product life cycles, profits and bleak survival prospects. Therefore, several companies are stressing flexibility and agility in order to respond, real time, to the unique needs of customers and markets. However, the resource competencies required are often difficult to mobilise and retain by single companies. It is therefore imperative for companies to co-operate and leverage complementary competencies. To this end, legally separate and spatially distributed companies are becoming integrated through Internet-based technologies. The paper reviews emerging patterns in supply chain integration. It also explores the relationship between the emerging patterns and attainment of competitive objectives. The results reported in the paper are based on data from a survey by questionnaire. The survey involved 600 companies in the UK, as part of a larger study of agile manufacturing. The study was driven by a conceptual model, which relates supply chain practices to competitive objectives. The analysis involves the use of factor analysis to reduce research variables to a few principal components. Subsequently, multiple regression was conducted to study the relationship amongst the reduced variables. The results validate the proposed conceptual model and lend credence to current thinking that supply chain integration is a vital tool for competitive advantage.

Competition in a Business Network

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ellegaard, Chris; Medlin, Christopher J

Competition and cooperation stabilize and structure business networks. In business research there is little focus on network based competition between firms and on how firms compete to gain network position. We review a range of conceptualizations of competition and cooperation and work towards...... research and also managerial thinking about network strategy and implementation....

Influence of training and competitive sessions on peripheral β-endorphin levels in training show jumping horses

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cristina Cravana

2017-01-01

program. Moreover, the responses during exercise in the course of post-competition training sessions seem to be significantly different from those the pre-competition training. These data show that the preliminary competitive stress induced additional significant changes of β-endorphin pattern. It would reflect the need of a long-lasting modulation of fatigue and pain perception related to the effect of an additional physical and mental effort for the consecutive competitive and training sessions.

Theoretical Basis Of The Company Competitiveness Assessment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vladimir Nikiforovich Belkin

2015-03-01

Full Text Available The article deals with the basic theoretical questions of the company competitiveness assessment. The state of modern economic thought on this issue is shown. The main factors of the company competitiveness are specified. A specific role of staff of an enterprise is revealed: on the one hand, it is a resource, on the other is a subject, resulting in productive movement all factors of competitiveness, i.e. the staff is a critical factor in the company competitiveness. The criterion of company competitiveness is proposed, on its basis, the concept of “competitive enterprise” is defined. The most well-known approaches for assessing the company competitiveness are analyzed. The author’s method of the company competitiveness assessment based on the dynamics of the integral index of competitiveness is provided. For those cases, when it is impossible to determine the proportion of products on the market, it is proposed to evaluate the company competitiveness on the profitability of its production. The article shows the experience in calculating of the company competitiveness on the proposed author’s methods.

Discovering the Nature of Competitive Personality

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Olga A. Klyueva

2012-01-01

Full Text Available The concept of “competitiveness” has been most thoroughly developed in theframework of modern economics and management. Apart from economic factors,this concept also embraces social and psychological factors, but economic modelsdo not reveal the psychological essence of the concept of “competitive personality.”Analytical review of the psychological and educational case studies of the competitive-personality problem has brought to light the ambiguity in this concept alongwith a multitude of models that distinguish individual aspects of a competitivepersonality. Most creators of the various models emphasize the quality of the conditionsnecessary for forming and developing a competitive personality.In economics, competition is an essential, inherent feature of various types of activitywhere conflicts of interest occur. However, the established economic modelof competitive personality reduces and replaces the psychological content of theconcept.Theoretically and experimentally the authors of this article substantiate their disclosureof the competitive-personality concept via its creative potential. Results ofan in-depth study confirm that the ability to achieve success through one’s owninitiative, anticipating the demands of competition, appears to be the backbonefor competitiveness of personality.

Environmental regulation and competitiveness

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Mulatu, A.; Florax, R.J.G.M.; Withagen, C.A.A.M.

2001-01-01

The potential relationship between domestic environmental regulation and international competitiveness has evoked various speculations. The common neoclassical train of thought is that strict environmental regulation is detrimental to the competitiveness of industry, and that it induces phenomena

Competition for a better future? Effects of competition on child care quality

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Akgündüz, Y.E.; Plantenga, J.

2013-01-01

Little is known about how competition affects child care centers’ quality. This paper examines the impact of competition on the quality of Dutch child care centers. The results show that high density of child care centers in an area improves scores in quality assessment measures. The positive

Regional Competitiveness and Its Implications for Development

OpenAIRE

Daryono Soebagyo; Triyono Triyono; Yuli Tri Cahyono

2015-01-01

This study was conducted to identify regional competitiveness in some areas of Central Java. Regional competitiveness became one of the issues in regional development policy since the enactment of local autonomy.Measurement of regional competitiveness has been mostly done through ranking as a benchmark the competitiveness of the region. Mapping regional competitiveness in Indonesia has been made to all counties and cities, which shows the competitiveness ranking of each region. Competitivenes...

Export competitiveness of pakistani horticultural products

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Akhtar, W.; Akmal, N.; Shah, H.; Tahir, A.; Niazi, M.A.

2013-01-01

This paper examines Pakistan's competitiveness in export of selected horticulture commodities by employing set of revealed comparative advantage (RCA) and revealed competitive advantage indices with respect to global trade. Results demonstrate that Pakistan has comparative and competitive advantage over the period under analysis and indicates a transition from comparative and competitive disadvantage to comparative and competitive advantage during the period under analysis. Tangerines, mandarins, clem have maintained relatively higher revealed comparative advantage as compared to other categories for the whole period under analysis. Onion export has revealed comparative advantage with some fluctuations over time. The research indicates that Pakistan's comparative and competitive advantages have been increasing in all the selected commodities during period under analysis which indicates the potential of horticulture exports for foreign exchange earnings. There is need to strengthen comparative and competitive advantage in horticulture sector by policy support and facilitating role by all stakeholders. (author)

MR imaging of the knee in marathon runners before and after competition

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Krampla, W.; Mayrhofer, R.; Malcher, J.; Urban, M.; Hruby, W.; Kristen, K.H.

2001-01-01

Objective. To evaluate the findings in MRI-studies of the knee in recreational long-distance runners after competition and to assess the reversibility of the findings.Design and patients. Eight recreational long-distance runners underwent MRI studies of the knee before, immediately after and 6-8 weeks after taking part in the Vienna City Marathon. The studies were evaluated regarding alterations of pre-existing lesions and new pathological findings.Results. In six runners without major pre-existing alterations no negative effects were experienced. In one runner with pre-existing grade III alterations of the menisci, signs of progressive osteoarthritis were experienced 2 months after the competition. In all other cases increased meniscal signal alterations and minor signal changes in the bone marrow after the race were transitory.Conclusion. In healthy individuals no negative long-term-effects were experienced. Pre-existing high-grade lesions of the menisci might be a predisposing risk for osteoarthritis, triggered by the stress of long-distance running. (orig.)

Involvement of NADH Oxidase in Competition and Endocarditis Virulence in Streptococcus sanguinis.

Science.gov (United States)

Ge, Xiuchun; Yu, Yang; Zhang, Min; Chen, Lei; Chen, Weihua; Elrami, Fadi; Kong, Fanxiang; Kitten, Todd; Xu, Ping

2016-05-01

Here, we report for the first time that the Streptococcus sanguinis nox gene encoding NADH oxidase is involved in both competition with Streptococcus mutans and virulence for infective endocarditis. An S. sanguinis nox mutant was found to fail to inhibit the growth of Streptococcus mutans under microaerobic conditions. In the presence of oxygen, the recombinant Nox protein of S. sanguinis could reduce oxygen to water and oxidize NADH to NAD(+) The oxidation of NADH to NAD(+) was diminished in the nox mutant. The nox mutant exhibited decreased levels of extracellular H2O2; however, the intracellular level of H2O2 in the mutant was increased. Furthermore, the virulence of the nox mutant was attenuated in a rabbit endocarditis model. The nox mutant also was shown to be more sensitive to blood killing, oxidative and acid stresses, and reduced growth in serum. Thus, NADH oxidase contributes to multiple phenotypes related to competitiveness in the oral cavity and systemic virulence. Copyright © 2016 Ge et al.

Competition for nutrients and light: testing advances in resource competition with a natural phytoplankton community.

Science.gov (United States)

Burson, Amanda; Stomp, Maayke; Greenwell, Emma; Grosse, Julia; Huisman, Jef

2018-05-01

A key challenge in ecology is to understand how nutrients and light affect the biodiversity and community structure of phytoplankton and plant communities. According to resource competition models, ratios of limiting nutrients are major determinants of species composition. At high nutrient levels, however, species interactions may shift to competition for light, which might make nutrient ratios less relevant. The "nutrient-load hypothesis" merges these two perspectives, by extending the classic model of competition for two nutrients to include competition for light. Here, we test five key predictions of the nutrient-load hypothesis using multispecies competition experiments. A marine phytoplankton community sampled from the North Sea was inoculated in laboratory chemostats provided with different nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) loads to induce either single resource limitation or co-limitation of N, P, and light. Four of the five predictions were validated by the experiments. In particular, different resource limitations favored the dominance of different species. Increasing nutrient loads caused changes in phytoplankton species composition, even if the N:P ratio of the nutrient loads remained constant, by shifting the species interactions from competition for nutrients to competition for light. In all treatments, small species became dominant whereas larger species were competitively excluded, supporting the common view that small cell size provides a competitive advantage under resource-limited conditions. Contrary to expectation, all treatments led to coexistence of diatoms, cyanobacteria and green algae, resulting in a higher diversity of species than predicted by theory. Because the coexisting species comprised three phyla with different photosynthetic pigments, we speculate that niche differentiation in the light spectrum might play a role. Our results show that mechanistic resource competition models that integrate nutrient-based and light-based approaches

MEASURING COMPETITIVENESS OF ECONOMIC ENTITIES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

MUNGIU-PUPĂZAN MARIANA CLAUDIA

2013-12-01

Full Text Available A competitive structure of a national economy is influenced by the competitiveness of each of the actors made the national economy. In other words, to achieve competitive economic structure shall contribute all sectors of the national economy and hence all branches of the national economy, all organizations within each branch. Thus, the productive sectors of the economy contribute by increasing their competitiveness, GDP growth, added value, while other branches making a contribution through activity, increased quality of life (health, culture, social in training skilled labor (education to ensure effective functioning of the judiciary, protection of private property and citizen safety, lower crime rate (police, reducing the risk of political instability, increasing social cohesion, social disparities (richness and extreme poverty, and discrimination against women and minority groups. Human resources are probably the most important factor determining the competitiveness of an area. The ability of a country to move up the value chain is closely related to human resource capability. In understanding the competitive evaluation is important to assess not only in terms of education, improvement, skills and work experience, but also in terms of other attributes, more difficult to measure, as entrepreneurial relationships, creativity and risk tolerance. Secondly, we must accept that individual productivity is determined by external factors. Latent potential of the individual can develop when the person moves to another environment that provides better and more opportunities. Currently structural changes to remain competitive obtaining essential parameters of the Romanian economy to cope with competitive pressures of the single European market.

Concept analysis of competitiveness

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bychkovskii Andrei Yurevich

2013-10-01

Full Text Available Approaches to determine the competitiveness of enterprises. The techniques of estimating the probability of bankruptcy as the lowest level of competitiveness of the organization. Asked to assess the competitiveness on the basis of the analysis of internal and external factors of the company. External factors are asked to provide a financial and economic, political, industrial, technological, social, environmental. Internal factors proposed to explore, using the model of "the golden rule of business economics" in conjunction with approaches for assessing the ability of the enterprise to create value.

Using the Competitive Dimensions to Achieve Competitive Advantage A Study on Jordanian Private Hospitals

OpenAIRE

Salah M. Diab

2014-01-01

This study aims to know, if the Jordanian private hospitals using the competitive dimensions to achieve competitive advantage, the Study populations consists of all managers at the Jordanian private hospital, were as the sample consisting of (200) managers. The simple statistical methods were used like repetitions, percentages, means, standard deviations, and multiple liner regression .The results showed that the Jordanian private hospitals used all the competition dimensions to achieve compe...

Modeling discrete competitive facility location

CERN Document Server

Karakitsiou, Athanasia

2015-01-01

This book presents an up-to-date review of modeling and optimization approaches for location problems along with a new bi-level programming methodology which captures the effect of competition of both producers and customers on facility location decisions. While many optimization approaches simplify location problems by assuming decision making in isolation, this monograph focuses on models which take into account the competitive environment in which such decisions are made. New insights in modeling, algorithmic and theoretical possibilities are opened by this approach and new applications are possible. Competition on equal term plus competition between market leader and followers are considered in this study, consequently bi-level optimization methodology is emphasized and further developed. This book provides insights regarding modeling complexity and algorithmic approaches to discrete competitive location problems. In traditional location modeling, assignment of customer demands to supply sources are made ...

Electricity market competition and nuclear power

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Varley, C.; Paffenbarger, J.

1999-01-01

Throughout the world, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) member countries' governments are promoting competitive electricity markets. In particular, there is a move away from administrative price-setting by government institutions to market price-setting through the introduction of competition. Today this is often focused on competition in generation. However, competition among final electricity suppliers and distributors to provide effective consumer choice is a further step that governments are likely to pursue as experience with market reform grows. This competitive environment will undoubtedly impact upon the nuclear generation industry. Competition will provide an opportunity to reinvigorate nuclear power; it will improve the transparency of energy policy-making and the policy framework for nuclear power; it will spur innovation in existing plants and help prospects for new plant build; and provide a strong impetus for cost reduction and innovation. This paper discusses these issues in detail. It looks at the potential benefits and challenges to the nuclear generation industry arising from an increasingly competitive market. (author)

Competition, Ownership and Productivity

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Baghdasaryan, Delia; la Cour, Lisbeth