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Beyond global mobility: how human capital shapes the MNE in the 21st century
No full textThe global mobility of people has transformed how multinational enterprises (MNEs) manage and benefit from multiple locations. We examine the changing locational boundedness of human capital with globalization and how this has impacted the competitiveness of MNEs. The growing use of quasi-internalization through the active reliance on global value chains and outsourcing has altered the way MNEs spatially organize their activities to optimize their access to human capital, a key source of ownership advantages. We identify areas for further research, including new strategies for managing human resources using these new forms of cross-border governance. Collectively, the papers in this special issue provide insights into how MNEs can leverage the movement and reorganization of their human capital to enhance their unique capabilities and succeed in international business
What to do about the decay of the conventions of the Canadian constitution?
No full textConstitutional conventions are central to the operation of the Canadian constitution. Yet because they are not legislated rules, their coming into being and disappearance can be subject to considerable uncertainty. Worse, it appears that conventions can disappear or be replaced inadvertently, without anyone fully appreciating that this is happening. This article describes this process in relation to three conventions of the Canadian constitution: the one regulating the appointment of the Chief Justice of Canada, the convention of civil service neutrality, and the convention governing the choice of Prime Minister in a hung Parliament. It argues that these conventions are being ignored or disregarded due to a combination of institutional amnesia on the one hand and populist pressures on the other. The article considers three possible avenues for preventing the breakdown of constitutional conventions: protest by the civil society, experts, and political actors; the compilation of an authoritative cabinet manual; and judicial enforcement of conventions. But none of these is likely to be fully effective, especially against populist opposition, and both the cabinet manual and the judicial enforcement of conventions would risk having undesirable consequences too
Multi-response kinetic modelling of the formation of five Strecker aldehydes during kilning of barley malt
Get PDFControl of aroma formation during production of barley malt is critical to provide consistent and high-quality products for the brewing industry. Malt quality can be affected by the inherent variability of raw material and processing conditions, leading to inconsistent and/or undesirable profiles. Dried green malts were cured isothermally at 65, 78 and 90 °C for 8.4 h, and characteristic aroma compounds (Strecker aldehydes), precursors and intermediate compounds were analysed over time. By kinetic modelling of Strecker aldehydes, based on fundamental chemical pathways, we showed that degradation of Amadori rearrangement products and short-chain dicarbonyls was more sensitive to temperature change due to their higher activation energies compared to other kinetic steps. This study can help maltsters to manipulate formation of Strecker aldehydes, via raw material screening and process control, and hence optimise the organoleptic quality of malts and their products, such as non-alcoholic beers, where these aldehydes play a key role
Deep listening training to bridge divides: fostering attitudinal change through intimacy and self‐insight
Get PDFDeep, high‐quality listening that offers a nonjudgmental approach, understanding, and careful attention when speakers share disparate views can have the power to bridge divides and change speakers' attitudes. However, can people be trained to provide such listening while disagreeing with what they hear, and if so, are the effects of the listening training sufficient for creating perceptible change during disagreements? This study, conducted with delegates (N = 320) representing 86 countries experimentally tested a “deep” (otherwise termed “high quality“) listening training against a randomly assigned subgroup of attendees who served as a “waitlist” control. During a conversation with another participant on a subject about which they strongly disagreed, participants who had completed a 6‐h training over 3 weeks in high‐quality listening demonstrated improvements in their observed listening behaviors, reported higher levels of interactional intimacy with conversation partners, appeared to increase their self‐insight and subsequently, showed evidence of attitude change. Among the first studies to test semi‐causal outcomes of high‐quality listening training between attendees with diverse and contrary attitudes in a real‐world, cross‐national setting; we discuss the potential and limitations for listening training to support positive relations and an open mind in the context of discourse, disagreement and polarization
King Philip I and the church: ruling France in an age of reform
Get PDFKing Philip I of France (r. 1060-1108) has traditionally been seen as a man of poor reputation
in matters of religion, portrayed as a cynical exploiter of the Church in his lands and a king
whose personal vices, exemplified especially by his highly controversial second marriage to
Bertrada of Montfort, compromised his effectiveness as a ruler. Whilst the second half of the
eleventh century saw a drive for ecclesiastical reform which coincided with an invigorated
papacy challenging the existing relationship between secular and spiritual power, Philip has
generally been seen as the antithesis of such change, a stubborn relic of the past who
remained fiercely opposed to any attempts to undermine his control over the Church. His
religious initiatives, when acknowledged, have tended to be underappreciated or
overshadowed by his faults. This thesis argues instead that, when viewed across his whole
reign, Philip’s relationship with the Church and with ecclesiastical reform should be seen in a
less negative light. It is suggested that, while Philip certainly did pursue his own ends with an
eye to political imperatives, he also showed himself, right to the end of his long reign, to be
an astute and highly adaptable monarch who skilfully navigated the changing times and
personalities with whom he collided. Furthermore, he showed himself keen to support the
Church in his realm when he felt able and capable of working with reform-minded figures such
as Ivo of Chartres, without allowing himself to be dominated by them. Through examining
Philip’s relationship with the French prelates, the popes and their legates, through
interrogating his approach to such matters as elections, patronage, and the crusade, and
through a fresh look at his marriage controversy, this thesis asserts that it is time for a different
approach to Philip’s religious attitudes
Dose-response effects of dietary inclusion of agro-industrial by-products on in vitro ruminal fermentation and methane production
Get PDFBACKGROUND: As the agro-industry produces considerable amounts of by-products globally, it is acknowledged to address the environmental issues related to their disposal and the resource competition between food for humans and feed for animals. The aim of this study was to explore in vitro, the effects of various by-products from the agro-industry on rumen fermentation and methane emission. Samples were collected from various food processing industries, including red, green apple pomace (RAP, GAP), hempseed cake (HC), coffee hulls (CH), coffee grounds (CG), spent mushroom compost (SMC), distillers dried Grains with solubles (DDGS). In doses of 100, 200, 300, g/kg, tested by-products were incubated in rumen fluid, where by-products replaced equal amounts of the substrates.
RESULTS: Gas production (GP) and dry matter digestibility (DMD) decreased linearly in most of tested by-products with the growth of doses (P < 0.001), while NH3-N concentration increased linearly. Linear decreases were observed in CH4 production with increasing doses of all by-products (P < 0.05). The reduction of CH4 production range from 21.4% to 33.6% at the dose of 100-300 g/kg, but reductions were only observed in dose of 100 g/kg when CH4 productions were corrected by digested dry matter (P < 0.05). RAP, GAP, HC were higher than CH, CG, SMC for the comparison of key parameters including DMD, GP and volatile fatty acids. Better methane-mitigating effects were observed in RAP, GAP and HC than that of Control group and CH, CG and SMC.
CONCLUSION: Most of by-products tested were proved to be a potential option for replacing conventional feed ingredients but should not exceed the dose at 200 g/kg
Causality in the winter interaction between extratropical storm tracks, atmospheric circulation, and Arctic sea ice loss
Get PDFGlobal warming is accelerating the decline of Arctic sea ice, with wide-ranging impacts on the Earth's climate system. Using ERA5 data from 1980 to 2023, we investigated the relationship between extratropical storm tracks, atmospheric circulation patterns, and sea ice area (SIA) in three key Arctic regions. We classified winters into two categories: atmosphere-driven winters (ADWs), when atmospheric circulation influences sea ice, and ice-driven winters (IDWs), when sea ice influences atmospheric circulation. This categorization was based on the sign of SIA and surface turbulent heat flux anomalies in the Barents-Kara Sea (BKS), Baffin Bay, Davis Strait, and Labrador Sea (BDL), and Chukchi-Bering Seas (CBS). Our findings show that in IDWs, reduced SIA has a minor effect on extratropical storm tracks. However, we observed significant mid-tropospheric cooling over Asia (around 55ºN), which aligns with the effects of reduced ice in the BKS during IDWs. This emphasizes the importance of considering the entire tropospheric temperature profile to capture the impact of sea ice loss. In contrast, during ADWs, the BKS and CBS regions experience amplified surface warming and SIA loss due to storm-induced intrusion of warm and moist air, with sea ice loss in the BKS contributing to strengthening Ural blocking. While cyclone-induced heat and moisture intrusion is prevalent, we found no significant trend in track density or mean intensity of positive V extrema in the North Atlantic sector of the Arctic, suggesting that changes in atmospheric circulation are unlikely to be the primary driver of recent sea ice loss in the BKS
Asymmetrical morphological evolution and energy conversion of droplets impacting on the moving film
Get PDFDroplet impacting on the film has been an important research topic, which is relevant to many important industries and is of high utilization value. The droplet impacting process shows excellent mass and heat transfer capability, whereas the liquid film is often in a flowing state, the morphological deformation and energy conversion of successive droplets impacting a moving liquid film were investigated. A three-dimensional volume of fluid model coupled with level-set function was established to investigate the single and successive droplet impact on the moving film. The asymmetry dynamic and energy dissipation and in the morphological evolution of the simultaneous single and successive droplet impacting processes under different droplet Weber numbers Wed and film Reynolds numbers Ref were thoroughly investigated. With smaller Wed and larger Ref, the liquid sheet downstream of the crown is more suppressed and the asymmetry of the crown is more significant. When Ref is constant, the dimensionless radius of the crown is related to the Wed0.2 and also to the power of dimensionless time, with the exponents differing between the upstream and downstream. The relationship of energy dissipation with dimensionless number was discussed, in which the kinetic energy Ek reduction accounts for a major part of the dissipation even though the surface energy Es increases due to the formation of the crown. Additionally, the upstream liquid sheets merging of the inner and outer crowns due to successive droplets continuous impacting on the moving film were also observed. With larger Ref and lower impingement frequency, the merging of the upstream liquid sheets is earlier
Novel drugs approved by the EMA, the FDA and the MHRA in 2024: a year in review
Get PDFIn the past year, the European Medicines Agency (EMA), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) authorised 53 novel drugs. While the 2024 harvest is not as rich as in 2023, when 70 new chemical entities were approved, the number of 'orphan' drug authorisations in 2024 (21) is similar to that of 2023 (24), illustrating the dynamic development of therapeutics in areas of unmet need. The 2024 approvals of novel protein therapeutics (15) and advanced therapy medicinal products (ATMPs, 6) indicate a sustained trend also noticeable in the 2023 new drugs reviewed in this journal last year (16 and 11, respectively). Clearly, the most striking characteristic of the 2024 drug yield is the creative pharmacological design, which allows these medicines to employ a novel approach to target a disease. Some notable examples are the first drug successfully using a 'dock-and-block' mechanism of inhibition (zenocutuzumab), the first approved drug for schizophrenia designed as an agonist of M1/M4 muscarinic receptors (xanomeline), the first biparatopic antibody (zanidatamab), binding two distinct epitopes of the same molecule, the first haemophilia therapy that instead of relying on external supplementation of clotting factors, restores Factor Xa activity by inhibiting TFPI (marstacimab), or the first ever authorised direct telomerase inhibitor (imetelstat) that reprogrammes the oncogenic drive of tumour cells. In addition, an impressive percentage of novel drugs were first in class (28 out of 53 or 53% of the total) and a substantial number can be considered disease agnostic, indicating the possibility of future approved extensions of their use for additional indications. The 2024 harvest demonstrates the therapeutic potential of innovative pharmacological design, which allows the effective targeting of intractable disorders and addresses crucial, unmet therapeutic needs