1,363,686 research outputs found
Workforce diversity policy.
No full textResumen del capítulo: Este capítulo explora las políticas de diversidad laboral internacional dentro de las corporaciones multinacionales estadounidenses (MNC). Argumenta que la diversidad es un tema clave en la transferencia de políticas de recursos humanos entre países, ya que tiene sus raíces en características distintivas del entorno empresarial estadounidense (demográficas, sociopolíticas y legales). Estas particularidades han dado lugar a una agenda de diversidad centrada en la "igualdad de oportunidades" y en la "justificación empresarial". El capítulo examina cómo estas políticas de diversidad viajan a sistemas jurídicos y patrones demográficos distintos en los países anfitriones, lo que puede complicar su aplicación. También se analiza cómo la diversidad, tal y como ha emergido en las corporaciones estadounidenses, refleja una agenda política propia de EE. UU., y se contrasta con datos comparativos de los países anfitriones. Finalmente, se estudia la prevalencia de políticas de diversidad internacional en diferentes empresas y cómo se implementan en las subsidiarias, explorando los factores que subyacen a la variabilidad en la adopción de estas políticas.Abstract: This chapter explores international workforce diversity policies within American multinational corporations (MNCs). Diversity is considered a key issue in HR policy transfer across countries, rooted in distinctive features of the US business environment, including demographic, socio-political, and legal factors. These have led to the development of diversity agendas centred around 'equal employment opportunity' and the 'business case' for diversity. The chapter examines how these US diversity policies are applied in host countries with different demographic patterns and legal traditions, potentially complicating their implementation. It further investigates how diversity, as it has emerged in US corporations, reflects a specifically American policy agenda, and contrasts this with comparative data from host countries. The chapter also analyses the prevalence of international diversity policies across different companies and how they are implemented in subsidiaries, focusing on the process of assimilation, adaptation, or resistance by actors in host countries. Lastly, it explores the factors driving variation in the propagation and implementation of diversity policies across companies and nations.Depto. de Organización de EmpresasFac. de Comercio y TurismoTRUEpu
Spektroskopische Untersuchungen zur Bestimmung von RNA-Ligand-Wechselwirkungen und RNA-Dynamiken
No full textThis thesis describes the structural characterization of interactions between biological relevant ribonucleic acid biomacromolecules (RNAs) and selected ligands to optimize the methodologies for the design of pharmacological lead compounds. To achieve this aim, not only the structures of the RNA, the ligand and their complexes need to be known, but also information about the inherent dynamics, especially of the target RNA, are necessary. To determine the structure and dynamics of these molecules and their complexes, liquid state nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR) is a suitable and powerful method. The necessity for these investigations arises from the lack of knowledge in RNA-ligand interactions, e.g. for the development of new medicinal drugs targeting crucial RNA sequences. In the first chapters of this thesis (Chapters II to IV), an introduction into RNA research is given with a focus on RNA structural features (Chapter II), into the interacting molecules, the biology of the specific RNA targets and the further development of their ligands (Chapter III) and into the NMR theory and methodologies used within this thesis (Chapter IV). Chapter II begins with a description of RNA characteristics and functions, placing the focus on the increasing attention that these biomacromolecules have attracted in recent years due to their diverse biological functionalities. This is followed by a detailed description of general structural features of RNA molecules. The biological functions of the RNAs investigated in this thesis (Human immunodeficiency virus PSI- and TAR-RNA and Coxsackievirus B3 Stemloop D in the 5’-cloverleaf element), together with their known structural characteristics are introduced in Chapter III. Furthermore, a description of the investigated ligands is given, focusing on the methods how their affinity and specificity were determined. The introduction is completed in Chapter IV, where the relevant NMR theory and methodologies are explained. First, kinetics and thermodynamics of ligand binding are summarized from an NMR point of view. Subsequently, a detailed description of the resonance assignment procedures for RNAs and peptidic ligands is given. This procedure mainly concentrates on the assignment of the proton resonances, which are essential for the later structure calculation from NMR restraints. The procedure for NMR structure calculation of RNA and its complexes follows with a short introduction into the programs ARIA and HADDOCK. The final part of this chapter explains the relaxation theory and the methodology to extract dynamic information from autocorrelated relaxation rates via the model-free formalism. In the Chapters V to VII of this thesis, the original publications are included and grouped into three topics. Chapter V comprehends the publications on the investigations of HIV PSI-RNA and its hexapeptidic ligand. These three publications[1-3] focus on the characterization of the ligand and its binding properties, its structure and the optimization of its composition aiming to improve its usage for further spectroscopic investigations.Die vorliegende Doktorarbeit behandelt die strukturelle Aufklärung von Wechselwirkungen zwischen biologisch relevanten Ribonukleinsäuren (RNA) und ausgewählten Liganden, sowie die Bestimmung der inhärenten Dynamik der RNA, um zur Methodenentwicklung für den Entwurf neuer Pharmaka beizutragen. Zur Bestimmung sowohl der Strukturen, als auch der Dynamiken stellt die Flüssig-Kernspinresonanz-Spektroskopie (NMR) eine ideale biophysikalische Methode dar. Die ersten Hälfte dieser Doktorarbeit gibt zum einen eine Einleitung in die RNA-Forschung mit besonderem Fokus auf den allgemeinen strukturellen und dynamischen Eigenschaften von Ribonukleinsäuren, stellt zweitens die ausgewählten RNA-Zielstrukturen und deren mit verschiedenen Methoden bestimmten Liganden vor, und erklärt drittens die zugrundeliegende NMR-Theorie und die verwendeten Methoden zur Untersuchung der Bindungs¬charakteristika, zur Strukturbestimmung der RNA und der Liganden und zur Ableitung dynamischer Parameter aus experimentellen Daten. Die zweite Hälfte dieser Arbeit ist der kumulative Teil und enthält die Originalpublikationen, die in drei Themenbereiche eingeteilt sind. Zuerst sind die drei Publikationen gruppiert, in denen die Bestimmung und Charakterisierung peptidischer Liganden der HIV Psi-RNA und deren Wechselwirkungen miteinander behandelt werden. Durch einen Phage-Display Assay wurde zunächst eine Konsensus¬sequenz eines peptidischen Liganden identifiziert (HWWPWW). Zur Verbesserung der Bindungseigenschaften wurde das Hexapeptid mittels einer Sequenzvariierung auf einer Membranoberfläche (SPOT-Assay) weiter optimiert (HKWPWW). Die weiteren strukturellen Untersuchungen der RNA-Ligand-Wechselwirkungen wurden per Fluoreszenz- und NMR-Spektroskopie durchgeführt, wobei die NMR-Spektroskopie aufzeigen konnte, dass das Peptid HKWPWW in zwei Konformationen der zentralen Prolinpeptidbindung zu beinahe gleichen Anteilen vorliegt. Die nächsten zwei Publikationen beschreiben die Ligandselektion gegen die Zielstruktur HIV TAR und die Strukturaufklärung des Komplexes mittels NMR-Spektroskopie. Als Liganden wurden Tripeptide synthetisiert, in denen zwei Arginine eine synthetische Aminosäure mit aromatischen oder hetero¬aromatischen Gruppierungen in ihrer Seitenkette flankieren. Mittels Fluoreszenz-Resonanz¬energietransfersichtung (FRET-Assay) wurde eine Vorauswahl der Liganden vorgenommen und die Interaktionen der ausgewählten Liganden mit der RNA per NMR-Spektroskopie konkretisiert. Eine intensive strukturelle Untersuchung des Liganden mit einer Pyrimidinylgruppe in der Seitenkette der zentralen Aminosäure in Komplex mit der TAR RNA ergab eine 2:1 Bindungsstöchiometrie des Liganden. Die erste stärkere Bindungsstelle im Bulge der RNA war bereits weitgehend bekannt als Ziel von Arginin-tragenden Liganden. Die strukturellen Untersuchungen konnten jedoch auch die zweite Bindungsstelle des Tripeptids unterhalb des Bulges lokalisieren. Zuletzt sind die zwei Publikationen zur Untersuchung der RNA-Dynamik zusammengefasst. Aus autokorrelierten Relaxationsraten der Kerne C1’ und C8 (für Purine) bzw. C6 (für Pyrimidine) in Nukleotiden der RNA Tetraloopsequenzen UUCG und CACG wurden mittels des Model-Free Formalismus Parameter abgeleitet, die über Dynamiken auf der Zeitskala von Pico- bis Nanosekunden der C-H Vektoren berichten. Die Verwendung optimierter und neuer Werte der C-H Bindungslänge und der Anisotropie der 13C-chemischen Verschiebung (13C-CSA) ermöglichte eine genauere Ableitung der inhärenten Dynamiken dieser RNA Moleküle. Diese Informationen konnten in die strukturellen Untersuchungen der glykosidischen Bindung durch kreuzkorrelierte Relaxationsraten eingebaut werden. Des Weiteren konnten die dynamischen Parameter bei verschiedenen Temperaturen mit Parametern abgeglichen werden, die aus Molekular-Dynamischen (MD) Trajektorien abgeleitet wurden. Dies ermöglichte die Visualisierung der internen Bewegungen zweier strukturell ähnlicher Tetraloops aus der YNMG-Familie, die sich aber in ihrer Stabilität unterscheiden. Bei Temperaturen nahe dem Schmelzpunkt des weniger stabilen CACG-Tetraloops offenbarten sich die Änderungen in der Dynamik, die zum Aufschmelzen des Loops führen
Orthophoto map of Langtaler Ferner 1971
No full textAs an example for the representation of glaciers using orthophoto maps the new map "Langtaler Ferner 1971" is presented. The orthophoto map shows the glacier "Langtaler Ferner" in the Oetztal Alps (Austria) on August 18, 1971. Apart from a description of the map production and a discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of such ortho- photo maps for the representation of glacierized areas, the stage of the "Langtaler Ferner" at the time of the ftight is described. A comparison with some data of previollsly published maps is also included
Global games and general claims: locating the contribution of Kristensen and Zeitlin.
No full textThis is a pre-copy-editing, author-produced PDF of an article accepted for publication in Socio-Economic Review following peer review. The definitive publisher-authenticated version Ferner, A.M. (2008) Global games and general claims: locating the contribution of Kristensen and Zeitlin. Socio-Economic Review, 6 (2) pp. 379-384. is available online at: http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.1093/ser/mwn00
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
No full textThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Ranging with ultrawide bandwidth signals in multipath environments
No full textOver the coming decades, high-definition situationally-aware networks have the potential to create revolutionary applications in the social, scientific, commercial, and military sectors. Ultrawide bandwidth (UWB) technology is a viable candidate for enabling accurate localization capabilities through time-of-arrival (TOA)-based ranging techniques. These techniques exploit the fine delay resolution property of UWB signals by estimating the TOA of the first signal path. Exploiting the full capabilities of UWB TOA estimation can be challenging, especially when operating in harsh propagation environments, since the direct path may not exist or it may not be the strongest. In this paper, we first give an overview of ranging techniques together with the primary sources of TOA error (including propagation effects, clock drift, and interference). We then describe fundamental TOA bounds (such as the Cramer-Rao bound and the tighter Ziv-Zakai bound) in both ideal and multipath environments. These bounds serve as useful benchmarks in assessing the performance of TOA estimation techniques. We also explore practical low-complexity TOA estimation techniques and analyze their performance in the presence of multipath and interference using IEEE 802.15.4a channel models as well as experimental data measured in indoor residential environments.FP7 European Project EUWB (Grant 215669)Institute of Advanced Study Natural Science and Technology FellowshipUniversità di FerraraUnited States. Office of Naval Research (Young Investigator Award N00014-03-1-0489)National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant ANI-0335256)National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant ECS-0636519)Jet Propulsion Laborator
Variations on the Author
No full text“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
No full textWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
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