Showing 11 - 20 of 722 Items
The Effects of Corporate Governance on the Innovation Performance of Chinese SMEs
Date: 2013-03-10
Creator: Yao Tang
Daniel Shapiro
Miaojun Wang
Weiying Zhang
Access: Open access
- We investigate the degree to which corporate governance and ownership affects the innovation performance of firms in China with a particular focus on privately owned small and medium enterprises (SMEs). We hypothesize that (1) board-related governance measures will enhance innovation because they improve monitoring and provide access to necessary resources; (2) ownership concentration initially facilitates innovation because large shareholders are more likely to commit to the long-term nature of innovation, and have the incentive to monitor managers whose time horizon may be shorter; however we argue that these effects weaken as large shareholders becomes entrenched at higher levels of concentration; and (3) hiring an external CEO will enhance innovation both by ensuring professional management of the company, and by alleviating the entrenchment possibilities associated with large shareholders. These hypotheses are tested using a unique sample of 370 mostly private and relatively small Chinese firms in Zhejiang province, for the period 2004 to 2006. The results suggest that for this sample, corporate governance and ownership affect innovation activity when measured by patenting activity, but not when measured by new product sales.
Tempered, invariant, positive-definite distributions on SU(1, 1)/{± 1}
Date: 1984-01-01
Creator: William H. Barker
Access: Open access
Prototypes, location, and associative networks (PLAN): Towards a unified theory of cognitive mapping
Date: 1995-01-01
Creator: Eric Chown
Stephen Kaplan
David Kortenkamp
Access: Open access
- An integrated representation of large-scale space, or cognitive map, colled PLAN, is presented that attempts to address a broader spectrum of issues than has been previously attempted in a single model. Rather than examining way-finding as a process separate from the rest of cognition, one or the fundamental goals of this work is to examine how the wayfinding process is integrated into general cognition. One result of this approach is that the model is "heads-up," or scene-based, because it takes advantage of the properties of the human visual system and, particularly, the visual system's split into two pathways. The emphasis on the human location or "where" system is new to cognitive mapping and is port of an attempt to synthesize prototype theory, associative networks and location together in a connectionist system. Not all of PLAN is new, however. Many of its parts have analogues in one or another preexisting theory. What makes PLAN unique is integrating the various components into a coherent whole, and the capacity of this resulting system to speak to a wide range of constraints. Our approach emphasizes adaptiveness; thus, our focus on such issues as ease of use and efficiency of learning. The result is a model that has a stronger relationship both to the environment, and to the ways that humans interact with it, compared with previous models. The resulting model is examined in some detail and compared to other systems. © 1995.
Differential gene expression during compensatory sprouting of dendrites in the auditory system of the cricket Gryllus bimaculatus
Date: 2009-08-01
Creator: H. W. Horch
S. S. McCarthy
S. L. Johansen
J. M. Harris
Access: Open access
- Neurones that lose their presynaptic partners because of injury usually retract or die. However, when the auditory interneurones of the cricket Gryllus bimaculatus are denervated, dendrites respond by growing across the midline and forming novel synapses with the opposite auditory afferents. Suppression subtractive hybridization was used to detect transcriptional changes 3 days after denervation. This is a stage at which we demonstrate robust compensatory dendritic sprouting. Whereas 49 unique candidates were down-regulated, no sufficiently up-regulated candidates were identified at this time point. Several candidates identified in this study are known to influence the translation and degradation of proteins in other systems. The potential role of these factors in the compensatory sprouting of cricket auditory interneurones in response to denervation is discussed. © 2009 The Royal Entomological Society.
The draw-a-computational-creativity-researcher test (DACCRT): Exploring stereotypic images and descriptions of computational creativity
Date: 2019-01-01
Creator: Sarah Harmon
Katie McDonough
Access: Open access
- Prior work investigating student perceptions of scientists has revealed commonly-held beliefs, stereotypes, and even connections to career choices. We adapt the “Draw-A-Scientist” instrument to examine how undergraduates depict computational creativity researchers and the field of computational creativity as a whole. Our results indicate that there are significant differences when students are asked to draw or describe a computer scientist versus a computational creativity researcher. Whether the student is an upper-level or introductory computer science student appears to also influence responses.
Digital Humanities and Italian Studies: Intersections and Oppositions
Date: 2019-07-03
Creator: Crystal Hall
Access: Open access
- This article examines the relationship between two fields of study, Italian Studies and Digital Humanities (DH), by documenting projects that employ digital or computational methods in the study of Italian language, literature, history, and the arts. In a complementary fashion, the author outlines the analytical questions of Italian scholars that have potential to advance inquiry in DH. A final section is devoted to contextualizing DH within the practice of Italian Studies at the institutional, program, and department levels by drawing on research of course offerings and a survey circulated in August 2017. The overall finding is that the area of overlap between DH and Italian Studies is intellectually rich, with increasing (yet still sparse) opportunities to develop specialization in this area.
“I Never Saw as Good a Nature Show Before”: Walt Disney, Environmental Education, and the True-Life Adventures
Date: 2022-01-01
Creator: Charles Dorn
Access: Open access
- Alongside Walt Disney’s animated movies, television programming, and theme parks, scholars have examined The Walt Disney Studios’ True-Life Adventures series of live-action nature documentary films for their impact on popular culture. Historians, however, have mostly overlooked the significance of the True-Life Adventures for student learning about the natural world. Amending this historiographical shortcoming, this essay examines Disney’s innovative approach to wildlife filmmaking, describes viewers’ reactions to the True-Life Adventures’ educational qualities, and investigates the Studios’ efforts to use the films to enter the education market. The study breaks new ground by analyzing seldom accessed documents preserved in theWalt Disney Archives both to reveal how students, teachers, and college and university faculty responded to the films and to examine the extension of the nature documentaries through related media.
Swarm-based path creation in dynamic environments for search and rescue
Date: 2012-01-01
Creator: William K. Richard
Stephen M. Majercik
Access: Open access
Fgf signaling is required for zebrafish tooth development
Date: 2004-10-01
Creator: William R. Jackman
Bruce W. Draper
David W. Stock
Access: Open access
- We have investigated fibroblast growth factor (FGF) signaling during the development of the zebrafish pharyngeal dentition with the goal of uncovering novel roles for FGFs in tooth development as well as phylogenetic and topographic diversity in the tooth developmental pathway. We found that the tooth-related expression of several zebrafish genes is similar to that of their mouse orthologs, including both epithelial and mesenchymal markers. Additionally, significant differences in gene expression between zebrafish and mouse teeth are indicated by the apparent lack of fgf8 and pax9 expression in zebrafish tooth germs. FGF receptor inhibition with SU5402 at 32 h blocked dental epithelial morphogenesis and tooth mineralization. While the pharyngeal epithelium remained intact as judged by normal pitx2 expression, not only was the mesenchymal expression of lhx6 and lhx7 eliminated as expected from mouse studies, but the epithelial expression of dlx2a, dlx2b, fgf3, and fgf4 was as well. This latter result provides novel evidence that the dental epithelium is a target of FGF signaling. However, the failure of SU5402 to block localized expression of pitx2 suggests that the earliest steps of tooth initiation are FGF-independent. Investigations of specific FGF ligands with morpholino antisense oligonucleotides revealed only a mild tooth shape phenotype following fgf4 knockdown, while fgf8 inhibition revealed only a subtle down-regulation of dental dlx2b expression with no apparent effect on tooth morphology. Our results suggest redundant FGF signals target the dental epithelium and together are required for dental morphogenesis. Further work will be required to elucidate the nature of these signals, particularly with respect to their origins and whether they act through the mesenchyme. © 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
The 'obligate diploid' Candida albicans forms mating-competent haploids
Date: 2013-02-07
Creator: Meleah A. Hickman
Guisheng Zeng
Anja Forche
Matthew P. Hirakawa
Darren, Abbey
Benjamin D. Harrison
Yan Ming Wang
Ching Hua Su
Richard J. Bennett
Yue Wang
Judith Berman
Access: Open access
- Candida albicans, the most prevalent human fungal pathogen, is considered to be an obligate diploid that carries recessive lethal mutations throughout the genome. Here we demonstrate that C. albicans has a viable haploid state that can be derived from diploid cells under in vitro and in vivo conditions, and that seems to arise through a concerted chromosome loss mechanism. Haploids undergo morphogenetic changes like those of diploids, including the yeast-hyphal transition, chlamydospore formation and a white-opaque switch that facilitates mating. Haploid opaque cells of opposite mating type mate efficiently to regenerate the diploid form, restoring heterozygosity and fitness. Homozygous diploids arise spontaneously by auto-diploidization, and both haploids and auto-diploids show a similar reduction in fitness, in vitro and in vivo, relative to heterozygous diploids, indicating that homozygous cell types are transient in mixed populations. Finally, we constructed stable haploid strains with multiple auxotrophies that will facilitate molecular and genetic analyses of this important pathogen. © 2013 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved.