The game to play: expanding the co-opetition proposal through the strategic games matrix

Purpose - Using Brandenburger and Nalebuff`s 1995 co-opetition model as a reference, the purpose of this paper is to seek to develop a tool that, based on the tenets of classical game theory, would enable scholars and managers to identify which games may be played in response to the different conflict of interest situations faced by companies in their business environments. Design/methodology/approach - The literature on game theory and business strategy are reviewed and a conceptual model, the strategic games matrix (SGM), is developed. Two novel games are described and modeled. Findings - The co-opetition model is not sufficient to realistically represent most of the conflict of interest situations faced by companies. It seeks to address this problem through development of the SGM, which expands upon Brandenburger and Nalebuff`s model by providing a broader perspective, through incorporation of an additional dimension (power ratio between players) and three novel, respectively, (rival, individualistic, and associative). Practical implications - This proposed model, based on the concepts of game theory, should be used to train decision- and policy-makers to better understand, interpret and formulate conflict management strategies. Originality/value - A practical and original tool to use game models in conflict of interest situations is generated. Basic classical games, such as Nash, Stackelberg, Pareto, and Minimax, are mapped on the SGM to suggest in which situations they Could be useful. Two innovative games are described to fit four different types of conflict situations that so far have no corresponding game in the literature. A test application of the SGM to a classic Intel Corporation strategic management case, in the complex personal computer industry, shows that the proposed method is able to describe, to interpret, to analyze, and to prescribe optimal competitive and/or cooperative strategies for each conflict of interest situation.

Strategic alignment and performance: Brazilian companies in the medical diagnostics sector

A gap has been identified in the literature on the diagnosis and monitoring of the degree of strategic alignment. The main objective of this article is to diagnose and analyze the strategic alignment profile using the alignment diagnostic profile (ADP) tool, which enables organizations to show visually their degree of strategic alignment. The methodological approach adopted is multiple-case studies, which were conducted at five organizations in the medical diagnostics sector. The results indicate that the ADP enables organizations to understand the steps required to improve their level of alignment and to identify and locate gaps and conflicts.

Personal Values as Basis for Strategic Segmentation: a study with Professionals from Sao Paulo

An important segmentation basis used by firms is related to consumers` personal values which are investigated in this study. It was used a descriptive research with the survey method of data collection in a sample of executives from Sao Paulo who are considered to be potential buyers of high value and innovative goods. An exploratory factor analysis was employed in order to reduce the values scale used and a cluster analysis was performed to identify the groups of executives according to the importance attached to different person values. Concluding, it was observed that there was a similarity among the three personal values dimensions, named as Civility (concerns about having a good conduct before society according to social rules of interaction), Self-Direction (intellectual aspects and practical orientation in their conducts) and Conformity (restriction of actions, inclinations and impulses, that are likely to harm others and would violate expectations) and the ones reported in the theory Rokeach`s theory about instrumental personal values. Furthermore, three groups of executives were identified (good conduct group, low restriction group and high restriction group). The differences observed in the importance of personal values here presented by the dimensions called Civility, Self-Direction and Conformity can lead to different buying behaviors and product preferences. From the results found in this study the companies could adapt their current and new products offers, as well as their communication in order to better serve these segments of executives from Sao Paulo.

Correlation between margin fit and microleakage in complete crowns cemented with three luting agents

Microleakage can be related to margin misfit. Also, traditional microleakage techniques are time-consuming. This study evaluated the existence of correlation between in vitro margin fit and a new microleakage technique for complete crowns cemented with 3 different luting agents. Thirty human premolars were prepared for full-coverage crowns with a convergence angle of 6 degrees, chamfer margin of 1.2 mm circumferentially, and occlusal reduction of 1.5 mm. Ni-Cr cast crowns were cemented with either zinc phosphate (ZP) (S.S. White), resin-modified glass-ionomer (RMGI) (Rely X Luting Cement) or a resin-based luting agent (RC) (Enforce). Margin fit (seating discrepancy and margin gap) was evaluated according to criteria in the literature under microscope with 0.001 mm accuracy. After thermal cycling, crowns were longitudinally sectioned and microleakage scores at tooth-cement interface were obtained and recorded at ×100 magnification. Margin fit parameters were compared with the one-way ANOVA test and microleakage scores with Kruskal-Wallis and Dunn's tests (alpha=0.05). Correlation between margin fit and microleakage was analyzed with the Spearman's test (alpha=0.05). Seating discrepancy and marginal gap values ranged from 81.82 µm to 137.22 µm (p=0.117), and from 75.42 µm to 78.49 µm (p=0.940), respectively. Marginal microleakage scores were ZP=3.02, RMGI=0.35 and RC=0.12 (p<0.001), with no differences between RMGI and RC scores. The correlation coefficient values ranged from -0.27 to 0.30 (p>0.05). Conclusion: Margin fit parameters and microleakage showed no strong correlations; cast crowns cemented with RMGI and RC had lower microleakage scores than ZP cement.

Effect of phosphate-bonded investments on titanium reaction layer and crown fit

This study analyzed the reaction layer and measured the marginal crown fit of cast titanium applied to different phosphate-bonded investments, prepared under the following conditions (liquid concentration/casting temperature): Rema Exakt (RE) - 100%/237°C, 75%/287°C, Castorit Super C (CS)-100%/70°C, 75%/141°C and Rematitan Plus (RP)- 100%/430°C (special to titanium cast, as the control group). The reaction layer was studied using the Vickers hardness test, and analyzed by two way ANOVA and Tukey's HSD tests (α = 0.05). Digital photographs were taken of the crowns seated on the die, the misfit was measured using an image analysis system and One-way ANOVA, and Tukey's test was applied (α = 0.05). The hardness decreased from the surface (601.17 VHN) to 150 μm (204.03 VHN). The group CS 75%/141°C presented higher hardness than the other groups, revealing higher surface contamination, but there were no differences among the groups at measurements deeper than 150 μm. The castings made with CS - 100%/70°C presented the lowest levels of marginal misfit, followed by RE -100%/237°C. The conventional investments CS (100%) and RE (100%) showed better marginal fit than RP, but the CS (75%) had higher surface contamination.

Pulsar binary systems in a nonsymmetric theory of gravitation II. Dipole radiation

This paper deals with the emission of gravitational radiation in the context of a previously studied metric nonsymmetric theory of gravitation. The part coming from the symmetric part of the metric coincides with the mass quadrupole moment result of general relativity. The one associated to the antisymmetric part of the metric involves the dipole moment of the fermionic charge of the system. The results are applied to binary star systems and the decrease of the period of the elliptical motion is calculated.

Nonexistence of regular stationary solution in a metric nonsymmetric theory of gravitation

It is proven that the field equations of a previously studied metric nonsymmetric theory of gravitation do not admit any non-singular stationary solution which represents a field of non-vanishing total mass and non-vanishing total fermionic charge.

Analyzing the n→π* Electronic Transition of Formaldehyde in Water. A Sequential Monte Carlo/Time-Dependent Density Functional Theory

The n→π* absorption transition of formaldehyde in water is analyzed using combined and sequential classical Monte Carlo (MC) simulations and quantum mechanics (QM) calculations. MC simulations generate the liquid solute-solvent structures for subsequent QM calculations. Using time-dependent density functional theory in a localized set of gaussian basis functions (TD-DFT/6-311++G(d,p)) calculations are made on statistically relevant configurations to obtain the average solvatochromic shift. All results presented here use the electrostatic embedding of the solvent. The statistically converged average result obtained of 2300 cm-1 is compared to previous theoretical results available. Analysis is made of the effective dipole moment of the hydrogen-bonded shell and how it could be held responsible for the polarization of the solvent molecules in the outer solvation shells.

Density functional theory study of Fe(3)Ga

First-principles scalar relativistic calculations in supercells of 16 atoms are used to represent disordered B2 ordering of Fe(3)Ga in order to observe the effect of Ga-Ga pairs on the electronic structure of this alloy. From a comparison with pure bcc Fe it is observed that the energy position and occupation of e(g) and t(2g) states are largely affected by the Ga-Ga pairs and strengthened intraplane interactions takes place. The results show that a larger hybridization of the conduction band is in the source of the magnetostriction enhancement experimentally observed in Galfenol. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3525609]

A new constitutive theory extending Hypoplasticity

The purpose of the present theory is to improve Hypoplasticity, especially in relation to reloading processes. This is done by means of two hypoplastic equations (a classical equation along with a new one containing a so-called mnemonic tensor), a cone in stress space and a criterion defining loading, unloading and reloading. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Decision theory applied to image quality control in radiology

Background: The present work aims at the application of the decision theory to radiological image quality control ( QC) in diagnostic routine. The main problem addressed in the framework of decision theory is to accept or reject a film lot of a radiology service. The probability of each decision of a determined set of variables was obtained from the selected films. Methods: Based on a radiology service routine a decision probability function was determined for each considered group of combination characteristics. These characteristics were related to the film quality control. These parameters were also framed in a set of 8 possibilities, resulting in 256 possible decision rules. In order to determine a general utility application function to access the decision risk, we have used a simple unique parameter called r. The payoffs chosen were: diagnostic's result (correct/incorrect), cost (high/low), and patient satisfaction (yes/no) resulting in eight possible combinations. Results: Depending on the value of r, more or less risk will occur related to the decision-making. The utility function was evaluated in order to determine the probability of a decision. The decision was made with patients or administrators' opinions from a radiology service center. Conclusion: The model is a formal quantitative approach to make a decision related to the medical imaging quality, providing an instrument to discriminate what is really necessary to accept or reject a film or a film lot. The method presented herein can help to access the risk level of an incorrect radiological diagnosis decision.

Dynamics and constraints of the massive graviton dark matter flat cosmologies

We discuss the dynamics of the Universe within the framework of the massive graviton cold dark matter scenario (MGCDM) in which gravitons are geometrically treated as massive particles. In this modified gravity theory, the main effect of the gravitons is to alter the density evolution of the cold dark matter component in such a way that the Universe evolves to an accelerating expanding regime, as presently observed. Tight constraints on the main cosmological parameters of the MGCDM model are derived by performing a joint likelihood analysis involving the recent supernovae type Ia data, the cosmic microwave background shift parameter, and the baryonic acoustic oscillations as traced by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey red luminous galaxies. The linear evolution of small density fluctuations is also analyzed in detail. It is found that the growth factor of the MGCDM model is slightly different (similar to 1-4%) from the one provided by the conventional flat Lambda CDM cosmology. The growth rate of clustering predicted by MGCDM and Lambda CDM models are confronted to the observations and the corresponding best fit values of the growth index (gamma) are also determined. By using the expectations of realistic future x-ray and Sunyaev-Zeldovich cluster surveys we derive the dark matter halo mass function and the corresponding redshift distribution of cluster-size halos for the MGCDM model. Finally, we also show that the Hubble flow differences between the MGCDM and the Lambda CDM models provide a halo redshift distribution departing significantly from the those predicted by other dark energy models. These results suggest that the MGCDM model can observationally be distinguished from Lambda CDM and also from a large number of dark energy models recently proposed in the literature.

Quantum statistical correlations in thermal field theories: Boundary effective theory

We show that the one-loop effective action at finite temperature for a scalar field with quartic interaction has the same renormalized expression as at zero temperature if written in terms of a certain classical field phi(c), and if we trade free propagators at zero temperature for their finite-temperature counterparts. The result follows if we write the partition function as an integral over field eigenstates (boundary fields) of the density matrix element in the functional Schrodinger field representation, and perform a semiclassical expansion in two steps: first, we integrate around the saddle point for fixed boundary fields, which is the classical field phi(c), a functional of the boundary fields; then, we perform a saddle-point integration over the boundary fields, whose correlations characterize the thermal properties of the system. This procedure provides a dimensionally reduced effective theory for the thermal system. We calculate the two-point correlation as an example.

Thermal instability in a gravity-like scalar theory

We study the question of stability of the ground state of a scalar theory which is a generalization of the phi(3) theory and has some similarity to gravity with a cosmological constant. We show that the ground state of the theory at zero temperature becomes unstable above a certain critical temperature, which is evaluated in closed form at high temperature.

Theory of small-signal ac response of a dielectric liquid containing two groups of ions

The analysis of Macdonald for electrolytes is generalized to the case in which two groups of ions are present. We assume that the electrolyte can be considered as a dispersion of ions in a dielectric liquid, and that the ionic recombination can be neglected. We present the differential equations governing the ionic redistribution when the liquid is subjected to an external electric field, describing the simultaneous diffusion of the two groups of ions in the presence of their own space charge fields. We investigate the influence of the ions on the impedance spectroscopy of an electrolytic cell. In the analysis, we assume that each group of ions have equal mobility, the electrodes perfectly block and that the adsorption phenomena can be neglected. In this framework, it is shown that the real part of the electrical impedance of the cell has a frequency dependence presenting two plateaux, related to a type of ambipolar and free diffusion coefficients. The importance of the considered problem on the ionic characterization performed by means of the impedance spectroscopy technique was discussed. (c) 2008 American Institute of Physics.