Exporting to Eastern Europe : principles and practice, including a case study of the market for fire fighting equipment

East-West trade has grown rapidly since the sixties, stimulating a parallel expansion in the literature on the subject. An extensive review of this literature shows how: (i) most of the issues involved have at their source the distinctions between East and West in political ideology and/or economic management, and (ii) there has been a tendency to keep theoretical and practical perspectives on the subject too separate. This thesis demonstrates the importance of understanding the fundamental principles implied in the first point, and represents an attempt to bridge the gap identified in the second. A detailed study of the market for fire fighting equipment in Eastern Europe is undertaken in collaboration with a medium-sized company, Angus Fire Armour Limited. Desk research methods are combined with visits to the market to assess the potential for the company's products, and recommendations for future strategy are made. The case demonstrates the scope and limitations of various research methods for the East European market, and a model for market research relevant to all companies is developed. Tne case study highlights three areas largely neglected in the literature: (i) the problems of internal company adaptation to East European conditions; (ii) the division of responsibility between foreign trade organisations; and (iii) bribery and corruption in East-West trade. Further research into the second topic - through a survey of 36 UK exporters - and the third - through analysis of publicised corruption cases - confirms the representativeness of the Angus experience, and reflects on the complexity of the Bast European import process, which does not always function as is commonly supposed. The very complexity of the problems confronting companies reaffirms the need to appreciate the principles underlying the subject, while the detailed analysis into questions of, originally, a marketing nature, reveals wider implications for East-West trade and East-West relations.

Cost and time control of construction project: inhibiting factors and mitigating measures in practice

Despite the availability of various control techniques and project control software many construction projects still do not achieve their cost and time objectives. Research in this area so far has mainly been devoted to identifying causes of cost and time overruns. There is limited research geared towards studying factors inhibiting the ability of practitioners to effectively control their projects. To fill this gap, a survey was conducted on 250 construction project organizations in the UK, which was followed by face-to-face interviews with experienced practitioners from 15 of these organizations. The common factors that inhibit both time and cost control during construction projects were first identified. Subsequently 90 mitigating measures have been developed for the top five leading inhibiting factors—design changes, risks/uncertainties, inaccurate evaluation of project time/duration, complexities and non-performance of subcontractors were recommended. These mitigating measures were classified as: preventive, predictive, corrective and organizational measures. They can be used as a checklist of good practice and help project managers to improve the effectiveness of control of their projects.

The cognitive impact of anticholinergics:a clinical review

Context: The cognitive side effects of medications with anticholinergic activity have been documented among older adults in a variety of clinical settings. However, there has been no systematic confirmation that acute or chronic prescribing of such medications lead to transient or permanent adverse cognitive outcomes. Objective: Evaluate the existing evidence regarding the effects of anticholinergic medications on cognition in older adults. Data sources: We searched the MEDLINE, OVID, and CINAHL databases from January, 1966 to January, 2008 for eligible studies. Study selection: Studies were included if the anticholinergic activity was systematically measured and correlated with standard measurements of cognitive performance. Studies were excluded if they reported case studies, case series, editorials, and review articles. Data extraction: We extracted the method used to determine anticholinergic activity of medications and its association with cognitive outcomes. Results: Twenty-seven studies met our inclusion criteria. Serum anticholinergic assay was the main method used to determine anticholinergic activity. All but two studies found an association between the anticholinergic activity of medications and either delirium, cognitive impairment or dementia. Conclusions: Medications with anticholinergic activity negatively affect the cognitive performance of older adults. Recognizing the anticholinergic activity of certain medications may represent a potential tool to improve cognition.

International business research and risky investments, an analysis of FDI in conflict zones

The purpose of this paper is to examine the determinants of a firm's strategy to invest in a conflict location. To the best of our knowledge, this has not been done before. We examine this using a standard model of international business, overlaid with the fundamental approach to corporate social responsibility. We start with the population of multinationals who have chosen to invest in low income countries with weak institutions. We then split this sample in order to distinguish between firms that have invested in conflict regions compared to those that have not. Our analysis then proceeds to explain the decision of those firms to invest in conflict locations using a simple Probit model. We find that countries with weaker institutions and less concern about corporate social responsibility (CSR) are more likely to invest in conflict regions. Finally, firms with more concentrated ownership are more likely to invest in such locations. © 2012 Elsevier Ltd.

Tacit collusion, firm asymmetries and numbers:evidence from EC merger cases

The purpose of this paper is to identify empirically the implicit structural model, especially the roles of size asymmetries and concentration, used by the European Commission to identify mergers with coordinated effects (i.e. collective dominance). Apart from its obvious policy-relevance, the paper is designed to shed empirical light on the conditions under which tacit collusion is most likely. We construct a database relating to 62 candidate mergers and find that, in the eyes of the Commission, tacit collusion in this context virtually never involves more than two firms and requires close symmetry in the market shares of the two firms.

Clogging in horizontal subsurface flow constructed wetlands

Horizontal Subsurface Flow Treatment Wetlands (HSSF TWs) are used by Severn Trent Water as a low-cost tertiary wastewater treatment for rural locations. Experience has shown that clogging is a major operational problem that reduces HSSF TW lifetime. Clogging is caused by an accumulation of secondary wastewater solids from upstream processes and decomposing leaf litter. Clogging occurs as a sludge layer where wastewater is loaded on the surface of the bed at the inlet. Severn Trent systems receive relatively high hydraulic loading rates, which causes overland flow and reduces the ability to mineralise surface sludge accumulations. A novel apparatus and method, the Aston Permeameter, was created to measure hydraulic conductivity in situ. Accuracy is ±30 %, which was considered adequate given that conductivity in clogged systems varies by several orders of magnitude. The Aston Permeameter was used to perform 20 separate tests on 13 different HSSF TWs in the UK and the US. The minimum conductivity measured was 0.03 m/d at Fenny Compton (compared with 5,000 m/d clean conductivity), which was caused by an accumulation of construction fines in one part of the bed. Most systems displayed a 2 to 3 order of magnitude variation in conductivity in each dimension. Statistically significant transverse variations in conductivity were found in 70% of the systems. Clogging at the inlet and outlet was generally highest where flow enters the influent distribution and exits the effluent collection system, respectively. Surface conductivity was lower in systems with dense vegetation because plant canopies reduce surface evapotranspiration and decelerate sludge mineralisation. An equation was derived to describe how the water table profile is influenced by overland flow, spatial variations in conductivity and clogging. The equation is calibrated using a single parameter, the Clog Factor (CF), which represents the equivalent loss of porosity that would reproduce measured conductivity according to the Kozeny-Carman Equation. The CF varies from 0 for ideal conditions to 1 for completely clogged conditions. Minimum CF was 0.54 for a system that had recently been refurbished, which represents the deviation from ideal conditions due to characteristics of non-ideal media such as particle size distribution and morphology. Maximum CF was 0.90 for a 15 year old system that exhibited sludge accumulation and overland flow across the majority of the bed. A Finite Element Model of a 15 m long HSSF TW was used to indicate how hydraulics and hydrodynamics vary as CF increases. It was found that as CF increases from 0.55 to 0.65 the subsurface wetted area increases, which causes mean hydraulic residence time to increase from 0.16 days to 0.18 days. As CF increases from 0.65 to 0.90, the extent of overland flow increases from 1.8 m to 13.1 m, which reduces hydraulic efficiency from 37 % to 12 % and reduces mean residence time to 0.08 days.

Development of a probabilistic graphical structure from a model of mental health clinical expertise

This thesis explores the process of developing a principled approach for translating a model of mental-health risk expertise into a probabilistic graphical structure. Probabilistic graphical structures can be a combination of graph and probability theory that provide numerous advantages when it comes to the representation of domains involving uncertainty, domains such as the mental health domain. In this thesis the advantages that probabilistic graphical structures offer in representing such domains is built on. The Galatean Risk Screening Tool (GRiST) is a psychological model for mental health risk assessment based on fuzzy sets. In this thesis the knowledge encapsulated in the psychological model was used to develop the structure of the probability graph by exploiting the semantics of the clinical expertise. This thesis describes how a chain graph can be developed from the psychological model to provide a probabilistic evaluation of risk that complements the one generated by GRiST’s clinical expertise by the decomposing of the GRiST knowledge structure in component parts, which were in turned mapped into equivalent probabilistic graphical structures such as Bayesian Belief Nets and Markov Random Fields to produce a composite chain graph that provides a probabilistic classification of risk expertise to complement the expert clinical judgements

Do Keiretsu really hinder FDI into Japanese manufacturing?

This paper examines an issue that has received considerable comment but little analysis. It has often been argued that the presence of the keiretsu in Japan has been instrumental in deterring multinational firms from entering Japan, though evidence for this is patchy. We present some new analysis of this issue, thereby evaluating the effects of keiretsu on inward investment penetration in Japan. In contrast to previous work in this area, our results suggest that there is little relationship between inward FDI and keiretsu networks, once one controls for endogeneity and unobservable heterogeneity. The results illustrate some important interaction effects between keiretsu and other explanatory variables that explain differences in inward investment penetration. © 2012 Copyright International Journal of the Economics of Business.

Medicines management strategies to improve antibiotic prescribing

A systematic review was conducted to explicitly identify interventions that alone, or in combination, were effective in improving antibiotic prescribing. The citation search strategy used in the present review provided a database of 365077 studies, of which only twenty-five were included in the final review (“review studies”). Analysis of the interventions used within the review studies indicated that a combination of “guidelines” and “pharmacy” interventions have the greatest potential to improve antibiotic prescribing. Two types of qualitative research were conducted, semi-structured interviews and the collection of naturally occurring data. Semi-structured interviews were conducted in order to determine NHS managers? perceptions of current policies used to improve antibiotic prescribing within selected Primary Care Trusts and highlighted the importance of pharmacy intervention, formularies or guidelines and improved prescribing analysis (IT based intervention) on improving antibiotic prescribing. This was supported by the collection of naturally occurring data, which was used to provide further insight into interventions used to improve antibiotic prescribing. The Specialist Antibiotic Pharmacist (HD) produced and implemented an innovative electronic antibiotic prescribing analysis tool (the Antibiotic Database) to analyse and improve antibiotic prescribing in a consistent manner. The key advantage of the Antibiotic Database was the time and money saved on producing visual electronic outputs containing an inaccurate outcome measure or time period for analysis. The results concluded that an IT based intervention, such as the Antibiotic Database should be used, in addition to the use of antibiotic guidelines and pharmacy intervention, within all sectors of the NHS in order to improve antibiotic prescribing and its analysis.

A multimodal investigation of dynamic face perception using functional magnetic resonance imaging and magnetoencephalography

Motion is an important aspect of face perception that has been largely neglected to date. Many of the established findings are based on studies that use static facial images, which do not reflect the unique temporal dynamics available from seeing a moving face. In the present thesis a set of naturalistic dynamic facial emotional expressions was purposely created and used to investigate the neural structures involved in the perception of dynamic facial expressions of emotion, with both functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) and Magnetoencephalography (MEG). Through fMRI and connectivity analysis, a dynamic face perception network was identified, which is demonstrated to extend the distributed neural system for face perception (Haxby et al.,2000). Measures of effective connectivity between these regions revealed that dynamic facial stimuli were associated with specific increases in connectivity between early visual regions, such as inferior occipital gyri and superior temporal sulci, along with coupling between superior temporal sulci and amygdalae, as well as with inferior frontal gyri. MEG and Synthetic Aperture Magnetometry (SAM) were used to examine the spatiotemporal profile of neurophysiological activity within this dynamic face perception network. SAM analysis revealed a number of regions showing differential activation to dynamic versus static faces in the distributed face network, characterised by decreases in cortical oscillatory power in the beta band, which were spatially coincident with those regions that were previously identified with fMRI. These findings support the presence of a distributed network of cortical regions that mediate the perception of dynamic facial expressions, with the fMRI data providing information on the spatial co-ordinates paralleled by the MEG data, which indicate the temporal dynamics within this network. This integrated multimodal approach offers both excellent spatial and temporal resolution, thereby providing an opportunity to explore dynamic brain activity and connectivity during face processing.

The importance of team-working in knowledge transfer partnerships

Research capacity can be built by collaboration between industry and universities, and Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs) are an ideal way to do this. While good collaboration and team-work has been recognised as crucial for success, projects tend to be evaluated on outcomes and not collaboration effectiveness. This paper discusses best practice for how a KTP project team might work together effectively.

Interacting nonequilibrium systems with two temperatures

We investigate a simplified model of two fully connected magnetic systems maintained at different temperatures by virtue of being connected to two independent thermal baths while simultaneously being interconnected with each other. Using generating functional analysis, commonly used in statistical mechanics, we find exactly soluble expressions for their individual magnetization that define a two-dimensional nonlinear map, the equations of which have the same form as those obtained for densely connected equilibrium systems. Steady states correspond to the fixed points of this map, separating the parameter space into a rich set of nonequilibrium phases that we analyze in asymptotically high and low (nonequilibrium) temperature limits. The theoretical formalism is shown to revert to the classical nonequilibrium steady state problem for two interacting systems with a nonzero heat transfer between them that catalyzes a phase transition between ambient nonequilibrium states. © 2013 American Physical Society.

Separating the influences of prereading skills on early word and nonword reading

The essential first step for a beginning reader is to learn to match printed forms to phonological representations. For a new word, this is an effortful process where each grapheme must be translated individually (serial decoding). The role of phonological awareness in developing a decoding strategy is well known. We examined whether beginner readers recruit different skills depending on the nature of the words being read (familiar words vs. nonwords). Print knowledge, phoneme and rhyme awareness, rapid automatized naming (RAN), phonological short term memory (STM), nonverbal reasoning, vocabulary, auditory skills and visual attention were measured in 392 pre-readers aged 4 to 5 years. Word and nonword reading were measured 9 months later. We used structural equation modeling to examine the skills-reading relationship and modeled correlations between our two reading outcomes and among all pre-reading skills. We found that a broad range of skills were associated with reading outcomes: early print knowledge, phonological STM, phoneme awareness and RAN. Whereas all these skills were directly predictive of nonword reading, early print knowledge was the only direct predictor of word reading. Our findings suggest that beginner readers draw most heavily on their existing print knowledge to read familiar words.

Are we on the same page? Knowledge boundaries and transactive memory system development in cross-functional teams

One of the key challenges that organizations face when trying to integrate knowledge across different functions is the need to overcome knowledge boundaries between team members. In cross-functional teams, these boundaries, associated with different knowledge backgrounds of people from various disciplines, create communication problems, necessitating team members to engage in complex cognitive processes when integrating knowledge toward a joint outcome. This research investigates the impact of syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic knowledge boundaries on a team’s ability to develop a transactive memory system (TMS)—a collective memory system for knowledge coordination in groups. Results from our survey show that syntactic and pragmatic knowledge boundaries negatively affect TMS development. These findings extend TMS theory beyond the information-processing view, which treats knowledge as an object that can be stored and retrieved, to the interpretive and practice-based views of knowledge, which recognize that knowledge (in particular specialized knowledge) is localized, situated, and embedded in practice.