Financial constraints on research and development

This dissertation examines whether-there exists financial constraints and, if so, their implications for investment in research and development expenditures. It develops a theoretical model of credit rationing and research and development in which both are determined simultaneously and endogenously. The model provides a useful tool to examine different policies that may help alleviate the negative the effect of financial constraints faced by firms.^ The empirical evidence presented deals with two different cases, namely, the motor vehicle industry in Germany (1970-1990) and the electrical machinery industry In Spain (1975-1990).^ The innovation in the empirical analysis is that it follows a novel approach to identify events that allow us to isolate the effect of financial constraints in the determination of research and development.^ Further, empirical evidence is presented to show that in the above two cases financial constraints affect investment in physical capital as well.^ The empirical evidence presented supports the results of the theoretical model developed in this dissertation, showing that financial constraints negatively affect the rate of growth of innovation by reducing the intensity of research and development activity. ^

Perspective Transformation Theory and the Donald Woods Experience: From Racist to Anti-Apartheid Activist

This paper chronicles White South African journalist Donald Woods’ life (1933-2001) as he transformed from holding racist beliefs that Blacks were “people who were there to be your servants,” to becoming one of his country’s leading anti-apartheid activists. Adult learning and development via perspective transformation theory are explored.

Implications of a theoretical framework on stress and burnout for the development of graduate nursing education curricula

This study had two purposes: (a) to develop a theoretical framework integrating and synthesizing findings of prior research regarding stress and burnout among critical care nurses (CCRNs), and (b) to validate the theoretical framework with an empirical study to assure a theory/research based teaching-learning process for graduate courses preparing nursing clinical specialists and administrators.^ The methods used to test the theoretical framework included: (a) adopting instruments with reported validity, (b) conducting a pilot study, (c) revising instruments using results of the pilot study and following concurrence of a panel of experts, and (d) establishing correlations within predetermined parameters. The reliability of the tool was determined through the use of Cronbach's Alpha Coefficient with a resulting range from.68 to.88 for all measures.^ The findings supported all the research hypotheses. Correlations were established at r =.23 for statistically significant alphas at the.01 level and r =.16 for alphas.05. The conclusions indicated three areas of strong correlation among the theoretical variables: (a) work environment stressor antecedents and specific stressor events were correlated significantly with subjective work stress and burnout; (b) subjective work stress (perceived work related stress) was a function of the work environment stressor antecedents and specific stressor events, and (c) emotional exhaustion, the first phase of burnout, was confirmed to be related to stressor antecedents and specific stressor events. This dimension was found to be a function of the work environment stressor antecedents, modified by the individual characteristics of work and non-work related social support, non-work daily stress, and the number of hours worked per week. The implications of the study for nursing graduate curricula, nursing practice and nursing education were discussed. Recommendations for further research were enumerated. ^

On the fundamentals of research and development (R&D) spillovers in competitive markets

Rivals may voluntarily share Research and Development (R&D) results even in the absence of any binding agreements or collusion. In a model where rival firms engage in non-cooperative independent R&D process, we used optimization and game theory analysis to study the equilibrium strategy of the firms. Our work showed that, while minimal spillover is always equilibrium, there may be another equilibrium where firms may reciprocally choose high, sometimes perfect, spillover rates. The incentive for sharing R&D output is based on firms' expectations of learning from their rivals' R&D progress in the future. This leads to strategic complementarities between the firms' choices of spillover rates and thus policy implication follows. ^ Public research agencies can contribute more to social welfare by providing research as public goods. In a non-cooperative public-private research relationship where parallel R&D is conducted, by making its R&D results accessible, the public research agency can stimulate private spillovers, even if there exists rivalry among the private firms who can benefit from such spillovers. ^

Contingency, contiguity, and development: The ontogeny of contingency learning in northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus) chicks

The purpose of this study was to investigate the ontogeny of auditory learning via operant contingency in Northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus ) hatchlings and possible interaction between attention, orienting and learning during early development. Chicks received individual 5 min training sessions in which they received a playback of a bobwhite maternal call at a single delay following each vocalization they emitted. Playback was either from a single randomly chosen speaker or switched back and forth semi-randomly between two speakers during training. Chicks were tested 24 hrs later in a simultaneous choice test between the familiar and an unfamiliar maternal call. It was found that day-old chicks showed a significant time-specific decrement in auditory learning when trained with delays in the range of 470–910 ms between their vocalizations and call playback only when training involved two speakers. Two-day-old birds showed an even more sustained disruption of learning than day-old chicks, whereas three-day-old chicks showed a pattern of intermittent interference with their learning when trained at such delays. A similar but less severe decrement in auditory learning was found when chicks were provided with motor training in which playback was contingent upon chicks entering and exiting one of two colored squares placed on the floor of the arena. Chicks provided with playback of the call at randomly chosen delays each time they vocalized exhibited large fluctuations in their responsivity to the auditory stimulus as a function of delay—fluctuations which were correlated significantly with measures of chick learning, particularly at two-days-of-age. When playback was limited to a single location chicks no longer showed a time-specific disruption of their learning of the auditory stimulus. Sequential analyses revealed several patterns suggesting that an attentional process similar or analogous to attentional blink may have contributed both to the observed fluctuations in chick responsivity to the auditory stimulus as a function of delay and to the time-specific learning deficit shown by chicks provided with two-speaker training. The study highlights that learning can be substantially modulated by processes of orienting and attention and has a number of important implications for research within cognitive neuroscience, animal behavior and learning.