Diagnostic and Prognostic Impact of pc-ASPECTS Applied to Perfusion CT in the Basilar Artery International Cooperation Study.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The posterior circulation Acute Stroke Prognosis Early CT Score (pc-APECTS) applied to CT angiography source images (CTA-SI) predicts the functional outcome of patients in the Basilar Artery International Cooperation Study (BASICS). We assessed the diagnostic and prognostic impact of pc-ASPECTS applied to perfusion CT (CTP) in the BASICS registry population. METHODS: We applied pc-ASPECTS to CTA-SI and cerebral blood flow (CBF), cerebral blood volume (CBV), and mean transit time (MTT) parameter maps of BASICS patients with CTA and CTP studies performed. Hypoattenuation on CTA-SI, relative reduction in CBV or CBF, or relative increase in MTT were rated as abnormal. RESULTS: CTA and CTP were available in 27/592 BASICS patients (4.6%). The proportion of patients with any perfusion abnormality was highest for MTT (93%; 95% confidence interval [CI], 76%-99%), compared with 78% (58%-91%) for CTA-SI and CBF, and 46% (27%-67%) for CBV (P < .001). All 3 patients with a CBV pc-ASPECTS < 8 compared to 6/23 patients with a CBV pc-ASPECTS ≥ 8 had died at 1 month (RR 3.8; 95% CI, 1.9-7.6). CONCLUSION: CTP was performed in a minority of the BASICS registry population. Perfusion disturbances in the posterior circulation were most pronounced on MTT parameter maps. CBV pc-ASPECTS < 8 may indicate patients with high case fatality.

The Swiss reform of the allocation of tasks : The conventions-programs as a new partnership model for vertical cooperation ?

This research examines the impacts of the Swiss reform of the allocation of tasks which was accepted in 2004 and implemented in 2008 to "re-assign" the responsibilities between the federal government and the cantons. The public tasks were redistributed, according to the leading and fundamental principle of subsidiarity. Seven tasks came under exclusive federal responsibility; ten came under the control of the cantons; and twenty-two "common tasks" were allocated to both the Confederation and the cantons. For these common tasks it wasn't possible to separate the management and the implementation. In order to deal with nineteen of them, the reform introduced the conventions-programs (CPs), which are public law contracts signed by the Confederation with each canton. These CPs are generally valid for periods of four years (2008-11, 2012-15 and 2016-19, respectively). The third period is currently being prepared. By using the principal-agent theory I examine how contracts can improve political relations between a principal (Confederation) and an agent (canton). I also provide a first qualitative analysis by examining the impacts of these contracts on the vertical cooperation and on the implication of different actors by focusing my study on five CPs - protection of cultural heritage and conservation of historic monuments, encouragement of the integration of foreigners, economic development, protection against noise and protection of the nature and landscape - applied in five cantons, which represents twenty-five cases studies.

Cooperation versus competition effects on information sharing and use in group decision making

Information processing in groups has long been seen as a cooperative process. In contrast with this assumption, group members were rarely found to behave cooperatively: They withhold unshared information and stick to initial incorrect decisions. In the present article, we examined how group members' cooperative and competitivemotives impact on group information processing and propose that information sharing and use in groups could be seen as strategic behavior. We reviewed the latest developments in the literature investigating different forms of strategic information processing and their underlying mechanisms. This review suggests that explicit cooperative goals are needed for effective group decision-making.

Privatization, cooperation and costs of solid waste services in small towns

This paper analyzes the cost implications of privatization and cooperation in the provision of solid waste services for a sample of small municipalities. In conducting this empirical analysis, a survey is first designed and administered to municipalities in the Spanish region of Aragon, and then an estimation of the determinants of service costs is undertaken, considering the possible endogeneity of delivery choices. Our findings indicate that cooperation is more effective than privatization in saving costs. Both production forms can enable small municipalities to cut costs by exploiting scale economies. However, the fact that inter-municipal cooperation involves lower transaction costs and is less likely to be affected by competition problems would seem to account for the fact that it is a more effective way of reducing costs.

Pleiotropy and the low cost of individual traits promote cooperation.

The evolution of cooperation is thought to be promoted by pleiotropy, whereby cooperative traits are coregulated with traits that are important for personal fitness. However, this hypothesis faces a key challenge: what happens if mutation targets a cooperative trait specifically rather than the pleiotropic regulator? Here, we explore this question with the bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which cooperatively digests complex proteins using elastase. We empirically measure and theoretically model the fate of two mutants-one missing the whole regulatory circuit behind elastase production and the other with only the elastase gene mutated-relative to the wild-type (WT). We first show that, when elastase is needed, neither of the mutants can grow if the WT is absent. And, consistent with previous findings, we show that regulatory gene mutants can grow faster than the WT when there are no pleiotropic costs. However, we find that mutants only lacking elastase production do not outcompete the WT, because the individual cooperative trait has a low cost. We argue that the intrinsic architecture of molecular networks makes pleiotropy an effective way to stabilize cooperative evolution. Although individual cooperative traits experience loss-of-function mutations, these mutations may result in weak benefits, and need not undermine the protection from pleiotropy.

Cooperation in R&D, firm size and type of partnership: Evidence for the Spanish automotive industry

This paper aims to analyse cooperation in R&D in the automobile industry in Spain. It first examines to what extent firms cooperate with external actors in the field of technological innovation, and if so, with what type of cooperation partner, paying special attention to the differentiation according to the size of the firms. Second, it aims to study how the firm’s size may affect not only the decision of cooperating but also with which type of partner, while controlling for other determinants that have been considered in the literature as main drivers of collaborative activities in R&D. We use data provided by the Technological Innovation Panel in the 2006-2008 period for firms in the automotive sector. We estimate a bivariate probit model that takes into account the two types of cooperation mostly present in the automotive industry, vertical and institutional, explicitly considering the interdependencies that may arise in the simultaneous choice of both.

Cooperation in R&D, firm size and type of partnership: Evidence for the Spanish automotive industry

This paper aims to analyse cooperation in R&D in the automobile industry in Spain. It first examines to what extent firms cooperate with external actors in the field of technological innovation, and if so, with what type of cooperation partner, paying special attention to the differentiation according to the size of the firms. Second, it aims to study how the firm’s size may affect not only the decision of cooperating but also with which type of partner, while controlling for other determinants that have been considered in the literature as main drivers of collaborative activities in R&D. We use data provided by the Technological Innovation Panel in the 2006-2008 period for firms in the automotive sector. We estimate a bivariate probit model that takes into account the two types of cooperation mostly present in the automotive industry, vertical and institutional, explicitly considering the interdependencies that may arise in the simultaneous choice of both.

A Forwarding Cooperation Protocol for Plain and Cluster-based Ad Hoc Networks

Peer-reviewed

Offshore Sourcing in Software Development: Case Studies of Finnish-Russian Cooperation

The study examines international cooperation in product development in software development organisations. The software industry is known for its global nature and knowledge-intensity, which makes it an interesting setting to examine international cooperation in. Software development processes are increasingly distributed worldwide, but for small or even medium-sized enterprises, typical for the software industry, such distribution of operations is often possible only in association with crossing the company’s boundaries. The strategic decision-making of companies is likely to be affected by the characteristics of the industry, and this includes decisions about cooperation or sourcing. The objective of this thesis is to provide a holistic view on factors affecting decisions about offshore sourcing in software development. Offshore sourcing refers to a cooperative mode of offshoring, where a firm does not establish its own presence in a foreign country, but utilises a local supplier. The study examines product development activities that are distributed across organisational and geographical boundaries. The objective can be divided into two subtopics: general reasons for international cooperation in product development and particular reasons for cooperation between Finnish and Russian companies. The focus is on the strategic rationale at the company level, in particular in small and medium-sized enterprises. The theoretical discourse of the study builds upon the literature on international cooperation and networking, with particular focus on cooperation with foreign suppliers and within product development activities. The resource-based view is also discussed, as heterogeneity and interdependency of the resources possessed by different firms are seen as factors motivating international cooperation. Strategically, sourcing can be used to access resources possessed by an industrial network, to enhance the product development of a firm, or to optimise its cost structure. In order to investigate the issues raised by the theoretical review, two empirical studies on international cooperation in software product development have been conducted. The emphasis of the empirical part of the study is on cooperation between Finnish and Russian companies. The data has been gathered through four case studies on Finnish software development organisations and four case studies on Russian offshore suppliers. Based on the material from the case studies, a framework clarifying and grouping the factors that influence offshore sourcing decisions has been built. The findings indicate that decisions regarding offshore sourcing in software development are far more complex than generally assumed. The framework provides a holistic view on factors affecting decisions about offshore sourcing in software development, capturing the multidimensionality of motives for entering offshore cooperation. Four groups of factors emerged from the data: A) strategy-related aspects, B) aspects related to resources and capabilities, C) organisation-related aspects, and D) aspects related to the entrepreneur or management. By developing a holistic framework of decision factors, the research offers in-depth theoreticalunderstanding of offshore sourcing rationale in product development. From the managerial point of view, the proposed framework sums up the issues that a firm should pay attention to when contemplating product development cooperation with foreign suppliers. Understanding different components of sourcing decisions can lead to improved preconditions for strategising and engaging in offshore cooperation. A thorough decisionmaking process should consider all the possible benefits and risks of product development cooperation carefully.

Parallel characterizations of a generalized shapley value and a generalized banzhaf value for cooperative games with level structure of cooperation

We present parallel characterizations of two different values in the framework of restricted cooperation games. The restrictions are introduced as a finite sequence of partitions defined on the player set, each of them being coarser than the previous one, hence forming a structure of different levels of a priori unions. On the one hand, we consider a value first introduced in Ref. [18], which extends the Shapley value to games with different levels of a priori unions. On the other hand, we introduce another solution for the same type of games, which extends the Banzhaf value in the same manner. We characterize these two values using logically comparable properties.