Enterprise resource planning and the post bureaucratic organization:'formalization' as trust in the system versus 'solidarity' as trust in individuals

Purpose – The purpose of the paper is to use a case study setting involving the implementation of an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system to expose and analyze the conflicts in the characterizations of the post bureaucratic organisation (PBO) in the literature. ERP implementations are often accompanied by increasing levels of stress in organizations that place pressures on organizational relationships and structures. Additionally, ERPs are regarded as introducing their own techno-logic of centralization, standardization and formalization that provides an apparent contrast to the exhortations about employee empowerment. Design/methodology/approach – A case study of ERP implementation in a medium-sized entity is presented. The paper explores aspects of ERP and PBO from the context of postmodern organization theory. Findings – Some concerns about PBO identified in the literature are reflected in the case situation. For example, there is a commitment to give up private time and work flexibly by some employees. The paper also provides evidence of the way the management team substitute their reliance on a key individual knowledge worker for that of an ERP system and external vendor support. Paradoxically, trust in that same knowledge worker and between core users of the system is essential to enable the implementation of the system. Originality/value – This paper adds empirical insight to a predominantly theoretical literature. The case evidence indicates some conflicting implications in the concurrent adoption of PBO and ERP.

Spray-dried powders for pulmonary drug delivery

Powders for inhalation are traditionally prepared using a destructive micronization process such as jet milling to reduce the particle size of the drug to 2-5 μm. The resultant particles are typically highly cohesive and display poor aerosolization properties, necessitating the addition of a coarse carrier particle to the micronized drug to improve powder flowability. Spray-drying technology offers an alternative, constructive particle production technique to the traditional destructive approach, which may be particularly useful when processing biotechnology products that could be adversely affected by high-energy micronization processes. Advantages of spray drying include the ability to incorporate a wide range of excipients into the spray-drying feedstock, which could modify the aerosolization and stability characterizations of the resultant powders, as well as modify the drug release and absorption profiles following inhalation. This review discusses some of the reasons why pulmonary drug delivery is becoming an increasingly popular route of administration and describes the various investigations that have been undertaken in the preparation of spray-dried powders for pulmonary drug delivery. © 2007 by Begell House, Inc.

Three-dimensional nitrogen-doped graphene supported molybdenum disulfide nanoparticles as an advanced catalyst for hydrogen evolution reaction

An efficient three-dimensional (3D) hybrid material of nitrogen-doped graphene sheets (N-RGO) supporting molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) nanoparticles with high-performance electrocatalytic activity for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is fabricated by using a facile hydrothermal route. Comprehensive microscopic and spectroscopic characterizations confirm the resulting hybrid material possesses a 3D crumpled few-layered graphene network structure decorated with MoS2 nanoparticles. Electrochemical characterization analysis reveals that the resulting hybrid material exhibits efficient electrocatalytic activity toward HER under acidic conditions with a low onset potential of 112 mV and a small Tafel slope of 44 mV per decade. The enhanced mechanism of electrocatalytic activity has been investigated in detail by controlling the elemental composition, electrical conductance and surface morphology of the 3D hybrid as well as Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations. This demonstrates that the abundance of exposed active sulfur edge sites in the MoS2 and nitrogen active functional moieties in N-RGO are synergistically responsible for the catalytic activity, whilst the distinguished and coherent interface in MoS 2 /N-RGO facilitates the electron transfer during electrocatalysis. Our study gives insights into the physical/chemical mechanism of enhanced HER performance in MoS2/N-RGO hybrids and illustrates how to design and construct a 3D hybrid to maximize the catalytic efficiency.

Motzkin Decomposable Sets

Theodore Motzkin proved, in 1936, that any polyhedral convex set can be expressed as the (Minkowski) sum of a polytope and a polyhedral convex cone. We have provided several characterizations of the larger class of closed convex sets, Motzkin decomposable, in finite dimensional Euclidean spaces which are the sum of a compact convex set with a closed convex cone. These characterizations involve different types of representations of closed convex sets as the support functions, dual cones and linear systems whose relationships are also analyzed. The obtaining of information about a given closed convex set F and the parametric linear optimization problem with feasible set F from each of its different representations, including the Motzkin decomposition, is also discussed. Another result establishes that a closed convex set is Motzkin decomposable if and only if the set of extreme points of its intersection with the linear subspace orthogonal to its lineality is bounded. We characterize the class of the extended functions whose epigraphs are Motzkin decomposable sets showing, in particular, that these functions attain their global minima when they are bounded from below. Calculus of Motzkin decomposable sets and functions is provided.

Convexity, C-convexity and Pseudoconvexity

Николай М. Николов - Разгледани са характеризации на различни понятия за изпъкналост, като тези понятия са сравнени.

A Characterization of the Negative Binomial Distribution

Only a few characterizations have been obtained in literatute for the negative binomial distribution (see Johnson et al., Chap. 5, 1992). In this article a characterization of the negative binomial distribution related to random sums is obtained which is motivated by the geometric distribution characterization given by Khalil et al. (1991). An interpretation in terms of an unreliable system is given.

Little G. T. for lp-lattice summing operators

2000 Mathematics Subject Classification: 46B28, 47D15.

Averaging operators and set-valued maps

MSC 2010: 54C35, 54C60.

External Characterization of I-Favorable Spaces

1991 AMS Math. Subj. Class.:Primary 54C10; Secondary 54F65

The Shapley value for shortest path games

In this paper shortest path games are considered. The transportation of a good in a network has costs and benet too. The problem is to divide the prot of the transportation among the players. Fragnelli et al (2000) introduce the class of shortest path games, which coincides with the class of monotone games. They also give a characterization of the Shapley value on this class of games. In this paper we consider further four characterizations of the Shapley value (Shapley (1953)'s, Young (1985)'s, Chun (1989)'s, and van den Brink (2001)'s axiomatizations), and conclude that all the mentioned axiomatizations are valid for shortest path games. Fragnelli et al (2000)'s axioms are based on the graph behind the problem, in this paper we do not consider graph specic axioms, we take TU axioms only, that is, we consider all shortest path problems and we take the view of abstract decision maker who focuses rather on the abstract problem than on the concrete situations.

The Shapley value for airport and irrigation games

In this paper cost sharing problems are considered. We focus on problems given by rooted trees, we call these problems cost-tree problems, and on the induced transferable utility cooperative games, called irrigation games. A formal notion of irrigation games is introduced, and the characterization of the class of these games is provided. The well-known class of airport games Littlechild and Thompson (1977) is a subclass of irrigation games. The Shapley value Shapley (1953) is probably the most popular solution concept for transferable utility cooperative games. Dubey (1982) and Moulin and Shenker (1992) show respectively, that Shapley's Shapley (1953) and Young (1985)'s axiomatizations of the Shapley value are valid on the class of airport games. In this paper we show that Dubey (1982)'s and Moulin and Shenker (1992)'s results can be proved by applying Shapley (1953)'s and Young (1985)'s proofs, that is those results are direct consequences of Shapley (1953)'s and Young (1985)'s results. Furthermore, we extend Dubey (1982)'s and Moulin and Shenker (1992)'s results to the class of irrigation games, that is we provide two characterizations of the Shapley value for cost sharing problems given by rooted trees. We also note that for irrigation games the Shapley value is always stable, that is it is always in the core Gillies (1959).

The Shapley value for shortest path games

In this paper shortest path games are considered. The transportation of a good in a network has costs and benet too. The problem is to divide the prot of the transportation among the players. Fragnelli et al (2000) introduce the class of shortest path games, which coincides with the class of monotone games. They also give a characterization of the Shapley value on this class of games. In this paper we consider further four characterizations of the Shapley value (Shapley (1953)'s, Young (1985)'s, Chun (1989)'s, and van den Brink (2001)'s axiomatizations), and conclude that all the mentioned axiomatizations are valid for shortest path games. Fragnelli et al (2000)'s axioms are based on the graph behind the problem, in this paper we do not consider graph specic axioms, we take TU axioms only, that is, we consider all shortest path problems and we take the view of abstract decision maker who focuses rather on the abstract problem than on the concrete situations.

Fogalmak, módszerek. Páros összehasonlításokon alapuló rangsorolási módszerek (Ranking methods based on paired comparisons)

A páronként összehasonlított alternatívák rangsorolásának problémája egyaránt felmerül a szavazáselmélet, a statisztika, a tudománymetria, a pszichológia és a sport területén. A nemzetközi szakirodalom alapján részletesen áttekintjük a megoldási lehetőségeket, bemutatjuk a gyakorlati alkalmazások során fellépő kérdések kezelésének, a valós adatoknak megfelelő matematikai környezet felépítésének módjait. Kiemelten tárgyaljuk a páros összehasonlítási mátrix megadását, az egyes pontozási eljárásokat és azok kapcsolatát. A tanulmány elméleti szempontból vizsgálja a Perron-Frobenius tételen alapuló invariáns, fair bets, PageRank, valamint az irányított gráfok csúcsainak rangsorolásra javasolt internal slackening és pozíciós erő módszereket. A közülük történő választáshoz az axiomatikus megközelítést ajánljuk, ennek keretében bemutatjuk az invariáns és a fair bets eljárások karakterizációját, és kitérünk a módszerek vitatható tulajdonságaira. _____ The ranking of the alternatives or selecting the best one are fundamental issues of social choice theory, statistics, psychology and sport. Different solution concepts, and various mathematical models of applications are reviewed based on the international literature. We are focusing on the de¯nition of paired comparison matrix, on main scoring procedures and their relation. The paper gives a theoretical analysis of the invariant, fair bets and PageRank methods, which are founded on Perron-Frobenius theorem, as well as the internal slackening and positional power procedures used for ranking the nodes of a directed graph. An axiomatic approach is proposed for the choice of an appropriate method. Besides some known characterizations for the invariant and fair bets methods, we also discuss the violation of some properties, meaning their main weakness.

Properties of risk capital allocation methods: Core Compatibility, Equal Treatment Property and Strong Monotonicity

In finance risk capital allocation raises important questions both from theoretical and practical points of view. How to share risk of a portfolio among its subportfolios? How to reserve capital in order to hedge existing risk and how to assign this to different business units? We use an axiomatic approach to examine risk capital allocation, that is we call for fundamental properties of the methods. Our starting point is Csóka and Pintér (2011) who show by generalizing Young (1985)'s axiomatization of the Shapley value that the requirements of Core Compatibility, Equal Treatment Property and Strong Monotonicity are irreconcilable given that risk is quantified by a coherent measure of risk. In this paper we look at these requirements using analytic and simulations tools. We examine allocation methods used in practice and also ones which are theoretically interesting. Our main result is that the problem raised by Csóka and Pintér (2011) is indeed relevant in practical applications, that is it is not only a theoretical problem. We also believe that through the characterizations of the examined methods our paper can serve as a useful guide for practitioners.

Chemical characterization of soil organic matter in an oligotrophic, subtropical, freshwater wetland system: Sources, diagenesis and preservation

Freshwater wetland soils of the Everglades were studied in order to assess present environmental conditions and paleo-environmental changes using organic geochemistry techniques. Organic matter in dominant vegetation, peat and marl soils was characterized by geochemical means. Samples were selected along nutrient and hydrology gradients with the objective to determine the historical sources of organic matter as well as the extent of its preservation. Effective molecular proxies were developed to differentiate the relative input of organic matter from different biological sources to wetland soils. Thus historical vegetation shifts and hydroperiods were reconstructed using those proxies. The data show good correlations with historical water management practices starting at the turn of the century and during the mid 1900's. Overall, significant shortening of hydroperiods during this period was observed. The soil organic matter (SOM) preservation was assessed through elemental analysis and molecular characterizations of bulk 13C stable isotopes, solid state 13C NMR spectroscopy, UV-Vis spectroscopy, and tetramethyl ammonium hydroxide (TMAH) thermochemolysis-GC/MS. The relationship of the environmental conditions and degradation status of the soil organic matter (SOM) among the sites suggested that both high nutrient levels and long hydroperiod favor organic matter degradation in the soils. This is probably the result of an increase in the microbial activity in the soils which have higher nutrient levels, while longer hydroperiods may enhance physical/chemical degradation processes. The most significant transformations of biomass litter in this environment are controlled by very early physical/chemical processes and once the OM is incorporated into surface soils, the diagenetic change, even over extended periods of time is comparatively minimal, and SOM is relatively well preserved regardless of hydroperiod or nutrient levels. SOM accumulated in peat soils is more prone to continued degradation than the SOM in the marl soils. The latter is presumably stabilized early on through direct air exposure (oxidation) and thus, it is more refractory to further diagenetic transformations such as humification and aromatization reactions.