Union Mediation and Adaptation to Reciprocal Loyalty Arrangements

This study assesses the industrial relations application of the „loyalty-exit-voice‟ proposition. The loyalty concept is linked to reciprocal employer-employee arrangements and examined as a job attribute in a vignette questionnaire distributed to low and medium-skilled employees. The responses provided by employees in three European countries indicate that reciprocal loyalty arrangements, which involve the exchange of higher effort for job security, are one of the most desirable job attributes. This attribute exerts a higher impact on the job evaluations provided by unionised workers, compared to their non-union counterparts. This pattern is robust to a number of methodological considerations. It appears to be an outcome of adaptation to union mediated cooperation. Overall the evidence suggests that the loyalty-job evaluation profiles of unionised workers are receptive to repeated interaction and negative shocks, such as unemployment experience. This is not the case for the non-union workers. Finally, unionised workers appear to „voice‟ a lower job satisfaction, but exhibit low „exit‟ intentions, compared to the non-unionised labour.

Two Studies on the Interplay between Social Preferences and Individual Biological Features

Biological features and social preferences have been studied separately as factors influencing human strategic behaviour. We run two studies in order to explore the interplay between these two sets of factors. In the first study, we investigate to what extent social preferences may have some biological underpinnings. We use simple one-shot distribution experiments to attribute subjects one out of four types of social preferences: Self-interested (SI), Competitive (C), Inequality averse (IA) and Efficiency-seeking (ES). We then investigate whether these four groups display differences in their levels of facial Fluctuating Asymmetry (FA) and in proxies for exposure to testosterone during phoetal development and puberty. We observe that development-related biological features and social preferences are relatively independent. In the second study, we compare the relative weight of these two set of factors by studying how they affect subjects’ behaviour in the Ultimatum Game (UG). We find differences in offers made and rejection rates across the four social preference groups. The effect of social preferences is stronger than the effect of biological features even though the latter is significant. We also report a novel link between facial masculinity (a proxy for exposure to testosterone during puberty) and rejection rates in the UG. Our results suggest that biological features influence behaviour both directly and through their relation with the type of social preferences that individuals hold.

Consumption Expenditures in Economic Impact Studies: An Application to University Students

This paper examines how appropriately to attribute economic impact to consumption expenditures. Consumption expenditures are often treated as either wholly endogenous or wholly exogenous, following a distinction from Input-Output analysis. For many applications, such as those focusing on the impacts of tourism or benefits systems, such binomial assumptions are not satisfactory. We argue that consumption is neither wholly endogenous nor wholly exogenous but that the degree of this distinction is rather an empirical matter. We set out a general model for the treatment of consumption expenditures and illustrate its application through the case of university students. We examine individual student groups and how the impacts of students at particular institutions. Furthermore we take into account the binding budget constraint of public expenditures (as is the case for devolved regions in the UK)and examine how this affects the impact attributed to students' consumption expenditures.

Suppliers of Priors: A Theory of Retailing Inspired by the Market for Chinese Antiquities

Adverse selection may thwart trade between an informed seller, who knows the probability p that an item of antiquity is genuine, and an uninformed buyer, who does not know p. The buyer might not be wholly uninformed, however. Suppose he can perform a simple inspection, a test of his own: the probability that an item passes the test is g if the item is genuine, but only f < g if it is fake. Given that the buyer is no expert, his test may have little power: f may be close to g. Unfortunately, without much power, the buyer's test will not resolve the difficulty of adverse selection; gains from trade may remain unexploited. But now consider a "store", where the seller groups a number of items, perhaps all with the same quality, the same probability p of being genuine. (We show that in equilibrium the seller will choose to group items in this manner.) Now the buyer can conduct his test across a large sample, perhaps all, of a group of items in the seller's store. He can thereby assess the overall quality of these items; he can invert the aggregate of his test results to uncover the underlying p; he can form a "prior". There is thus no longer asymmetric information between seller and buyer: gains from trade can be exploited. This is our theory of retailing: by grouping items together - setting up a store - a seller is able to supply buyers with priors, as well as the items themselves. We show that the weaker the power of the buyer�s test (the closer f is to g), the greater the seller�s profit. So the seller has no incentive to assist the buyer � e.g., by performing her own tests on the items, or by cleaning them to reveal more about their true age. The paper ends with an analysis of which sellers should specialise in which qualities. We show that quality will be low in busy locations and high in expensive locations.

Competing with Asking Prices

In many markets, sellers advertise their good with an asking price. This is a price at which the seller will take his good off the market and trade immediately, though it is understood that a buyer can submit an offer below the asking price and that this offer may be accepted if the seller receives no better offers. Despite their prevalence in a variety of real world markets, asking prices have received little attention in the academic literature. We construct an environment with a few simple, realistic ingredients and demonstrate that using an asking price is optimal: it is the pricing mechanism that maximizes sellers’ revenues and it implements the efficient outcome in equilibrium. We provide a complete characterization of this equilibrium and use it to explore the positive implications of this pricing mechanism for transaction prices and allocations.

Competing with Asking Prices

In many markets, sellers advertise their good with an asking price. This is a price at which the seller will take his good off the market and trade immediately, though it is understood that a buyer can submit an offer below the asking price and that this offer may be accepted if the seller receives no better offers. Despite their prevalence in a variety of real world markets, asking prices have received little attention in the academic literature. We construct an environment with a few simple, realistic ingredients and demonstrate that using an asking price is optimal: it is the pricing mechanism that maximizes sellers' revenues and it implements the efficient outcome in equilibrium. We provide a complete characterization of this equilibrium and use it to explore the implications of this pricing mechanism for transaction prices and allocations.

Factors Affecting Audit Quality in the 2007 UK Regulatory Environment: Perceptions of Chief Financial Officers, Audit Committee Chairs and Audit Engagement Partners

In line with global changes, the UK regulatory regime for audit and corporate governance has changed significantly since the Enron scandal, with an increased role for audit committees and independent inspection of audit firms. UK listed company chief financial officers (CFOs), audit committee chairs (ACCs) and audit partners (APs) were surveyed in 2007 to obtain views on the impact of 36 economic and regulatory factors on audit quality. 498 usable responses were received, representing a response rate of 36%. All groups rated various audit committee interactions with auditors among the factors most enhancing audit quality. Exploratory factor analysis reduces the 36 factors to nine uncorrelated dimensions. In order of extraction, these are: economic risk; audit committee activities; risk of regulatory action; audit firm ethics; economic independence of auditor; audit partner rotation; risk of client loss; audit firm size; and, lastly, International Standards on Auditing (ISAs) and audit inspection. In addition to the activities of the audit committee, risk factors for the auditor (both economic and certain regulatory risks) are believed to most enhance audit quality. However, ISAs and the audit inspection regime, aspects of the ‘standards-surveillance compliance’ regulatory system, are viewed as less effective. Respondents commented that aspects of the changed regime are largely process and compliance driven, with high costs for limited benefits, supporting psychological bias regulation theory that claims there is overconfidence that a useful regulatory intervention exists.

Gare aux hybrides : mythes et réalités de la gouvernance de la mondialisation

Hybrid is often used as a default attribute reflecting lack of clear understanding of the influence of new patterns and actors of structural change beyond states, firms and institutions traditionally involved in regulatory practices across nations. The article argues that the notion of hybrid has a distinct relevance for engaging shortcomings of global governance literature. It explores the lessons to be drawn from ancient mythology by highlighting that ontological ambiguity and emotional ambivalence represent core features of hybrid creatures. It then builds upon critical scholarship in global political economy to conceptualise three generic levels of transfers of authority at which situating the hybrid dimension of governance in contemporary capitalism. Following this approach, the concept of hybrid explicates the ambiguity between formal and informal transfers of authority, which in turn provides an insight into the contested nature of the procedures used to reinforce this type of governance practices.

Evaluación de la regeneración ósea mediante procesado de imagen

La regeneració òssia és un procés estudiat per experts de tot el món. Aquests experts estudien materials capaços d’accelerar el procés de formació de teixit ossi en zones on s’han produït defectes ossis. Després d’un determinat període de temps de l’aplicació dels materials d’estudi en la zona on hi havia una manca de teixit ossi, s’obtenen imatges d’aquesta zona on l’expert mitjançant l’ inspecció visual d’aquestes imatges avalua si l’os s’ha regenerat bé o no. El problema d’aquest mètode d’avaluació es que requereix d’un expert on la valoració d’aquest és subjectiva i difícil de quantificar, el que pot provocar que hi hagi discordança entre experts. Amb la finalitat de aprofitar les imatges en que es basa l’expert per avaluar la capacitat de regeneració òssia dels materials d’estudi es proposa realitzar un anàlisi quantitatiu de la regeneració òssia basat en el processament d’imatge. L’algorisme dissenyat es capaç de classificar imatges de la mandíbula en: imatges de regeneració bona i dolenta mitjançant la parametrització de l’histograma de nivells de grisos de la imatge, solucionant la falta d’objectivitat del mètode d’avaluació de la regeneració òssia i la necessitat d’un expert per realitzar-la.

Keratin degradation by dermatophytes relies on cysteine dioxygenase and a sulfite efflux pump.

Millions of people suffer from superficial infections caused by dermatophytes. Intriguingly, these filamentous fungi exclusively infect keratin-rich host structures such as hair, nails, and skin. Keratin is a hard, compact protein, and its utilization by dermatophytes for growth has long been discussed as a major virulence attribute. Here, we provide strong support for the hypothesis that keratin degradation is facilitated by the secretion of the reducing agent sulfite, which can cleave keratin-stabilizing cystine bonds. We discovered that sulfite is produced by dermatophytes from environmental cysteine, which at elevated concentrations is toxic for microbes and humans. We found that sulfite formation from cysteine relies on the key enzyme cysteine dioxygenase Cdo1. Sulfite secretion is supported by the sulfite efflux pump Ssu1. Targeted mutagenesis proved that dermatophyte mutants in either Cdo1 or Ssu1 were highly growth-sensitive to cysteine, and mutants in Ssu1 were specifically sensitive to sulfite. Most notably, dermatophyte mutants in Cdo1 and Ssu1 were specifically growth-defective on hair and nails. As keratin is rich in cysteine, our identified mechanism of cysteine conversion and sulfite efflux supports both cysteine and sulfite tolerance per se and progression of keratin degradation. These in vitro findings have implications for dermatophyte infection pathogenesis.

Girls like pink: explaining sex-typed occupational aspirations amongst young children

There is a high degree of sex-typing in young children's occupational aspirations and this has consequences for subsequent occupational segregation. Sociologists typically attribute early sex-differences in occupational preferences to gender socialization. Yet we still know surprisingly little about the mechanisms involved in the intergenerational transmission of sex-typical preferences and there is considerable theoretical controversy regarding the role of individual agency in the process of preference formation. This study analyzes the determinants of sex-typed occupational aspirations amongst British children aged between 11 and 15. We specify different mechanisms involved in the transmission of sex-typical preferences and propose an innovative definition of individual agency that is anchored in observable psychological traits linked to self-direction. This allows us to perform a simultaneous test of socialization and agency predictors of occupational sex-typing. We find that parental influences on occupational preferences operate mainly through three distinctive channels: 1) the effect that parental socio-economic resources have on the scope of children's occupational aspirations, 2) children's direct imitation of parental occupations, and 3) children's learning of sex-typed roles via the observation of parental behavior. We also find a strong net effect of children's own psychological predispositions -self-esteem in particular- on the incidence of sex-typical occupational preferences. Yet large differences in the occupational aspirations of girls and boys remain unexplained.

Study of Staphylococcus aureus pathogenic genes by transfer and expression in the less virulent organism Streptococcus gordonii.

Because Staphylococcus aureus strains contain multiple virulence factors, studying their pathogenic role by single-gene inactivation generated equivocal results. To circumvent this problem, we have expressed specific S. aureus genes in the less virulent organism Streptococcus gordonii and tested the recombinants for a gain of function both in vitro and in vivo. Clumping factor A (ClfA) and coagulase were investigated. Both gene products were expressed functionally and with similar kinetics during growth by streptococci and staphylococci. ClfA-positive S. gordonii was more adherent to platelet-fibrin clots mimicking cardiac vegetations in vitro and more infective in rats with experimental endocarditis (P &lt; 0.05). Moreover, deleting clfA from clfA-positive streptococcal transformants restored both the low in vitro adherence and the low in vivo infectivity of the parent. Coagulase-positive transformants, on the other hand, were neither more adherent nor more infective than the parent. Furthermore, coagulase did not increase the pathogenicity of clfA-positive streptococci when both clfA and coa genes were simultaneously expressed in an artificial minioperon in streptococci. These results definitively attribute a role for ClfA, but not coagulase, in S. aureus endovascular infections. This gain-of-function strategy might help solve the role of individual factors in the complex the S. aureus-host relationship.

Numerical Taxonomy of Old World Phlebotominae (Diptera: Psychodidae): 1. Considerations of Morphological Characters in the Genus Phlebotomus Rondani & Berté 1840

Numerical analyses (correspondence analysis, ascending hierarchical classification, cladistic approach) were applied to the morphological characters of the adults of the genus Phlebotomus Rondani & Berté 1840. They confirm the reliability of the classic classifications, and also redefine the taxonomic and phylogenetic position of certain taxa. Thus, Spelaeophlebotomus Theodor 1948, Idiophlebotomus Quate & Fairchild 1961 and Australophlebotomus Theodor 1948 deserve generic rank. Among the vectors of leishmaniasis, the subgenus Phlebotomus Rondani & Berté 1840 is probably ancient. The results attribute an intermediate taxonomic and phylogenetic position to the taxa Euphlebotomus Theodor 1948 and Anaphlebotomus Theodor 1948, and reveal the probable artificial nature of the latter. The comparatively large numbers of species of subgenera Paraphlebotomus Theodor 1948, Synphlebotomus Theodor 1948 and, above all, Larroussius Nitzulescu 1931 and Adlerius Nitzulescu 1931, suggest that they are relatively recent. The development of adult morphological characters, the validity of their use in taxonomy and proposals for further studies are discussed.

Patient-ventilator asynchrony during non-invasive ventilation for acute respiratory failure: a multicenter study.

OBJECTIVE : To determine the prevalence of patient-ventilator asynchrony in patients receiving non-invasive ventilation (NIV) for acute respiratory failure. DESIGN : Prospective multicenter observation study. SETTING : Intensive care units in three university hospitals. METHODS: Patients consecutively admitted to ICU were included. NIV, performed with an ICU ventilator, was set by the clinician. Airway pressure, flow, and surface diaphragmatic electromyography were recorded continuously for 30 min. Asynchrony events and the asynchrony index (AI) were determined from visual inspection of the recordings and clinical observation. RESULTS: A total of 60 patients were included, 55% of whom were hypercapnic. Auto-triggering was present in 8 (13%) patients, double triggering in 9 (15%), ineffective breaths in 8 (13%), premature cycling 7 (12%) and late cycling in 14 (23%). An AI > 10%, indicating severe asynchrony, was present in 26 patients (43%), whose median (25-75 IQR) AI was 26 (15-54%). A significant correlation was found between the magnitude of leaks and the number of ineffective breaths and severity of delayed cycling. Multivariate analysis indicated that the level of pressure support and the magnitude of leaks were weakly, albeit significantly, associated with an AI > 10%. Patient comfort scale was higher in pts with an AI < 10%. CONCLUSION: Patient-ventilator asynchrony is common in patients receiving NIV for acute respiratory failure. Our results suggest that leaks play a major role in generating patient-ventilator asynchrony and discomfort, and point the way to further research to determine if ventilator functions designed to cope with leaks can reduce asynchrony in the clinical setting.

Recombinant " Physcomitrella patens " as a sensitive tool to study heat sensing and heat-shock signal transduction in plants

SUMMARY When exposed to heat stress, plants display a particular set of cellular and molecular responses, such as chaperones expression, which are highly conserved in all organisms. In chapter 1, I studied the ability of heat shock genes to become transiently and abundantly induced under various temperature regimes. To this aim, I designed a highly sensitive heat-shock dependent conditional gene expression system in the moss Physcomitrella patens, using the soybean heatinducible promoter (hsp17.3B). Heat-induced expression of various reporter genes was over three orders of magnitude, in tight correlation with the intensity and duration of the heat treatments. By performing repeated heating/cooling cycles, a massive accumulation of recombinant proteins was obtained. Interestingly, the hsp17.3B promoter was also activated by specific organic chemicals. Thus, in chapter 2, I took advantage of the extreme sensitivity of this promoter to small temperature variations to further address the role of various natural and organic chemicals and develop a plant based-bioassay that can serve as an early warning indicator of toxicity by pollutants and heavy metals. A screen of several organic pollutants from textile and paper industry showed that chlorophenols as well as sulfonated anthraquinones elicited a heat shock like response at noninducing temperatures. Their effects were synergistically amplified by mild elevated temperatures. In contrast to standard methods of pollutant detection, this plant-based biosensor allowed to monitor early stress-responses, in correlation with long-term toxic effect, and to attribute effective toxicity thresholds for pollutants, in a context of varying environmental cues. In chapter 3, I deepened the study of the primary mechanism by which plants sense mild temperature variations and trigger a cellular signal leading to the heat shock response. In addition to the above described heat-inducible reporter line, I generated a P. patens transgenic line to measure, in vivo, variations of cytosolic calcium during heat treatment, and another line to monitor the role of protein unfolding in heat-shock sensing and signalling. The heat shock signalling pathway was found to be triggered by the plasma membrane, where temperature up shift specifically induced the transient opening of a putative high afimity calcium channel. The calcium influx triggered a signalling cascade leading to the activation of the heat shock genes, independently on the presence of misfolded proteins in the cytoplasm. These results strongly suggest that changes in the fluidity of the plasma membrane are the primary trigger of the heatshocksignalling pathway in plants. The present thesis contributes to the understanding of the basic mechanism by which plants perceive and respond to heat and chemical stresses. This may contribute to developing appropriate better strategies to enhance plant productivity under the increasingly stressful environment of global warming. RÉSUME Les plantes exposées à des températures élevées déclenchent rapidement des réponses cellulaires qui conduisent à l'induction de gènes codant pour les heat shock proteins (HSPs). En fonction de la durée d'exposition et de la vitesse à laquelle la température augmente, les HSPs sont fortement et transitoirement induites. Dans le premier chapitre, cette caractéristique aété utilisée pour développer un système inductible d'expression de gènes dans la mousse Physcomitrella patens. En utilisant plusieurs gènes rapporteurs, j'ai montré que le promoteur du gène hsp17.3B du Soja est activé d'une manière. homogène dans tous les tissus de la mousse proportionnellement à l'intensité du heat shock physiologique appliqué. Un très fort taux de protéines recombinantes peut ainsi être produit en réalisant plusieurs cycles induction/recovery. De plus, ce promoteur peut également être activé par des composés organiques, tels que les composés anti-inflammatoires, ce qui constitue une bonne alternative à l'induction par la chaleur. Les HSPs sont induites pour remédier aux dommages cellulaires qui surviennent. Étant donné que le promoteur hsp17.3B est très sensible à des petites augmentations de température ainsi qu'à des composés chimiques, j'ai utilisé les lignées développées dans le chapitre 1 pour identifier des polluants qui déclenchent une réaction de défense impliquant les HSPs. Après un criblage de plusieurs composés, les chlorophénols et les antraquinones sulfonés ont été identifiés comme étant activateurs du promoteur de stress. La détection de leurs effets a été réalisée seulement après quelques heures d'exposition et corrèle parfaitement avec les effets toxiques détectés après de longues périodes d'exposition. Les produits identifiés montrent aussi un effet synergique avec la température, ce qui fait du biosensor développé dans ce chapitre un bon outil pour révéler les effets réels des polluants dans un environnement où les stress chimiques sont combinés aux stress abiotiques. Le troisième chapitre est consacré à l'étude des mécanismes précoces qui permettent aux plantes de percevoir la chaleur et ainsi de déclencher une cascade de signalisation spécifique qui aboutit à l'induction des gènes HSPs. J'ai généré deux nouvelles lignées afin de mesurer en temps réel les changements de concentrations du calcium cytosolique ainsi que l'état de dénaturation des protéines au cours du heat shock. Quand la fluidité de la membrane augmente après élévation de la température, elle semble induire l'ouverture d'un canal qui permet de faire entrer le calcium dans les cellules. Ce dernier initie une cascade de signalisation qui finit par activer la transcription des gènes HSPs indépendamment de la dénaturation de protéines cytoplasmiques. Les résultats présentés dans ce chapitre montrent que la perception de la chaleur se fait essentiellement au niveau de la membrane plasmique qui joue un rôle majeur dans la régulation des gènes HSPs. L'élucidation des mécanismes par lesquels les plantes perçoivent les signaux environnementaux est d'une grande utilité pour le développement de nouvelles stratégies afin d'améliorer la productivité des plantes soumises à des conditions extrêmes. La présente thèse contribue à décortiquer la voie de signalisation impliquée dans la réponse à la chaleur.