High-level Resource Research Articles

Resource misallocation and aggregate productivity under progressive taxation

This paper quantitatively examines the long-run macroeconomic effects of resource misallocation in an otherwise standard one-sector neoclassical growth model with heterogeneous establishments, characterized by different ages and productivity levels, that are subject to progressive taxation as well as endogenous entry decisions. Under a progressive fiscal policy rule, capital and labor inputs move from more productive to less productive establishments because the latter face a lower tax rate. When the tax progressivity rises, the economy’s overall production will fall since low-productivity establishments use an inefficiently high level of productive resources (the intensive margin). On the other hand, more progressive taxation reduces the economy’s total number of operating establishments, which in turn further decreases aggregate output (the extensive margin). Under our benchmark parameterization to match with the U.S. data, we find that the measured aggregate productivity also falls when the tax schedule becomes more progressive. For the sensitivity analyses, we consider alternative specifications with fixed labor supply or different returns-to-scale in production; and undertake a counterfactual cross-country comparison with China and India.

RESEARCH OF SEPARATION GRADIENT AEROSOL TECHNOLOGIES FOR INTENSIFICATION OF HEAT AND MASS TRANSFER PROCESSES IN SYSTEMS OF HIGHLY TURBULENT DISPERSED BIPHASIC FLOWS. USE OF AEROSOL GRADIENT TECHNOLOGIES IN SEPARATION EQUIPMENT FOR SHIPBUILDING AND MARINE INFRASTRUCTURE

A new approach to ensure high level of resource and environmental safety for shipbuilding and marine infrastructure through the use of technology in aerosol gradient separation equipment was developed. A wide range of theoretical and experimental studies which allowed working out aerosol gradient technologies using gradient fields of speed, pulsation, temperature, pressure, acoustic vibrations and the schemes of complex clearing intensification was carried out. On the basis of developed technologies a wide range of resource-saving and environmental equipment for shipbuilding and marine infrastructure was designed and implemented.

Profiles of human capital and strategic technological decisions on turbulence environment

<p>The objective of this article is to examine the absorptive capacity in the technology industry and aspires to recognize how firms can manage their strategic decisions in the turbulence contexts. In particular, we examine how organizations can strengthen their organizational contexts in order to absorb knowledge. From the knowledge management literature, this investigation extends our perception of the relationship between the human capital profiles (organization, research and development unit, and recent incorporations) and technological decision-making. Through the SEPI Foundation, a balanced panel of 1,220 Spanish industrial companies has used that answer to the Survey of Business Strategies (SBS) for a threeyear period, which signifies a total of 3,660 cases. The principal finding is the presence of high levels of human resources to understand a decision efficiency process. It also highlights its relationship to the firm’s technological committee. These contributions are notable for both researchers and practitioners. It could be stimulating to expand the study to the association between human capital profiles and other strategic technological decisions, as the preparation of an innovation plan or the measurement of innovation performance.</p>

The psychosocial health of children born after medically assisted reproduction: Evidence from the UK Millennium Cohort Study

The increasing number of children conceived through medically assisted reproduction (MAR, including IVF/ICSI, intrauterine insemination and ovulation induction) has led to concerns about the potential negative effects of fertility treatments on children’s psychosocial health. Some studies suggest that MAR children might be at higher risk of developing psychosocial problems when they enter adolescence. However, very few studies have examined the development of MAR children after childhood. Moreover, even though parental socio-economic characteristics are known to be highly correlated with children’s psychosocial development, most existing studies on the outcomes of MAR children did not take into account the selective characteristics of the couples who accessed fertility treatments. Using data from waves 1–6 of the UK Millennium Cohort Study, we compare the psychosocial health, as measured by the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, of MAR children to that of naturally-conceived (NC) children, up to and including the age of 14. We control for a wide range of time-constant child and parental characteristics that might confound the association between MAR and the psychosocial health of children. Results from multilevel random intercept models that do not account for parental characteristics show that MAR children have a lower incidence of psychosocial problems than NC children. In models that control for parental characteristics, MAR children are found to have a higher incidence of psychosocial problems than NC children at age three, which suggests that high parental resource levels both explain the advantage of MAR children in unadjusted models, and mask the potentially adverse effects of MAR at young ages. However, in the fully adjusted models in which MAR children have more psychosocial problems at young age, the differences with respect to NC children decrease with age and become statistically and substantively negligible by end of follow-up at age 14. This result suggests that the use of MAR does not increase children’s risk of having psychosocial problems at the onset of adolescence.

Challenges Associated With the Civilian Reintegration of Soldiers With Chronic PTSD: A New Approach Integrating Psychological Resources and Values in Action Reappropriation.

Background: In light of the psychological changes in an individual suffering from chronic Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), questions are being raised in order to understand and facilitate recovery and a return to work. This is particularly challenging for soldiers suffering from chronic PTSD, who are often young individuals suffering from moral conflicts. A French military rehabilitation program proposes the broadening of the relationships between recovery and reintegration by incorporating approaches from the field of positive psychology for soldiers with chronic PTSD. The aim of the study was to evaluate (i) the psychological resources which remain sustainable for these trauma exposed soldiers according to their PTSD symptoms, (ii) the dynamics of resource reappropriation after the military rehabilitation program, which focuses on values in action (VIA) as character strengths, and (iii) how these resources and their reappropriation facilitate civilian professional reintegration.Method: We conducted a prospective study with 56 trauma exposed soldiers with a clinical diagnosis of chronic PTSD. PTSD severity and psychological resources (optimism, mindfulness, well-being, motivation, self-esteem, and VIA) were assessed before and after the rehabilitation program. After the identification of resource profiles, we analyzed the impact of the program on resource levels and successful reintegration into a civilian job.Results: 3 profiles were identified based on the psychological resources of the soldiers. Profiles 1, 2, and 3 differed in terms of clinical severity (PCL5). Profile 1 exhibited both the highest level of resources and the lowest clinical severity of PTSD but did not modify its resources after the intervention program when compared to profile 3. Profile 3 was characterized by the lowest level of resources, the highest clinical severity of PTSD and the highest reappropriation in all VIAs. This profile was associated with the highest rate of reintegration success 1 year after the intervention.Conclusions: This paper aims to broaden the relationship between recovery and reintegration by incorporating approaches from the field of positive psychology for soldiers with PTSD. VIA appears to be an important factor for reintegration. Our results highlight the importance of taking into account the existing needs of the patient and the optimization of the modalities of individual, collective, and institutional rehabilitation for patients suffering from PTSD in order to better understand the dynamics of the recovery process of a chronically afflicted individual.

What are the social determinants of road traffic death in global context?

Background: The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that road accidents cause over 1.3 million deaths per year. Considering WHO conceptual framework for action on the social determinants of health (SDH), this study aim to answer the question of why some countries have high levels of deaths due to road traffic crashes, and some have low levels. Methods: Qualitative comparative analysis using fuzzy sets (fsQCA) was performed to identify the structural conditions linking to road traffic death across 123 countries from all WHO regions. The outcome was 2016 reported number of road traffic deaths. The potential causal conditions according to the SDH conceptual framework were level of country economic development (GDP), urban population (% of total), availability of health-system resources and income inequality. The data at country level were obtained from the different international data sources, during 2015-2017. Results: The fsQCA truth table analysis revealed one pathway to low-level road traffic death that was low-level income inequality combined with high-level health system resources and high-level GDP. This pathway specified a combination of structural conditions that is sufficient to explain low-level road traffic death. On the other hand, the fsQCA truth table analysis indicated three pathways to high-level road traffic death; (1) low-level urbanization combined with low-level health system resources and low-level GDP, (2) high-level income inequality and low-level urbanization and low-level GDP (3) high-level income inequality combined with high-level urbanization and low-level health system resources. These configurations specified the combination of structural conditions that were sufficient to explain high-level road traffic death. The case of IRAN with a relatively high level of economic development (fuzzy score=0.65), low level of health-system resources (fuzzy score=0.1), a high level of urbanization (fuzzy score=0.85) and high level of inequality (fuzzy score=1) indicated a configuration linked to the set of countries with high rates of deaths from road accidents in the world (fuzzy score=0.82). Conclusion: The structural determinants and conditions of daily life that highlighted by WHO commission on social determinants of health may responsible for a part of inequalities in death from road traffic accidents.

Environmental Dynamics, Financial Flexibility and Enterprise Strategic Change

Enterprise strategic change is affected by the external environment, so the research on the relationship between external environment and strategic change has always been concerned by academic circles. Based on contingency theory and resource-based theory, this paper analyzes the influence of environmental dynamics on the strategic change of manufacturing enterprises, and explores how corporate financial flexibility adjusts the relationship between environmental dynamics and strategic change. Taking the 2011-2017 A-share listed manufacturing companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen stock markets as the research object, the empirical results show that: 1) the environmental dynamism is positively related to strategic change—the more dynamic the environment is, the more the manufacturing enterprise inclined to implement the strategic change; 2) financial flexibility positively regulates the impact of environmental dynamics on strategic change. The high level of financial flexibility means abundant resources for strategic change, and the greater the role of environmental dynamism in promoting the implementation of strategic change by manufacturing enterprises. This paper deepens the research on the impact of environmental dynamism on enterprise strategic change, and introduces financial flexibility as a moderating variable, which enriches the theoretical system of strategic change. At the same time, this paper takes manufacturing enterprises as the research object to provide theoretical and practical guidance for Chinese manufacturing enterprises to optimize financial flexible reserve according to the dynamic degree of the environment to successfully implement strategic change.

Intellectual specialization of entrepreneurship as a way of solving social and economic problems

Ukraine lags behind the developed countries in technological and economic spheres, by average income per capita, by renovation of production equipment, etc. Instead, comparatively high level of labour resources’ qualification and intellectual capacity remain to be the competitive advantage. Based on the theory of competitive advantages and current EU smart specialization strategy, it is possible to focus on technology-intensive industries oriented on exports to secure the countries’ sustainable development. The state of innovation activity of enterprises of industry, entrepreneurship sectors and regions is considered. The structure of the types of innovative activities of Ukrainian industrial enterprises for 2010-2017 includes internal and external impacts, such as the purchase of equipment and software, training of employees, etc. Statistical, table, questionnaire, factor analysis methods were used. The comparative analysis provides an innovative index of Ukraine and its 10 components (human resources, attractive research systems, innovation friendly environment, finance and support, firm investments, innovators, linkages, intellectual assets, employment impacts, sales impacts) calculated by EU economic experts according to the methodology The European Innovation Scoreboard. Based on the answers of the managers of small businesses, the bottlenecks of innovation management are grounded: internal (qualifications of managers and specialists), limited financial resources, risk of activities diversification) and external (corruption, formal approach of authorities and institutional infrastructure). The paper proves the reasonability of the state policy of further investment development and stimulation of the IT sector due to its low material resources, proper system of education of specialists, legal support and fiscal policy. The record high growth rate of the information services market and the corresponding high-intellectual cluster of specialists allows predicting the integration of the national industry into the international division of labor from the angle of geopolitical smart specialization.

Исследование взаимосвязи предпочитаемых музыкальных стилей с личностными особенностями начинающих педагогов-музыкантов

The present article researches the relationship of musical preferences of adolescence (pop, rock and rap) and modernity (classical, pop, rock, music lovers) with the display of personal features, such as empathy, emotional exhaustion, state and trait anxiety, pedagogical style and coping strategies. The musical genres and trends are considered as musical preferences and precedential musical phenomenon revealed empirically during the self-analysis by the subjects. The experimental study was carried out on the basis of Moscow Pedagogical State University and consisted of 4-5th-year students of Music Department. The connections between personal features and preferred musical styles of modernity were detected. The students considering classical music to be their favorite musical direction having a high level of personal resources. These results display the positive influence of classical music to the personal resources of future music teachers. This phenomenon demands further investigations and using in the field of musical education psychology. These results highlight necessity of detailed consideration on classical music relationship and personal features of bachelor students musical department during the educational process.

Evolutionary agroecology: Trends in root architecture during wheat breeding.

Root system characteristics determine soil space exploration and resource acquisition, and these characteristics include competitive traits that increase individual fitness but reduce population performance. We hypothesize that crop breeding for increased yield is often a form of “group selection” that reduces such “selfish” traits to increase population yield. To study trends in root architecture resulting from plant breeding and test the hypothesis that increased yields result in part from group selection on root traits, we investigated root growth and branching behavior in a historical sequence of wheat (Triticum aestivum) cultivars that have been widely grown in northwestern China. Plants were grown in gel‐filled chambers to examine growth angles, numbers, and lengths of seminal roots, and in soil‐filled chambers under eight soil resource levels for fractal analysis of root system architecture. Yield in field was evaluated at standard and low planting densities. Newer cultivars produced higher yields than older ones only at the higher sowing density, showing that increased yield results from changes in competitive behavior. Seminal root number and growth angles were negatively correlated with yield, while primary seminal root length was positively correlated with yield. Roots of higher‐yielding modern varieties were simpler and less branched, grew deeper but spread less laterally than modern varieties. The fractal dimension of root branching was negatively correlated with the yield of cultivars at all resource levels. Root:shoot ratio was negatively correlated with yield under high soil resource levels. The results are consistent with the hypothesis that the success of wheat breeding for higher yields over past 100 years in northwestern China has been in part due to unconscious group selection on root traits, resulting in smaller, less branched, and deeper roots, suggesting a direction for further increases in crop yield in the future.

Resource Mapping and Indexing of Federal Provinces of Nepal: An Analysis

Nepal has entered into a federal political structure with 7 provincial governments and 753 local municipalities (rural and urban). There is a paucity of evidence on the status of resources available in the seven provincial governments without which, estimation of resource gap and potentials of these provincial governments for appropriate policy interventions remains elusive. In this paper, we have prepared a resource map of the provincial governments and developed a resource index so that we can rank the provinces using the index. The resource index includes the dimensions of human resource (population), natural resource (arable land, forest coverage and water resources) and financial resources (tax revenue generated per person and GDP per capita). Our findings suggest that there is a high disparity of resource availability in seven different provinces. Provinces 6 and 7 located in the mid and far western regions are found developmentally challenged with low revenue collection and high poverty rate and migration. Provinces 2 and 5 have high levels of resources, wastage and inefficiency. Province 4 is found to be outstanding in terms of efficient resource use and knowledge, and if supported with more resources possesses high chance of becoming the role model province in Nepal.

Uneven Distribution of Primary and Middle Schools: A Case Study of Changchun, China

Providing further knowledge to and refinement of public facility location theory, this paper focuses on the distribution of basic educational facilities in China. The aim towards an equilibrium in the distribution of education resources has captured widespread attention in recent years. The basis of an education equilibrium is the balanced distribution of teaching facilities. Using the spatial analysis function of ArcGIS, this article discusses the evolution characteristics of education equilibrium and explores its dynamics with reference to primary and middle schools in Changchun City, Jilin Province from 2007 to 2013. The study found the spatial distribution of primary and middle schools in Changchun was uneven and the characteristic of close internal but sparse external has not changed. Low-level equilibrium of primary and middle schools in Changchun has been basically realized, but high-level equilibrium is far from being realized. Although there has been a trend towards suburbanization of these schools in recent years, the high entrance threshold has determined that high-quality school opportunity (schools with high-level resource allocation) has not increased for people. The spatial distribution of primary and middle schools is related to the factors of population, real estate, transportation and the education system itself. Education space, living space, and traffic space all interact and together affect urban spatial structure.

Investigating the Relationship between Workload-Resources and Exhaustion of Nurses and Police Officers in Namibia

A lot has been published on burnout within the service industry; however, an in-depth investigation of job stressors and burnout in both the safety and health sectors of Namibia has been left unexplored. This study investigated the relationship between job demands-resources and burnout. Burnout occurs when an individual is exposed to emotional and interpersonal stressors on the job (exhaustion, cynicism and professional efficacy). Job demands require continuous efforts and job resources are aspects of the organisation that are helpful in achieving goals, reducing costs of job demands and stimulating growth and development. The sample is made up of police officers (n=482) and nursing staff (n=672) from various regions within Namibia (n=1154). Results were analysed using the SPSS (version 24) to assess the relationships between the variables. The results revealed exhaustion had a relationship with the workload, resources and organisational support. Lower levels of workload, accompanied with higher levels of resources and organisation support would reduce exhaustion. The workload can be managed by making using of timemanagement training, improving delegation, and by ensuring the employees have mentors and supervisory support. Training opportunities improve work resources and reduce work stress. Healthy coping strategies, like being active and meditation help to alleviate stress (exhaustion). Having healthy work relations enhances organisational support and improves coping mechanisms of employees.

The East Asiatic region of crop plant diversity

Crop plant diversity of E Asiatic region (China, Japan and Korea Peninsula) is extremely interesting because of the region’s high level of plant diversity resources and long history of cultivation and domestication, while an inventory of crop plant diversity in this area is still not fully recorded. Crop diversity protects food consumption, especially in poor households within developing nations. This review aims to provide an inventory and a summary of the crop plants in this area, in order to further understand the importance of crop plant diversity and its conservation. In total 175 families, 640 genera and 1484 species were recorded in this paper based on extensive literature reviews and own field work.

Competitive analysis of online revenue management with hierarchical resources

This paper studies an online revenue management problem of accepting and assigning two classes of customers to two levels of resources with capacity constraints. A customer's request may be either accepted or rejected immediately upon its arrival without the information of further demand. One class of customers can be served either by a low-level resource at the resource's regular price, or by a high-level resource at the customer's reservation price. Another class of customers can be served by either level of resource at the regular price of the corresponding resource. Given the capacities of both levels of resources, the objective is to accept appropriate customers and assign them to appropriate resources so as to maximize the total revenue. From the perspective of competitive analysis, we derive an upper bound of competitive ratio for the problem and develop an optimal online strategy whose competitive ratio matches the upper bound.

GPUart - An application-based limited preemptive GPU real-time scheduler for embedded systems

Emerging technologies like autonomous driving entail computational intense software solutions. More and more companies accelerate their embedded applications by General Purpose Computing on the Graphics Processing Unit (GPGPU), in order to overcome those computational demands. Unfortunately, Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) severely lack real-time capability, for example controllable preemption support, which limits their applicability in the embedded domain. We therefore present GPUart, a framework for GPU real-time scheduling. GPUart focuses on embedded systems and requires neither hardware nor driver stack extensions. We propose a software-only approach for preemption, based on the fixed preemption point strategy. In contrast to prior work, GPUart enables preemption inside a thread block by adding fixed preemption points. We further propose a portable high-level resource management concept to enable gang scheduling on GPUs. GPUart can schedule GPU workload either under the Gang-Earliest Deadline First (EDF) or Gang-Fixed Task Priority (FTP) policy. A case-study on Nvidia Tegra X1, using real-world engine management applications from Audi AG and Continental Automotive GmbH, shows that only up to 0.28% additional global memory is required to enable interruptible thread blocks. GPUart reduces the worst observed response times by a factor of up to 221, leading to response times without deadline misses.

The Locals’ Opinions and the Development of Sustainable Tourism in Rodna Commune

This study refers to sustainability, a much debated concept at global level. Because of the high levels of pollution and limited resources, sustainability has become an international goal. Furthermore, one of the engines for development in emerging economies is, of course, the tourism industry, which is also Romania’s case. Combining these two elements, the authors find that sustainable tourism development is both a longterm goal and a dynamic concept. This concept is represented by three pillars growing the local economy, protecting and promoting the cultural heritage, and increasing the social well-being. The present paper consists of a case study that focuses on Rodna commune, a beautiful Transylvanian rural settlement, located in Bistri?a- Nasaud County. The research methods used are secondary data analysis (based on the study of different statistics, guides, and specialized sites), comparisons, analogies and syntheses, primary qualitative research (based on face-to-face interviews with the locals), and induction and deduction methods, which all aim at identifying: the current position of Rodna commune from the socio-economic point of view, the locals’ opinion related to the sustainable development of the destination’s tourism industry, and also the ways in which this objective can be achieved. The subjects interviewed were selected in order to relevantly cover most of the local population: honor citizens, teachers, priests, doctors and students, each of them representing stakeholders in the development of the tourism industry. The research results show that the locals are aware of the strong connection between the development of tourism and the economic well-being of the commune, they helped identifying the major problems that need to be addressed and solved in order for this process to be efficient but also the fact that they are not yet aware of their role and do not acknowledge the ways in which they can make a difference for themselves and for the commune. The conclusions reveal the current situation of Rodna commune from the subjects’ points of view and their proposals for achieving better living standards. Also, the interviews show the lack of implication caused by the fact that the subjects are neither aware of their stakes, nor of their possibilities to help developing the local tourism.

A Consensus-Based Cooperative Control of PEV Battery and PV Active Power Curtailment for Voltage Regulation in Distribution Networks

The rapid growth of rooftop photovoltaic (PV) arrays installed in residential houses leads to serious voltage quality problems in low voltage distribution networks (LVDNs). In this paper, a combined method using the battery energy management of plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) and the active power curtailment of PV arrays is proposed to regulate voltage in LVDNs with high penetration level of PV resources. A distributed control strategy composed of two consensus algorithms is used to reach an effective utilization of limited storage capacity of PEV battery considering its power/capacity and state of charge. A consensus control algorithm is also developed to fairly share the required power curtailment among PVs during overvoltage periods. The main objective is to mitigate the voltage rise due to the reverse power flow and to compensate the voltage drop resulting from the peak load. Overall, the proposed algorithm contributes to a coordinated charging/discharging control of PEVs battery which provides a maximum utilization of available storage capacity throughout the network. In addition, the coordinated operation minimizes the required active power which is going to be curtailed from PV arrays. The effectiveness of the proposed control scheme is investigated on a typical three-phase four-wire LVDN in presence of PV resources and PEVs.

Mastery and social support moderate the effects of educational level on adjustment of Arab mothers of children diagnosed with cancer.

The study explored the adjustment of Arab mothers of children diagnosed with cancer, as shown by the mothers' distress and quality of life. The aim was twofold: to examine the associations between educational level, psychosocial resources and adjustment indices and to assess the moderating effects of psychosocial resources on the education and adjustment association. The sample consisted of 100 Arab mothers who completed questionnaires assessing demographic and illness variables, mastery, social support, psychological distress and quality of life. High levels of education and psychosocial resources contributed to low distress and high levels of quality of life. Mastery and social support moderated the effects of education on adjustment: Under low levels of education, higher mastery was related to lower distress and higher quality of life, and higher social support was related to lower distress. Education, mastery and social support are important resources in the context of adjustment to cancer. In addition, psychosocial resources are important factors for adjustment under low levels of education and should be taken into consideration when developing intervention programmes for Arab parents coping with their child's cancer.

Volunteering and Subjective Well-Being Among Individuals With Disabilities: A Multivariate Model

The main goal of the study was to evaluate the contribution of volunteering to explaining two indicators of subjective well-being—self-esteem and sense of meaning in life (MIL)—among people with physical disabilities in Israel. The sample included 160 Israeli participants with physical disabilities, of whom 95 had volunteered and 65 had not. The findings revealed that volunteering was both directly and indirectly associated with factors that facilitate the sense of MIL but was not associated with factors that inhibit MIL. Furthermore, volunteering was found to mediate the relationship of economic and family support to self-esteem and to facilitators of MIL. The results point to a sequence of contingencies that facilitate indicators of subjective well-being: when people with disabilities have high levels of economic resources and family support, they are more likely to volunteer; in turn, volunteer activity increases self-esteem and promotes a sense of MIL.