Prospective Partners Research Articles

Seeking partners in international alliances: The influence of cultural factors

Insufficient attention during the search and selection stages of a prospective partnership may jeopardize the cooperation agreement's chances of success. Therefore, in both of these phases, prospective partners must consider factors that could lead to problems in the cooperation agreement or hinder the international alliance. Following a literature review, the study presents five hypotheses to determine how considering the partner's country of origin, the partner's size, and trust between partners can alleviate future problems during the agreement. Regression analysis using data from 83 firms tests these hypotheses. Findings reveal the importance of trust and highlight an interesting line of future research into the role of the partner's size.

The NIH-Industry New Therapeutic Uses Pilot Program: Demonstrating the Power of Crowdsourcing

Drug Repurposing, Rescue, and RepositioningVol. 1, No. 1 ReviewThe NIH-Industry New Therapeutic Uses Pilot Program: Demonstrating the Power of CrowdsourcingChristine M. Colvis and Christopher P. AustinChristine M. ColvisSearch for more papers by this author and Christopher P. AustinSearch for more papers by this authorPublished Online:10 Mar 2015https://doi.org/10.1089/drrr.2014.0006AboutSectionsView articleView Full TextPDF/EPUB ToolsPermissionsDownload CitationsTrack CitationsAdd to favorites Back To Publication ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmail View article"The NIH-Industry New Therapeutic Uses Pilot Program: Demonstrating the Power of Crowdsourcing." Drug Repurposing, Rescue, and Repositioning, 1(1), pp. 15–16FiguresReferencesRelatedDetails Volume 1Issue 1Mar 2015 InformationCopyright 2015, Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.To cite this article:Christine M. Colvis and Christopher P. Austin.The NIH-Industry New Therapeutic Uses Pilot Program: Demonstrating the Power of Crowdsourcing.Drug Repurposing, Rescue, and Repositioning.Mar 2015.15-16.http://doi.org/10.1089/drrr.2014.0006Published in Volume: 1 Issue 1: March 10, 2015Online Ahead of Print:June 26, 2014Keywordspublic private partnershipstemplate agreementscrowdsourcingrepositioningPDF download

Next Generation ILS, or Separating Record Management from the Public Interface

Since the development of integrated library systems (ILS) in the 1970s, the focus of developers and librarians has been on the “integrated” aspect, but with the advances in technology, the time has come for libraries to consider whether a more disaggregated system would better benefit their users. This article seeks to make the argument that the design of a user-friendly public interface to library systems is ideal for public/private partnerships; such an approach would enable participants to harness their respective strengths while simultaneously limiting the effect of their deficiencies. While this article will primarily name private entities as libraries’ prospective partners, the collaboration may be equally effective with independent non-profit organizations, ones that do not rely on the funding of governments or tuition revenue for survival.

Institutional Exploitation and Exploration: Socio-Spatial Distance of New Partner Selection

Concepts of exploration and exploitation are widely used to interpret organizational behavior, typically classifying any new relationship as exploration and the continuation of an existing relationship as exploitation. This delineation from the organizational perspective, however, fails to differentiate between the relative socio-spatial distances of the two prospective partners. Arguably, these differences matter for the relative novelty of information that a new partner brings, not only to the organizational entities involved in the relationship, but to the institutional fields within which they are embedded. Conceptualizing novelty along a continuum of institutional distance across field boundaries, I develop a more robust theory of partner selection that distinguishes two types of organizational exploration: institutional exploitation, the initiation of a new relationship for the ego organization that involves the replication of past partner choices of others within the ego’s field, and institutional exploration, the formation of a relationship with a new organization that exists outside of the ego’s field. I test this theory using a novel, longitudinal dataset of U.S.-based foundations’ transnational grantee choices. I find that objective market- and firm-level uncertainty lead to institutional exploitation in new investment relationships. However, my analysis shows that exploitation is tempered by subjective perceptions of uncertainty rooted in the particular norms of an organization’s institutional environment. Larger professionalized foundations often see novelty as opportunity, embracing institutional exploration and the selection of new partners from outside the field, while their less well-endowed peers view it as risk, resorting to institutional exploitation in an effort to form new partnerships that feel safer. Furthermore, foundations that respond to unique personal environments, such as family foundations and corporate foundations, engage in greater degrees of institutional exploration. These findings encourage the utility of including more nuanced degrees of exploration in future studies of partner selection.

Late Adolescents’ Perception of their Peers Who Report a Large Number of Sex Partners

What is the reason for gender discrepancy in reporting lifetime sex partners (SPs) when people are asked for the number of SPs they have had? Based on the idea of the sexual double standard, men might over-report while women might under-report the number of SPs. The purpose of this study was to identify whether this gender discrepancy could be explained by the sexual double standard or not. Late adolescents were asked to report the number of their lifetime SPs and to assess how they perceive sexual behaviors of an imaginary peer who reports a large number of SPs. Data were collected through a one-to-one interview sessions (over 90% of the sample). The lifetime number of SPs for men was almost 6 times higher than that for women. Men showed more envious attitudes and assessed the peer’s report as less factual when the peer man had more SPs. Women were not willing to accept the man as their prospective partner if he had many SPs. Also, the sexual behavior of the peer woman with many SPs was deemed undesirable by women. The findings imply that men might inflate their reports of the number of lifetime SPs, supporting the old sexual double standard. The findings also imply that women might under-report their lifetime SPs, and seemed to be somewhat ambivalent about the topic of the sexual double standard.

Латиноамериканская интеграция выходит в мир. Перспективы для России

Extra-regional contacts of Latin American integration unions have been actively developing over last decades. Generally it was the effect of a globalization process. Regional platforms have been created for multi-format cooperation both with separate countries and unions. The motives of inter-union cooperation are the efforts of developing countries to strengthen their bargain power and the requirement to expand export markets. The experience of such partnership between Latin America and different regions allows to define several models characterized by different mechanisms and instruments of a dialogue development (LAC–EU, LAC–US and “South–South” cooperation). There are different approaches to economic integration with extra-regional partners among Latin American unions and countries. A number of them follow open and flexible trade policy, while other establish preferential blocks with restrictions on bilateral trade negotiations. Until now Russia preferred to develop bilateral relations with its key allies in Latin America without building close ties with integration unions. But current geopolitical and economic situation encourages Russia to establish such partnership agreements with regional organizations, which are the rising power on the regional and global scene. Without it the full development of economic and political ties between both regions and their association on the international scene would be complicated. The fact that Eurasian Economic Commission recently launched the negotiations process with MERCOSUR demonstrates that Latin American unions start to be considered as prospective partners. In the future, Eurasian Economic Commission can serve as the main platform for bi-regional partnership.

Public private partnerships through experience of EU countries with regards to conditions in Serbia

The goal of this paper is to inform about the theoretic entries, concept and principles on which the public private partnership arrangements and relations are based. According to the theoretical starting points both foreign (Edvard Yescombe, Jan-Erik Lane, Ben Jupp, Bozena Gulija) and local authors (Sladjana Benkovic, Hasan Hanic, Dobrosav Milovanovic, Silvana Ilic, Vladimir Poznanovic), which have been practically applied in many EU countries, it can be stated that there are various types of public private partnerships, which can be used in order to raise the level and quality of public services which derives from different project activities in which the public and private sectors associate. The adoption of a basic institutional framework at the EU level ensures clear and equal 'game rules' to all prospective private partners who, in collaboration with the public institutions, want to implement the projects of local, regional, national or supranational importance. The main point of the PPP arrangements is based on contractual relations, distribution of risk, legal security and more quality, faster or more efficient solving of problems for the interests of citizens. The EU experiences are different, with more positive compared to negative aspects, as well as with the projects whose value is estimated at up to several tens of millions of euro. All possibilities of the new Law, which regulates this field, have not been yet sufficiently exploited, and soon a bigger initiative should be expected both from the state and private sector for the sake of participating actively in the PPP arrangements.

Are We Driving Away Those We Seek to Learn From?

Extant work reports that organizational integration supports awareness to, and transmission of, novel knowledge across corporate units. Integration, accordingly, is often adopted as part of corporate learning and innovation efforts. In parallel, the past decade has witnessed an emphasis on open innovation strategies, where corporations proactively seek to leverage knowledge from external companies. We advance that integration, while facilitating learning between existing corporate units and partners, may actually deter prospective partners. To that end, we study the Corporate Venture Capital (CVC) context, where established firms launch CVC- programs to pursue investment in innovative entrepreneurial companies. The predications are estimated using a rare-events logit methodology and a sample of 157 startup-stage CVC-investments and a matched-sample of possible investments that did not materialize. We find that, compared to loosely-integrated CVC programs, tightly-integrated programs are less effective in ...

Drawing Partners Together: A Report on the Practice of Responding to Partnership Requests for Community and University Arts Collaboration

NSCAD University is a visual arts university in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, that houses the NSCAD-TD Centre for Community Service Learning (the Centre). The Centre’s purpose is to manage and promote community part- nership requests with the institution.While community service learning and community– university partnership approaches necessarily inform the Centre’s operation, these need to be modified to reflect NSCAD’s unique position in art and design education. Each partnership request is assigned to one of three partner- ship categories, based on distinct criteria that account for NSCAD’s mission, the duration of the partnership, the level of NSCAD involve- ment, and the support capacity of the Centre.Using these criteria, partnerships are addressed in a consistent, sustainable manner that main- tains collaboration and affords room to grow more sophisticated partnership arrangements. The Centre allows prospective partners to access NSCAD’s extraordinary creativity and skilled artists, leading to receptive partnerships that benefit a range of communities.

Who Finds Bill Gates Sexy? Creative Mate Preferences as a Function of Cognitive Ability, Personality, and Creative Achievement

AbstractCreativity is sexy, but are all creative behaviors equally sexy? We attempted to clarify the role of creativity in mate selection among an ethnically diverse sample of 815 undergraduates. First we assessed the sexual attractiveness of different forms of creativity: ornamental/aesthetic, applied/technological, and everyday/domestic creativity. Both males and females preferred ornamental/aesthetic forms of creativity in a prospective sexual partner than applied/technological and everyday/domestic forms of creativity. Secondly, we assessed the simultaneous prediction of general cognitive ability, personality, divergent thinking, self‐perceptions of creativity, and creative achievement on preferences for different forms of creativity in a prospective sexual partner. The results were generally consistent with assortative mating. The most robust predictors of a preference for applied/technological forms of creativity in a potential sexual partner were intellectual interests and creative achievement in applied/technological domains. In contrast, the most robust predictor of a preference for ornamental/aesthetic forms of creativity was openness to experience. The results suggest that openness to experience and its associated aesthetic, perceptual, and affective aspects are the primary characteristics influencing the sexual attractiveness of a creative display. Further, the results demonstrate the importance of also taking into account individual differences in personality, interests, and creative achievement when considering the sexual attractiveness of different manifestations of creativity.

Analysis of hepatitis B virus drug-resistant mutation (M204V) using molecular dynamics simulation techniques

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) is the most common cause of liver infection. This can be treated by targeting HBV DNA polymerase (HDP). Although many drugs are available for the treatment, lamivudine is widely used because of its good safety profiles. Lamivudine targets the reverse transcriptase activity of HDP and restricts the viral growth. However, the available literature evidence showed that the mutations in the catalytic site of tyrosine (Y203), methionine (M204), aspartic acid (D205) and aspartic acid (D206) will significantly reduce the efficacy of lamivudine and creates a resistance. In particular, M204V mutation affects the drug binding mechanism and cause resistance to lamivudine. Therefore, in the present study, we made an attempt to understand the mechanism of lamivudine resistance with the aid of computational techniques. The docking results suggest that lamivudine was found to adopt most promising conformations with native type HDP by identifying M204 as a prospective partner for making polar contacts as compared to the mutant type HDP. The molecular dynamic (MD) results showed that the average atom, especially atoms of the native-type HDP-lamivudine complex, movements were small, displayed fast convergence of energy and charges in geometry. This highlights the stable binding of the lamivudine with native-type HDP as compared to mutant type HDP. The normalized mean square displacement and root mean square fluctuation analysis certainly indicates conformational changes in the HDP structure due to M204V mutation. Furthermore, the hydrogen bond analysis from the MD study demonstrated that there is decreased number of intermolecular hydrogen bonds in mutant HDP-lamivudine complex than that in the native-type HDP-lamivudine complex.

‘Time of My Life?’ The afterlife of Dirty Dancing in the contemporary romantic comedy

Abstract Released in 1987, the continued popularity of Dirty Dancing by Emile Ardolino, and its associated soundtrack cannot be disputed. David Shumway’s analysis of the film’s soundtrack argues that its newly produced songs, such as ‘(I’ve Had) the Time of My Life’ performed by Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes, rupture the purported realism of the film’s 1963 setting in favour of idealized fantasy. Exploring the implications of Shumway’s claim, this article examines how Dirty Dancing’s theme song has been taken up in two contemporary romantic comedies – Crazy Stupid Love by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa (2011), and Heartbreaker by Pascal Chaumeil (2010) – in which it is used by the male protagonists in order to win favour with their prospective partners. Combining Judith Butler’s work on performativity and citationality with the work of Ian Garwood and Frank Krutnik on the role of quotation in the recent romantic comedy and Rick Altman’s and Richard Dyer’s work on the film musical, the article observes how in both films, the male characters appeal directly to the women’s enjoyment of Dirty Dancing, culminating in scenes where the male and female leads perform a dance to ‘(I’ve had) the Time of My Life’. Complicating the dominant perception of the use of older songs in the contemporary romantic comedy, the article investigates the complex legacy of a hugely popular film whose eclectic soundtrack has seen relatively little academic interest.

Are ‘Green Brides’ More Attractive? An Empirical Examination of How Prospective Partners’ Environmental Reputation Affects the Trust-Based Mechanism in Alliance Formation

There is theoretical and empirical evidence that firms’ environmental performance has ramifications for their appeal to various stakeholders. Yet, we know little about how this plays out in the context of strategic alliance formation. Stated differently, research is lacking on how ‘green’ prospective alliance partners are estimated by the initiating firm. This article employs strong environmental reputation as a proxy for high environmental performance and explores implications for the well-established alliance formation trust-based mechanism, under the strategic cognition perspective. The ensuing hypotheses are subjected to empirical scrutiny through an experimental method. A random sample of 138 CEOs and top managers of Norwegian manufacturing firms completed a scenario-based questionnaire. The results show that two out of three trust dimensions are affected and, moreover, that two out of three—but not the same—trust dimensions influence partner attractiveness. Several theoretical and managerial implications, and future research opportunities, are derived from the findings.

Elizabeth Chen: fusing cells press closer.

Chen studies cell–cell fusion in Drosophila myoblasts.

The Structured Operational Research and Training Initiative for public health programmes.

In 2009, the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union) and Médecins sans Frontières Brussels-Luxembourg (MSF) began developing an outcome-oriented model for operational research training. In January 2013, The Union and MSF joined with the Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR) at the World Health Organization (WHO) to form an initiative called the Structured Operational Research and Training Initiative (SORT IT). This integrates the training of public health programme staff with the conduct of operational research prioritised by their programme. SORT IT programmes consist of three one-week workshops over 9 months, with clearly-defined milestones and expected output. This paper describes the vision, objectives and structure of SORT IT programmes, including selection criteria for applicants, the research projects that can be undertaken within the time frame, the programme structure and milestones, mentorship, the monitoring and evaluation of the programmes and what happens beyond the programme in terms of further research, publications and the setting up of additional training programmes. There is a growing national and international need for operational research and related capacity building in public health. SORT IT aims to meet this need by advocating for the output-based model of operational research training for public health programme staff described here. It also aims to secure sustainable funding to expand training at a global and national level. Finally, it could act as an observatory to monitor and evaluate operational research in public health. Criteria for prospective partners wishing to join SORT IT have been drawn up.

Mate choice and the evolutionary stability of a fixed threshold in a sequential search strategy

The sequential search strategy is a prominent model of searcher behavior, derived as a rule by which females might sample and choose a mate from a distribution of prospective partners. The strategy involves a threshold criterion against which prospective mates are evaluated. The optimal threshold depends on the attributes of prospective mates, which are likely to vary across generations or within the lifetime of searchers due to stochastic environmental events. The extent of this variability and the cost to acquire information on the distribution of the quality of prospective mates determine whether a learned or environmentally canalized threshold is likely to be favored. In this paper, we determine conditions on cross-generational perturbations of the distribution of male phenotypes that allow for the evolutionary stability of an environmentally canalized threshold. In particular, we derive conditions under which there is a genetically determined threshold that is optimal over an evolutionary time scale in comparison to any other unlearned threshold. These considerations also reveal a simple algorithm by which the threshold could be learned.

Conversation about Serostatus decreases risk of acquiring HIV: results from a case control study comparing MSM with recent HIV infection and HIV negative controls.

BackgroundData on knowledge, attitudes, behaviour and practices (KABP) of persons with recent HIV infection compared to controls with negative HIV test result provide information on current risk patterns and can help to re-focus HIV prevention strategies.MethodsFrom March 2008 through May 2010, persons newly diagnosed with HIV (cases) and HIV-negative controls were recruited by physicians in Germany. To distinguish recent (< 5 months) from longstanding (> 5 months) infection, dried blood spots from people newly diagnosed with HIV were tested with the BED IgG-capture ELISA. Cases and controls completed a KABP-questionnaire. We compared cases with recent infection and controls among men having sex with men (MSM) regarding reported risk behaviour in the previous 6 months. To detect differences, unadjusted Odds Ratios (OR) were calculated and multivariate analysis was performed.ResultsCases and controls did not differ in terms of knowledge on transmission risks, HIV testing frequency, partnership status, or regarding the frequency of any unprotected sex with partners known to be HIV-positive or assumed to be HIV-negative. Cases more often reported a shorter duration of partnership (< 6 months) with a primary partner than controls (OR = 3.9; p = 0.003) and indicated lower rates of condom use outside of primary relationships, with acquaintances (OR = 2.5; p = 0.01), and with persons met online (OR = 4.5; p = 0.04). Unprotected sex with persons of unknown HIV-serostatus was more often indicated by cases than controls (OR = 3.0; p = 0.003). Having a conversation about HIV serostatus before having sex was associated with a lower risk of infection (OR = 0.2; p = 0.01). In multivariate analysis “being always safe” (always using a condom when having sex in different situations outside of a relationship) and talking about serostatus before sex (OR = 0.23; p = 0.004; OR = 0.14; p = 0.014) were negatively associated with HIV- infection.ConclusionsThere were no significant differences regarding knowledge about HIV-transmission risks among cases and controls. Differences in risk behaviour were observed regarding unprotected sex with partners of unknown HIV-serostatus and duration of primary partnership at the time of diagnosis, suggesting some HIV-transmissions occurring in newly formed partnerships. The practice of discussing serostatus with prospective sex partners before engaging in sex seems to be protective for HIV-transmission.

Scotland, NATO, and transatlantic security

This article explores the political and strategic implications of Scottish Independence for existing transatlantic security arrangements. It examines the potential institutional, legal and political obstacles Scotland might face during the transition to independence and discusses the specific challenges in the area of security and defence, including the nuclear issue and the question of what form an independent Scottish Defence Force (SDF) would need to take to allow and facilitate integration in transatlantic security structures. It argues that a number of strategic and political issues could be mitigated in the course of negotiations between Edinburgh and London. Moreover, Scotland's geostrategic position and political orientation make it an important prospective partner in international security cooperation across the Eastern Atlantic, High North and North Sea, which suggests that an advanced partnership with NATO, and eventually full membership, seems like an option that is both politically viable and more likely than any scenario that predicts seeing an independent Scotland (IS) outside these structures. This challenges some of the main strategic and security political arguments against independence and thus seeks to spark a debate about the realistic options for Scotland should it become independent after 2016.

Endogenous Free Trade Agreements and Foreign Lobbying

AbstractThis paper assesses the political viability of free trade agreements (FTAs) in the presence of lobbying by organized foreign interest groups. The assessment is based on a model in which external tariffs and the decision to form an FTA are endogenously determined. The findings demonstrate that, in the presence of an organized lobby group in a prospective partner country, an FTA may initiate an increase in the level of protection against imports from third countries and impede trade with non‐member countries. Further, this study finds that a foreign lobby may encourage the local government to enter a welfare‐reducing trade‐diverting FTA. Finally, this paper shows that an FTA increases the lobbying power of the organized lobby groups of the member countries, which can potentially obstruct the viability of welfare‐improving multilateral trade liberalization.

Legume nodulation

Legume nodulation