Search

The symmetry of a domain wall in ferroelastic WO3 is analyzed by angle-resolved polarized Raman spectroscopy. We find that a low-energy Raman mode at 46 cm−1 is largely enhanced within the confined region of the domain wall, whose width is presumed to be ∼25 nm from diffusive x-ray scattering. The wall effect on the enhancement of the Raman signal per unit area is estimated to be three times larger than the contribution of the domains. The light-polarization-dependent Raman intensity at the wall is characterized by the symmetric A1g Raman tensor that is attributed to the prototypic quasitetragonal phase imposed by the ferroelastic compatibility relationship.

Existing theories exploring how companies interact with the law stop short of unveiling whether and why companies can differentially pursue, interact with, and benefit from a particular legal environment. We theorize that companies can use social structures—shared educational and professional affiliations—between lawyers and judges to strategically pursue specific legal jurisdictions, influence judges’ discretion, and ultimately reap different legal outcomes from the same legal environment. Using data on such affiliations between lawyers and federal judges, we examine companies’ choice of U.S. federal district courts and their legal outcomes in patent infringement litigation from 1990 to 2013. Our results reveal that companies strategically pursue courts in which their lawyers have past educational or professional affiliations with the courts’ judges. If a desired judge is assigned to the case, a company leverages its lawyers’ social structures to tailor any legal communication to match that judge’s style. While such behavior results in a higher likelihood of winning a lawsuit, it also creates an inherent risk. In stacking their legal teams with lawyers who have connections to judges, companies often shortchange the human capital—lawyers’ skillsets—required to win a case, which adversely affects legal outcomes if the desired judge is not assigned to the case.

A growing body of research shows that an organization’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) increases its attractiveness as an employer. What remains less explored, however, are the conditions under which some job seekers may be less likely to respond positively to a potential employer’s CSR activities. We propose that job seekers will be less likely to view an organization that engages in CSR activities focused on external stakeholders (i.e., external CSR) as authentic when the organization does not first engage in CSR activities that benefit its own employees (i.e., internal CSR). Subsequently, job seekers will be less likely to be attracted to that organization. In other words, they will view an organization that is engaging in external CSR as authentic and attractive insofar as the organization is also engaging in internal CSR. The results from a combination of three studies—an archival study of Fortune 500 companies (Study 1), a field study of unemployed job seekers (Study 2, n = 465), and an experiment (Study 3, n = 400)—provide support for our hypotheses. We discuss our findings by highlighting their contributions to the literatures on corporate social responsibility, employee recruitment, and authenticity.

Existing theories exploring how companies interact with the law stop short of unveiling whether and why companies can differentially pursue, interact with, and benefit from a particular legal environment. We theorize that companies can use social structures—shared educational and professional affiliations—between lawyers and judges to strategically pursue specific legal jurisdictions, influence judges’ discretion, and ultimately reap different legal outcomes from the same legal environment. Using data on such affiliations between lawyers and federal judges, we examine companies’ choice of U.S. federal district courts and their legal outcomes in patent infringement litigation from 1990 to 2013. Our results reveal that companies strategically pursue courts in which their lawyers have past educational or professional affiliations with the courts’ judges. If a desired judge is assigned to the case, a company leverages its lawyers’ social structures to tailor any legal communication to match that judge’s style. While such behavior results in a higher likelihood of winning a lawsuit, it also creates an inherent risk. In stacking their legal teams with lawyers who have connections to judges, companies often shortchange the human capital—lawyers’ skillsets—required to win a case, which adversely affects legal outcomes if the desired judge is not assigned to the case.

Existing theories exploring how companies interact with the law stop short of unveiling whether and why companies can differentially pursue, interact with, and benefit from a particular legal environment. We theorize that companies can use social structures—shared educational and professional affiliations—between lawyers and judges to strategically pursue specific legal jurisdictions, influence judges’ discretion, and ultimately reap different legal outcomes from the same legal environment. Using data on such affiliations between lawyers and federal judges, we examine companies’ choice of U.S. federal district courts and their legal outcomes in patent infringement litigation from 1990 to 2013. Our results reveal that companies strategically pursue courts in which their lawyers have past educational or professional affiliations with the courts’ judges. If a desired judge is assigned to the case, a company leverages its lawyers’ social structures to tailor any legal communication to match that judge’s style. While such behavior results in a higher likelihood of winning a lawsuit, it also creates an inherent risk. In stacking their legal teams with lawyers who have connections to judges, companies often shortchange the human capital—lawyers’ skillsets—required to win a case, which adversely affects legal outcomes if the desired judge is not assigned to the case.

A growing body of research shows that an organization’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) increases its attractiveness as an employer. What remains less explored, however, are the conditions under which some job seekers may be less likely to respond positively to a potential employer’s CSR activities. We propose that job seekers will be less likely to view an organization that engages in CSR activities focused on external stakeholders (i.e., external CSR) as authentic when the organization does not first engage in CSR activities that benefit its own employees (i.e., internal CSR). Subsequently, job seekers will be less likely to be attracted to that organization. In other words, they will view an organization that is engaging in external CSR as authentic and attractive insofar as the organization is also engaging in internal CSR. The results from a combination of three studies—an archival study of Fortune 500 companies (Study 1), a field study of unemployed job seekers (Study 2, n = 465), and an experiment (Study 3, n = 400)—provide support for our hypotheses. We discuss our findings by highlighting their contributions to the literatures on corporate social responsibility, employee recruitment, and authenticity.

In this paper, we reexamine the efficacy of redundant investment strategy and late entrance as a risk-hedging mechanism at the context of technological uncertainty, competition for an industry-wide dominance. Unlike recent findings against the effectiveness of such risk-hedging mechanisms, we identified a positive impact of dual investments by late entrants. In an early stage of a nascent industry when multiple (e.g. four or five) technologies competes, a dual investment strategy might not work. Later when the competition for dominance becomes a competition between two technologies, however, dual investments into the two technologies turns out effective. We also found that a business group structure contributes to managing complexity caused by dual investments. A semi-market structure institutionalized within a business group is effective in striking an optimal balance between internal competition and cooperation within the boundary of the firm."

How do professionals convince their employers or clients that they’re loyal? New research finds that to give the impression of uncompromising loyalty to their current role, professionals often become contentious and aggressive toward former collaborators. The problem is, such behaviors can hurt the same stakeholders they’re trying to win over.

Social embeddedness research has suggested that a history of collaboration between rivals should facilitate cooperation and prevent conflict. In contrast, the present study explores how a history of collaboration between people who subsequently become rivals can exacerbate conflict rather than facilitate future collaboration when salient others may expect them to be antagonistic. We develop this argument for a general set of relationships in which agents who previously collaborated become rivals while representing contesting principals. These agents may be perceived by the principals they represent as having compromised loyalties. This is especially likely when the principals whom the agents represent compete intensely or have previously been in conflict. To mitigate principals’ loyalty concerns, agents engage in compensatory behaviors meant to demonstrate social and psychological distance from former collaborators and now-rivals. Paradoxically, these behaviors transform a history of collaboration into a catalyst for conflict. Our empirical analyses are based on the professional histories of more than 20,000 external legal counsel representing corporate clients in intellectual property lawsuits filed from 2000 to 2015. Results reveal that lawyers engage in uncooperative behaviors in court to distance themselves from opposing lawyers who are former collaborators. These dynamics are associated with longer, more contentious litigation and lost economic value for clients, as evidenced by an analysis of companies’ abnormal stock market returns upon the termination of a lawsuit. Our research thus sheds lights on a mechanism by which past collaboration can undermine future collaboration and carries potential implications for research on social structures and for work on the interplay of structure and evaluative dynamics. © The Author(s) 2019.

In this paper, we reexamine the efficacy of redundant investment strategy and late entrance as a risk-hedging mechanism at the context of technological uncertainty, competition for an industry-wide dominance. Unlike recent findings against the effectiveness of such risk-hedging mechanisms, we identified a positive impact of dual investments by late entrants. In an early stage of a nascent industry when multiple (e.g. four or five) technologies competes, a dual investment strategy might not work. Later when the competition for dominance becomes a competition between two technologies, however, dual investments into the two technologies turns out effective. We also found that a business group structure contributes to managing complexity caused by dual investments. A semi-market structure institutionalized within a business group is effective in striking an optimal balance between internal competition and cooperation within the boundary of the firm."

How do professionals convince their employers or clients that they’re loyal? New research finds that to give the impression of uncompromising loyalty to their current role, professionals often become contentious and aggressive toward former collaborators. The problem is, such behaviors can hurt the same stakeholders they’re trying to win over.

In this paper, we reexamine the efficacy of redundant investment strategy and late entrance as a risk-hedging mechanism at the context of technological uncertainty, competition for an industry-wide dominance. Unlike recent findings against the effectiveness of such risk-hedging mechanisms, we identified a positive impact of dual investments by late entrants. In an early stage of a nascent industry when multiple (e.g. four or five) technologies competes, a dual investment strategy might not work. Later when the competition for dominance becomes a competition between two technologies, however, dual investments into the two technologies turns out effective. We also found that a business group structure contributes to managing complexity caused by dual investments. A semi-market structure institutionalized within a business group is effective in striking an optimal balance between internal competition and cooperation within the boundary of the firm."

How do professionals convince their employers or clients that they’re loyal? New research finds that to give the impression of uncompromising loyalty to their current role, professionals often become contentious and aggressive toward former collaborators. The problem is, such behaviors can hurt the same stakeholders they’re trying to win over.

Social embeddedness research has suggested that a history of collaboration between rivals should facilitate cooperation and prevent conflict. In contrast, the present study explores how a history of collaboration between people who subsequently become rivals can exacerbate conflict rather than facilitate future collaboration when salient others may expect them to be antagonistic. We develop this argument for a general set of relationships in which agents who previously collaborated become rivals while representing contesting principals. These agents may be perceived by the principals they represent as having compromised loyalties. This is especially likely when the principals whom the agents represent compete intensely or have previously been in conflict. To mitigate principals’ loyalty concerns, agents engage in compensatory behaviors meant to demonstrate social and psychological distance from former collaborators and now-rivals. Paradoxically, these behaviors transform a history of collaboration into a catalyst for conflict. Our empirical analyses are based on the professional histories of more than 20,000 external legal counsel representing corporate clients in intellectual property lawsuits filed from 2000 to 2015. Results reveal that lawyers engage in uncooperative behaviors in court to distance themselves from opposing lawyers who are former collaborators. These dynamics are associated with longer, more contentious litigation and lost economic value for clients, as evidenced by an analysis of companies’ abnormal stock market returns upon the termination of a lawsuit. Our research thus sheds lights on a mechanism by which past collaboration can undermine future collaboration and carries potential implications for research on social structures and for work on the interplay of structure and evaluative dynamics. © The Author(s) 2019.

Jeong Uk Lim,1 Hye Seon Kang,2 Chang Dong Yeo,3 Ju Sang Kim,4 Chan Kwon Park,1 Yong Hyun Kim,2 Jin Woo Kim,5 Seung Joon Kim,6,7 Sang Haak Lee3,7 1Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Allergy, Department of Internal Medicine, Yeouido St. Mary’s Hospital, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Republic of Korea; 2Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Allergy, Department of Internal Medicine, Bucheon St. Mary’s Hospital, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Bucheon, Republic of Korea; 3Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, Eunpyeong St. Mary’s Hospital, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Republic of Korea; 4Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Allergy, Department of Internal Medicine, Incheon St. Mary’s Hospital, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Republic of Korea; 5Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, Uijeongbu St. Mary’s Hospital, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Republic of Korea; 6Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Allergy, Department of Internal Medicine, Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Republic of Korea; 7Cancer Research Institute, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Republic of KoreaCorrespondence: Yong Hyun KimDivision of Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, Bucheon St. Mary’s Hospital, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, 327, Sosa-ro, Bucheon-si, Gyeonggi-do 14647, Republic of KoreaTel +82-32-340-7039Fax +82-32-340-2669Email kyh30med@catholic.ac.krBackground: In patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), both chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and systemic inflammatory biomarkers, suc

Supply chains have become increasingly dispersed to the extent that some of the most popular products on the market are sold by companies that barely engage in the manufacturing process. Dispersed supply chains limit firms’ ability to monitor and control critical processes, thus creating many challenges around sustainability and social responsibility, such as detecting the identity of suppliers or implementing sustainability policies along their supply chains. Presently, the main themes of research on supply chain management are efficiency, coordination, and reliability. As for organization theory and strategy research, the main research topics include the economics of supply chains, the environmental and social consequences of outsourcing, and the consequences of regularity arbitrage and competition. The core problem for effectively implementing global supply chain social innovation is visualizing supply chains. Furthermore, the pressure to advance firms’ ability to fully understand their production process and vet their globally dispersed supply chains can come from various sources: regulatory actions, consumer demands, voluntary coordination among industry participants, activism by social entrepreneurs, employee pressures, and shareholder pressures. Avenues for global supply chain social innovations abound. The authors offer some promising directions for future research, such as investigating the implications for entrepreneurial opportunities that put improving supply chain visibility at the core of their business model, the interplay between different social innovators in the supply chain context, and the viability and compatibility of “going local” with global outsourcing. © Gerard George, Ted Baker, Paul Tracey and Havovi Joshi 2019. All rights reserved.

Networks refer to a web of social relations by which social actors—be they individuals or organizations—exchange knowledge and resources, tangible or intangible. Brokerage occurs when these actors—often noted as brokers—connect otherwise disconnected alters. Brokerage is important in network research for several reasons. Brokers play an integral role in connecting different communities of actors, moving knowledge and information, or intermediating resource exchanges. In doing so, brokers take various types of advantages based on their access to diverse information and their opportunities to arbitrage resource exchanges. These advantages have been shown to help brokers gain competitive advantages. However, such advantages might come at a cost, especially because brokers sometimes need to handle and work with alters who hold incompatible expectations with each other, or with alters who wish to disintermediate brokers. Given these implications of brokerages on various types of advantages, another set of works focuses on where do brokers come from and how brokerage changes over time. Both dispositional characteristics and situational conditions are known to help social actors to engage in brokerage activities. However, given the inherent challenges in brokerage acts, actors find difficult to persist as brokers, ensuing a complex dynamics on the brokerage.

Networks refer to a web of social relations by which social actors—be they individuals or organizations—exchange knowledge and resources, tangible or intangible. Brokerage occurs when these actors—often noted as brokers—connect otherwise disconnected alters. Brokerage is important in network research for several reasons. Brokers play an integral role in connecting different communities of actors, moving knowledge and information, or intermediating resource exchanges. In doing so, brokers take various types of advantages based on their access to diverse information and their opportunities to arbitrage resource exchanges. These advantages have been shown to help brokers gain competitive advantages. However, such advantages might come at a cost, especially because brokers sometimes need to handle and work with alters who hold incompatible expectations with each other, or with alters who wish to disintermediate brokers. Given these implications of brokerages on various types of advantages, another set of works focuses on where do brokers come from and how brokerage changes over time. Both dispositional characteristics and situational conditions are known to help social actors to engage in brokerage activities. However, given the inherent challenges in brokerage acts, actors find difficult to persist as brokers, ensuing a complex dynamics on the brokerage.

Jeong Uk Lim, Chang Dong Yeo, Chin Kook Rhee, Yong Hyun Kim, Chan Kwon Park, Ju Sang Kim, Jin Woo Kim, Seung Joon Kim, Hyoung Kyu Yoon, Sang Haak Lee Division of Pulmonology and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Republic of Korea Objectives: Focusing on the advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients without driver mutations can elucidate the clinical impact of COPD on treatment outcomes. The present study evaluated the effects of COPD on the overall survival of driver mutation-negative NSCLC patients undergoing conventional chemotherapy as the first-line treatment. Patients and methods: Medical records of stage IIIB and IV NSCLC patients from January 2008 to December 2015 from six university hospitals were reviewed. Results: The total study population consisted of 197 patients; 92 (46.7%) were COPD patients and 105 (53.3%) were non-COPD patients. The median survival in the non-COPD group was 11.5 months, compared to 9.2 months in the COPD group. Univariate analysis showed that old age (>70 years), high Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group status score (2–3), squamous cell histology, and COPD were risk factors for mortality. The presence of COPD was a significant prognostic factor in univariate analysis (hazard ratio [HR], 1.402; p=0.037), but not in multivariate analysis (HR, 1.275; p=0.144). Subgroup analysis of 143 smokers showed that COPD was a significant prognostic factor on multivariate analysis (HR, 1.726; p=0.006). In 154 stage IV patients, COPD was also a prognostic factor in multivariate analysis (HR, 1.479; p=0.039). Conclusion: COPD had a negative impact on overall survival in the stage IV NSCLC and smoker NSCLC patients who underwent conventional chemotherapy. Keywords: non-small cell lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, smoker, overall survival

Kang HS, Rhee CK, Kim SK, Kim JW, Lee SH, Yoon HK, Ahn JH, Kim YH. Int J Chron Obstruct Pulmon Dis. 2016;11:2467–2473.Page 2467, Abstract, Results section, line 1, the text “COPD exacerbations (177 eosinophilic and 380 neutrophilic) were included” should read “COPD exacerbations (177 eosinophilic, 380 neutrophilic and 48 paucigranulocytic) were included. Of these, we compared patients with eosinophilic and neutrophilic COPD exacerbations”.Read the original article

Thermal energy transport across the interfaces of physically and chemically modified graphene with two metals, Al and Cu, was investigated by measuring thermal conductance using the time-domain thermoreflectance method. Graphene was processed using a He2+ ion-beam with a Gaussian distribution or by exposure to ultraviolet/O3, which generates structural or chemical disorder, respectively. Hereby, we could monitor changes in the thermal conductance in response to varying degrees of disorder. We find that the measured conductance increases as the density of the physical disorder increases, but undergoes an abrupt modulation with increasing degrees of chemical modification, which decreases at first and then increases considerably. Moreover, we find that the conductance varies inverse proportionally to the average distance between the structural defects in the graphene, implying a strong in-plane influence of phonon kinetics on interfacial heat flow. We attribute the bimodal results to an interplay between the distinct effects on graphene's vibrational modes exerted by graphene modification and by the scattering of modes.

The vertically integrated corporation of the 20th century has been replaced by disaggregated global supply chains across many industries. Dis-integration can reduce costs, but also limits the ability to monitor and control critical processes, including labor practices and the sourcing of supplies. This article asks: What organizational factors distinguish corporations that are able to vouch for their supply chains from those that are not? Section 1502 of the Dodd–Frank Act of 2010 gave companies over three years to determine and report on whether their products contained “conflict minerals” from the Democratic Republic of Congo area. Our analysis of every conflict minerals report submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission by over 1,300 corporations found that almost 80% admitted they were unable to determine the country of origin of such materials, and only 1% could certify themselves conflict-free with certainty beyond reasonable doubt. Internationally diversified firms and those with large and more dispersed supply chains were less likely to declare their products conflict-free: complexity reduces the visibility of a firm’s supply chain. Our results suggest that widespread outsourcing may have reduced the corporate sector’s capacity to account for the practices that yield its products.

In this study, we explore how organizations can exercise a significant degree of agency when interacting with the law rather than merely complying with the law. Specifically, we investigate how social structures among corporate plaintiffs’ lawyers and judges enable plaintiffs to choose a favorable legal venue to initiate legal proceedings and help produce tangible legal and economic gains. Our argument explores the effects of social structures that arise from mere geographical proximity among lawyers and judges, as well as those that stem from common educational and professional affiliations among them. With respect to education and professional affiliations, we distinguish between asynchronous and contemporaneous affiliations, which refer to overlaps among actors only in place and in both place and time, respectively. Using this distinction, we examine how social structures can facilitate both social identification effects and tacit knowledge transfer about the intricacies of the legal process in different jurisdictions. We document the effects of social structures among lawyers and judges on U.S. district court selection and legal outcomes using data on patent litigation histories of 1,317 companies in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry from 1990 to 2014.

The vertically integrated corporation of the 20th century has been replaced by disaggregated global supply chains across many industries. Dis-integration can reduce costs, but also limits the ability to monitor and control critical processes, including labor practices and the sourcing of supplies. This article asks: What organizational factors distinguish corporations that are able to vouch for their supply chains from those that are not? Section 1502 of the Dodd–Frank Act of 2010 gave companies over three years to determine and report on whether their products contained “conflict minerals” from the Democratic Republic of Congo area. Our analysis of every conflict minerals report submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission by over 1,300 corporations found that almost 80% admitted they were unable to determine the country of origin of such materials, and only 1% could certify themselves conflict-free with certainty beyond reasonable doubt. Internationally diversified firms and those with large and more dispersed supply chains were less likely to declare their products conflict-free: complexity reduces the visibility of a firm’s supply chain. Our results suggest that widespread outsourcing may have reduced the corporate sector’s capacity to account for the practices that yield its products.

In this study, we explore how organizations can exercise a significant degree of agency when interacting with the law rather than merely complying with the law. Specifically, we investigate how social structures among corporate plaintiffs’ lawyers and judges enable plaintiffs to choose a favorable legal venue to initiate legal proceedings and help produce tangible legal and economic gains. Our argument explores the effects of social structures that arise from mere geographical proximity among lawyers and judges, as well as those that stem from common educational and professional affiliations among them. With respect to education and professional affiliations, we distinguish between asynchronous and contemporaneous affiliations, which refer to overlaps among actors only in place and in both place and time, respectively. Using this distinction, we examine how social structures can facilitate both social identification effects and tacit knowledge transfer about the intricacies of the legal process in different jurisdictions. We document the effects of social structures among lawyers and judges on U.S. district court selection and legal outcomes using data on patent litigation histories of 1,317 companies in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry from 1990 to 2014.

Thermal energy transport across the interfaces of physically and chemically modified graphene with two metals, Al and Cu, was investigated by measuring thermal conductance using the time-domain thermoreflectance method. Graphene was processed using a He2+ ion-beam with a Gaussian distribution or by exposure to ultraviolet/O3, which generates structural or chemical disorder, respectively. Hereby, we could monitor changes in the thermal conductance in response to varying degrees of disorder. We find that the measured conductance increases as the density of the physical disorder increases, but undergoes an abrupt modulation with increasing degrees of chemical modification, which decreases at first and then increases considerably. Moreover, we find that the conductance varies inverse proportionally to the average distance between the structural defects in the graphene, implying a strong in-plane influence of phonon kinetics on interfacial heat flow. We attribute the bimodal results to an interplay between the distinct effects on graphene's vibrational modes exerted by graphene modification and by the scattering of modes.

Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs), a promising family of bio-based polymers, are considered to be alternatives to traditional petroleum-based plastics. Copolymers like poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyhexanoate) (P(HB-co-HHx)) have been shown to exhibit favorable physical and mechanical properties, due to decreased crystallinity resulting from the presence of medium-chain-length 3-hydroxyhexanoate (3HHx) monomers. In this study, we produced P(HB-co-HHx) using engineered Ralstonia eutropha strains containing deletions of the acetoacetyl-CoA reductase (phaB) genes and replacing the native PHA synthase with phaC2 from Rhodococcus aetherivorans I24 and by using butyrate, a short-chain organic acid, as the carbon source. Although the wild-type R. eutropha did not produce P(HB-co-HHx) when grown on mixed acids or on butyrate as the sole carbon source, we are able to produce polymer containing up to 40 wt% 3HHx monomer with the aforementioned engineered R. eutropha strains using various concentrations of just butyrate as the sole carbon source. This is the first report for the production of P(HB-co-HHx) copolymer in R. eutropha using butyrate., Korea Polar Research Institute. Polar Academic Program (PAP, PD13010), Korea (South). Rural Development Administration (Project No. 010205022014)

The vertically integrated corporation of the 20th century has been replaced by disaggregated global supply chains across many industries. Dis-integration can reduce costs, but also limits the ability to monitor and control critical processes, including labor practices and the sourcing of supplies. This article asks: What organizational factors distinguish corporations that are able to vouch for their supply chains from those that are not? Section 1502 of the Dodd–Frank Act of 2010 gave companies over three years to determine and report on whether their products contained “conflict minerals” from the Democratic Republic of Congo area. Our analysis of every conflict minerals report submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission by over 1,300 corporations found that almost 80% admitted they were unable to determine the country of origin of such materials, and only 1% could certify themselves conflict-free with certainty beyond reasonable doubt. Internationally diversified firms and those with large and more dispersed supply chains were less likely to declare their products conflict-free: complexity reduces the visibility of a firm’s supply chain. Our results suggest that widespread outsourcing may have reduced the corporate sector’s capacity to account for the practices that yield its products.

In this study, we explore how organizations can exercise a significant degree of agency when interacting with the law rather than merely complying with the law. Specifically, we investigate how social structures among corporate plaintiffs’ lawyers and judges enable plaintiffs to choose a favorable legal venue to initiate legal proceedings and help produce tangible legal and economic gains. Our argument explores the effects of social structures that arise from mere geographical proximity among lawyers and judges, as well as those that stem from common educational and professional affiliations among them. With respect to education and professional affiliations, we distinguish between asynchronous and contemporaneous affiliations, which refer to overlaps among actors only in place and in both place and time, respectively. Using this distinction, we examine how social structures can facilitate both social identification effects and tacit knowledge transfer about the intricacies of the legal process in different jurisdictions. We document the effects of social structures among lawyers and judges on U.S. district court selection and legal outcomes using data on patent litigation histories of 1,317 companies in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry from 1990 to 2014.

Hye Seon Kang, Chin Kook Rhee, Sung Kyoung Kim, Jin Woo Kim, Sang Haak Lee, Hyung Kyu Yoon, Joong Hyun Ahn, Yong Hyun Kim Division of Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, Bucheon St Mary’s Hospital, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Republic of Korea Purpose: We compared the clinical characteristics and treatment outcomes of patients with eosinophilic and neutrophilic COPD exacerbations requiring hospital admission. Patients and methods: This was a retrospective multicenter study performed between January 2010 and December 2014. In all, 1,688 COPD patients admitted via the outpatient clinics or emergency departments of six university hospitals were enrolled. The patients were grouped by complete blood counts: eosinophilic group, >2% peripheral blood eosinophils, and neutrophilic group, >65% peripheral blood neutrophils or >11,000 leukocytes/mL. The patients with radiographic evidence of pneumonia at the time of admission, those with lung cancer, those admitted for treatment of other medical problems, and those who chronically used steroids were excluded. Results: A total of 605 patients hospitalized with COPD exacerbations (177 eosinophilic and 380 neutrophilic) were included. Pulmonary functions, including the forced expiratory volume in 1 second and forced vital capacity, were better in patients with eosinophilic exacerbations. Treatment outcomes, including the rate of admission to the intensive care unit and mortality, were poorer in patients with neutrophilic exacerbations (4.5% vs 12.4%, P=0.004; 1.1% vs 4.5%, P=0.043, respectively). Congestive heart failure (odds ratio [OR] =3.40, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.28–9.01) and neutrophilic exacerbation (OR =2.81, 95% CI: 1.21–6.52) were independent risk factors for intensive care unit admission. Conclusion: COPD patients with neutrophilic exacerbations experienced worse clin

This work demonstrates an approach to develop low-cost, semi-transparent, long-term stable, and efficient organic photovoltaic (OPV) cells and organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) using various alternative electrodes such as conductive polymers, doped ZnO, and carbon nanotubes. Such electrodes are regarded as good candidates to replace the conventional indium tin oxide (ITO) electrode, which is expensive, brittle, and limiting the manufacturing of low-cost, flexible organic devices. First, we report long-term stable, efficient ITO-free OPV cells and transparent OLEDs based on poly(3,4-ethylene-dioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) electrodes by using a solvent post-treatment or a structure optimization. In addition, a high performance internal light out-coupling system for white OLEDs based on PEDOT:PSS-coated metal oxide nanostructures is developed. Next, we demonstrate highly efficient ITO-free OPV cells and OLEDs with optimized ZnO electrodes doped with alternative non-metallic elements. The organic devices based on the optimized ZnO electrodes show significantly improved efficiencies compared to devices with standard ITO. Finally, we report semi-transparent OPV cells with free-standing carbon nanotube sheets as transparent top electrodes. The resulting OPV cells exhibit very low leakage currents with good long-term stability. In addition, the combination of various kinds of bottom and top electrodes for semi-transparent and ITO-free OPV cells is investigated. These results demonstrate that alternative electrodes-based OPV cells and OLEDs have a promising future for practical applications in efficient, low-cost, flexible and semi-transparent device manufacturing., Die vorliegende Arbeit demonstriert einen Ansatz zur Verwirklichung von kostengünstigen, semi-transparenten, langzeitstabilen und effizienten Organischen Photovoltaik Zellen (OPV) und Organischen Leuchtdioden (OLEDs) durch die Nutzung innovativer Elektrodensysteme. Dazu werden leitfähige Polymere, dotiertes ZnO und Kohlenstoff-Nanoröhrchen eingesetzt. Diese alternativen Elektrodensysteme sind vielversprechende Kandidaten, um das konventionell genutzte Indium-Zinn-Oxid (ITO), welches aufgrund seines hohen Preises und spröden Materialverhaltens einen stark begrenz Faktor bei der Herstellung von kostengünstigen, flexiblen, organischen Bauelementen darstellt, zu ersetzten. Zunächst werden langzeitstabile, effiziente, ITO-freie Solarzellen und transparente OLEDs auf der Basis von Poly(3,4-ethylene-dioxythiophene):Poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) Elektroden beschrieben, welche mit Hilfe einer Lösungsmittel-Nachprozessierung und einer Optimierung der Bauelementstruktur hergestellt wurden. Zusätzlich wurde ein leistungsfähiges, internes Lichtauskopplungs-System für weiße OLEDs, basierend auf PEDOT:PSS-beschichteten Metalloxid-Nanostrukturen, entwickelt. Weiterhin werden hoch effiziente, ITO-freie OPV Zellen und OLEDs vorgestellt, bei denen mit verschiedenen nicht-metallischen Elementen dotierte ZnO Elektroden zur Anwendung kamen. Die optimierten ZnO Elektroden bieten im Vergleich zu unserem Laborstandard ITO eine signifikant verbesserte Effizienz. Abschließend werden semi-transparente OPV Zellen mit freistehenden Kohlenstoff-Nanoröhrchen als transparente Top-Elektrode vorgestellt. Die daraus resultierenden Zellen zeigen sehr niedrige Leckströme und eine zufriedenstellende Stabilität. In diesem Zusammenhang wurde auch verschiedene Kombinationen von Elektrodenmaterialen als Top- und Bottom-Elektrode für semi-transparente, ITO-freie OPV Zellen untersucht. Zusammengefasst bestätigen die Resultate, dass OPV und OLEDs basierend auf alternativen Elektroden vielversprechende Eige

This work demonstrates an approach to develop low-cost, semi-transparent, long-term stable, and efficient organic photovoltaic (OPV) cells and organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) using various alternative electrodes such as conductive polymers, doped ZnO, and carbon nanotubes. Such electrodes are regarded as good candidates to replace the conventional indium tin oxide (ITO) electrode, which is expensive, brittle, and limiting the manufacturing of low-cost, flexible organic devices. First, we report long-term stable, efficient ITO-free OPV cells and transparent OLEDs based on poly(3,4-ethylene-dioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) electrodes by using a solvent post-treatment or a structure optimization. In addition, a high performance internal light out-coupling system for white OLEDs based on PEDOT:PSS-coated metal oxide nanostructures is developed. Next, we demonstrate highly efficient ITO-free OPV cells and OLEDs with optimized ZnO electrodes doped with alternative non-metallic elements. The organic devices based on the optimized ZnO electrodes show significantly improved efficiencies compared to devices with standard ITO. Finally, we report semi-transparent OPV cells with free-standing carbon nanotube sheets as transparent top electrodes. The resulting OPV cells exhibit very low leakage currents with good long-term stability. In addition, the combination of various kinds of bottom and top electrodes for semi-transparent and ITO-free OPV cells is investigated. These results demonstrate that alternative electrodes-based OPV cells and OLEDs have a promising future for practical applications in efficient, low-cost, flexible and semi-transparent device manufacturing., Die vorliegende Arbeit demonstriert einen Ansatz zur Verwirklichung von kostengünstigen, semi-transparenten, langzeitstabilen und effizienten Organischen Photovoltaik Zellen (OPV) und Organischen Leuchtdioden (OLEDs) durch die Nutzung innovativer Elektrodensysteme. Dazu werden leitfähige Polymere, dotiertes ZnO und Kohlenstoff-Nanoröhrchen eingesetzt. Diese alternativen Elektrodensysteme sind vielversprechende Kandidaten, um das konventionell genutzte Indium-Zinn-Oxid (ITO), welches aufgrund seines hohen Preises und spröden Materialverhaltens einen stark begrenz Faktor bei der Herstellung von kostengünstigen, flexiblen, organischen Bauelementen darstellt, zu ersetzten. Zunächst werden langzeitstabile, effiziente, ITO-freie Solarzellen und transparente OLEDs auf der Basis von Poly(3,4-ethylene-dioxythiophene):Poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) Elektroden beschrieben, welche mit Hilfe einer Lösungsmittel-Nachprozessierung und einer Optimierung der Bauelementstruktur hergestellt wurden. Zusätzlich wurde ein leistungsfähiges, internes Lichtauskopplungs-System für weiße OLEDs, basierend auf PEDOT:PSS-beschichteten Metalloxid-Nanostrukturen, entwickelt. Weiterhin werden hoch effiziente, ITO-freie OPV Zellen und OLEDs vorgestellt, bei denen mit verschiedenen nicht-metallischen Elementen dotierte ZnO Elektroden zur Anwendung kamen. Die optimierten ZnO Elektroden bieten im Vergleich zu unserem Laborstandard ITO eine signifikant verbesserte Effizienz. Abschließend werden semi-transparente OPV Zellen mit freistehenden Kohlenstoff-Nanoröhrchen als transparente Top-Elektrode vorgestellt. Die daraus resultierenden Zellen zeigen sehr niedrige Leckströme und eine zufriedenstellende Stabilität. In diesem Zusammenhang wurde auch verschiedene Kombinationen von Elektrodenmaterialen als Top- und Bottom-Elektrode für semi-transparente, ITO-freie OPV Zellen untersucht. Zusammengefasst bestätigen die Resultate, dass OPV und OLEDs basierend auf alternativen Elektroden vielversprechende Eige

This work demonstrates an approach to develop low-cost, semi-transparent, long-term stable, and efficient organic photovoltaic (OPV) cells and organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) using various alternative electrodes such as conductive polymers, doped ZnO, and carbon nanotubes. Such electrodes are regarded as good candidates to replace the conventional indium tin oxide (ITO) electrode, which is expensive, brittle, and limiting the manufacturing of low-cost, flexible organic devices. First, we report long-term stable, efficient ITO-free OPV cells and transparent OLEDs based on poly(3,4-ethylene-dioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) electrodes by using a solvent post-treatment or a structure optimization. In addition, a high performance internal light out-coupling system for white OLEDs based on PEDOT:PSS-coated metal oxide nanostructures is developed. Next, we demonstrate highly efficient ITO-free OPV cells and OLEDs with optimized ZnO electrodes doped with alternative non-metallic elements. The organic devices based on the optimized ZnO electrodes show significantly improved efficiencies compared to devices with standard ITO. Finally, we report semi-transparent OPV cells with free-standing carbon nanotube sheets as transparent top electrodes. The resulting OPV cells exhibit very low leakage currents with good long-term stability. In addition, the combination of various kinds of bottom and top electrodes for semi-transparent and ITO-free OPV cells is investigated. These results demonstrate that alternative electrodes-based OPV cells and OLEDs have a promising future for practical applications in efficient, low-cost, flexible and semi-transparent device manufacturing., Die vorliegende Arbeit demonstriert einen Ansatz zur Verwirklichung von kostengünstigen, semi-transparenten, langzeitstabilen und effizienten Organischen Photovoltaik Zellen (OPV) und Organischen Leuchtdioden (OLEDs) durch die Nutzung innovativer Elektrodensysteme. Dazu werden leitfähige Polymere, dotiertes ZnO und Kohlenstoff-Nanoröhrchen eingesetzt. Diese alternativen Elektrodensysteme sind vielversprechende Kandidaten, um das konventionell genutzte Indium-Zinn-Oxid (ITO), welches aufgrund seines hohen Preises und spröden Materialverhaltens einen stark begrenz Faktor bei der Herstellung von kostengünstigen, flexiblen, organischen Bauelementen darstellt, zu ersetzten. Zunächst werden langzeitstabile, effiziente, ITO-freie Solarzellen und transparente OLEDs auf der Basis von Poly(3,4-ethylene-dioxythiophene):Poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) Elektroden beschrieben, welche mit Hilfe einer Lösungsmittel-Nachprozessierung und einer Optimierung der Bauelementstruktur hergestellt wurden. Zusätzlich wurde ein leistungsfähiges, internes Lichtauskopplungs-System für weiße OLEDs, basierend auf PEDOT:PSS-beschichteten Metalloxid-Nanostrukturen, entwickelt. Weiterhin werden hoch effiziente, ITO-freie OPV Zellen und OLEDs vorgestellt, bei denen mit verschiedenen nicht-metallischen Elementen dotierte ZnO Elektroden zur Anwendung kamen. Die optimierten ZnO Elektroden bieten im Vergleich zu unserem Laborstandard ITO eine signifikant verbesserte Effizienz. Abschließend werden semi-transparente OPV Zellen mit freistehenden Kohlenstoff-Nanoröhrchen als transparente Top-Elektrode vorgestellt. Die daraus resultierenden Zellen zeigen sehr niedrige Leckströme und eine zufriedenstellende Stabilität. In diesem Zusammenhang wurde auch verschiedene Kombinationen von Elektrodenmaterialen als Top- und Bottom-Elektrode für semi-transparente, ITO-freie OPV Zellen untersucht. Zusammengefasst bestätigen die Resultate, dass OPV und OLEDs basierend auf alternativen Elektroden vielversprechende Eige

This work demonstrates an approach to develop low-cost, semi-transparent, long-term stable, and efficient organic photovoltaic (OPV) cells and organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) using various alternative electrodes such as conductive polymers, doped ZnO, and carbon nanotubes. Such electrodes are regarded as good candidates to replace the conventional indium tin oxide (ITO) electrode, which is expensive, brittle, and limiting the manufacturing of low-cost, flexible organic devices. First, we report long-term stable, efficient ITO-free OPV cells and transparent OLEDs based on poly(3,4-ethylene-dioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) electrodes by using a solvent post-treatment or a structure optimization. In addition, a high performance internal light out-coupling system for white OLEDs based on PEDOT:PSS-coated metal oxide nanostructures is developed. Next, we demonstrate highly efficient ITO-free OPV cells and OLEDs with optimized ZnO electrodes doped with alternative non-metallic elements. The organic devices based on the optimized ZnO electrodes show significantly improved efficiencies compared to devices with standard ITO. Finally, we report semi-transparent OPV cells with free-standing carbon nanotube sheets as transparent top electrodes. The resulting OPV cells exhibit very low leakage currents with good long-term stability. In addition, the combination of various kinds of bottom and top electrodes for semi-transparent and ITO-free OPV cells is investigated. These results demonstrate that alternative electrodes-based OPV cells and OLEDs have a promising future for practical applications in efficient, low-cost, flexible and semi-transparent device manufacturing., Die vorliegende Arbeit demonstriert einen Ansatz zur Verwirklichung von kostengünstigen, semi-transparenten, langzeitstabilen und effizienten Organischen Photovoltaik Zellen (OPV) und Organischen Leuchtdioden (OLEDs) durch die Nutzung innovativer Elektrodensysteme. Dazu werden leitfähige Polymere, dotiertes ZnO und Kohlenstoff-Nanoröhrchen eingesetzt. Diese alternativen Elektrodensysteme sind vielversprechende Kandidaten, um das konventionell genutzte Indium-Zinn-Oxid (ITO), welches aufgrund seines hohen Preises und spröden Materialverhaltens einen stark begrenz Faktor bei der Herstellung von kostengünstigen, flexiblen, organischen Bauelementen darstellt, zu ersetzten. Zunächst werden langzeitstabile, effiziente, ITO-freie Solarzellen und transparente OLEDs auf der Basis von Poly(3,4-ethylene-dioxythiophene):Poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) Elektroden beschrieben, welche mit Hilfe einer Lösungsmittel-Nachprozessierung und einer Optimierung der Bauelementstruktur hergestellt wurden. Zusätzlich wurde ein leistungsfähiges, internes Lichtauskopplungs-System für weiße OLEDs, basierend auf PEDOT:PSS-beschichteten Metalloxid-Nanostrukturen, entwickelt. Weiterhin werden hoch effiziente, ITO-freie OPV Zellen und OLEDs vorgestellt, bei denen mit verschiedenen nicht-metallischen Elementen dotierte ZnO Elektroden zur Anwendung kamen. Die optimierten ZnO Elektroden bieten im Vergleich zu unserem Laborstandard ITO eine signifikant verbesserte Effizienz. Abschließend werden semi-transparente OPV Zellen mit freistehenden Kohlenstoff-Nanoröhrchen als transparente Top-Elektrode vorgestellt. Die daraus resultierenden Zellen zeigen sehr niedrige Leckströme und eine zufriedenstellende Stabilität. In diesem Zusammenhang wurde auch verschiedene Kombinationen von Elektrodenmaterialen als Top- und Bottom-Elektrode für semi-transparente, ITO-freie OPV Zellen untersucht. Zusammengefasst bestätigen die Resultate, dass OPV und OLEDs basierend auf alternativen Elektroden vielversprechende Eige