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Background CCDC88C is a ubiquitously expressed protein with multiple functions, including roles in cell polarity and the development of dendrites in the nervous system. Bi-allelic mutations in the CCDC88C gene cause autosomal recessive congenital hydrocephalus (OMIM #236600). Studies recently linked heterozygous mutations in CCDC88C to the development of the late-onset spinocerebellar ataxia type 40 (OMIM #616053). Case presentation A 48-year-old Sudanese female presented with pure early onset hereditary spastic paraplegia. Exome sequencing, in-silico analysis, and Sanger sequencing identified the heterozygous NM_001080414.4:c.1993G > A (p.E665K) variant in CCDC88C as a potential cause of her illness. To explore the pathogenicity of the NM_001080414.4:c.1993G > A (p.E665K) variant, we expressed it in human embryonic kidney 293 cells and assessed its effects on apoptosis. In our experiment, NM_001080414.4:c.1993G > A (p.E665K) induced JNK hyper-phosphorylation and enhanced apoptosis. In contrast to previous reports, our patient developed neurological symptoms in early childhood and showed neither features of cerebellar ataxia, extrapyramidal signs, nor evidence of intellectual involvement. Conclusion We, herein, heighlighted the possibility of extending the phenotype associated with variants in CCDC88C to include early-onset pure hereditary spastic paraplegia.

PurposeCulture has been identified as one of the main drivers of the “competitive productivity” (CP) of nations. However, research studies examining the relationships between culture, competition and productivity are highly fragmented across different streams of literature, leaving researchers with a lack of a holistic view of the topic. This study reviews research studies that examined the relationships between culture and productivity and between culture and competitiveness, as well as the joint relationships between culture, productivity and competitiveness in leading economic, business and management journals in the period 2009–2018 in order to identify research gaps and opportunities for future research.Design/methodology/approachThe authors used a combination of bibliometric analysis using VOSviewer, text analysis using Leximancer and systematic review by expert reviewers to analyze 293 articles that consider culture, productivity and competitiveness published in leading business, management and economics journals in the period 2009–2018.FindingsThe findings indicate that, although productivity and competitiveness are often discussed jointly in some policy circles, research studies on the roles of culture on productivity and on competitiveness take place in quite different streams of academic literature, drawing on different sets of concepts and theoretical frameworks. The concept of innovation appears prominently in both sets of the literature as an antecedent of both productivity improvement and international competitiveness.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings highlight the need for more research studies which jointly examine culture, productivity and competitiveness and the relationships between them.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is among the first attempts to systematically analyze the literature on the relationship between culture and CP.

This paper examines the effects of organizational culture and national cultural distance between the headquarters and the subsidiary on the adaptation of management innovations in multinational enterprises (MNEs). Data on Total Quality Management (TQM) implementations were collected from a sample of 126 MNEs operating in Saudi Arabia and analyzed using fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fs-QCA). The findings highlight the critical roles that national and organizational cultures jointly play in the adaptation of a management innovation. The results suggest that different configurations of organizational culture and national cultural distance result in different levels of fidelity and extensiveness of the implementation when management innovations are transferred from MNE headquarters to subsidiaries. More specifically, our findings show that a greater level of national cultural distance is not necessarily a barrier to the transfer of a management innovation within an MNE and that the organizational culture can offset the effect of national cultural distance.

Biomass polyphenols are bio-active macromolecules with distinct chemical structures in a variety of biomass. In recent years, the study of biomass polyphenols and their application in food and medicine fields has become a research hotspot, which predominantly focuses on the preparation, purification, structural identifications, and measurements of biological activities. Many studies describe methodologies for extraction and application of polyphenols, but comprehensive work to review its physiological activities like drugs and health products are lacking. This paper comprehensively unlocks the bioactivities of antioxidant, antibacterial, antitumor, anticancer, neuroprotection, control of blood sugar, regulation of blood fat, and promotion of gastrointestinal health functions of polyphenols from different biomass sources. This review will serve as an illuminating resource for the global scientific community, especially for those who are actively working to promote the advances of the polyphenols research field.

Purpose The aim of the paper is to identify the institutional factors in a country that are necessary conditions for social entrepreneurship, as opposed to sufficient factors. Design/methodology/approach Employing the relatively new method of Necessary Condition Analysis (NCA) and a proprietary database on microinsurance providers, we examine the level of microinsurance provision relative to the population size in 54 countries in Latin America, Africa and the Middle East. Findings We find that high levels of religiosity and poverty in the country are necessary conditions for a high level of microinsurance enterprises, while conventional institutional development measures such as uneven economic development and state fragility show only low to medium levels of necessity. Limitations The study is limited by the paucity of data on microinsurance in different countries worldwide. Implications The findings have both theoretical and practical implications about the types of institutional factors that are necessary for a high level of microinsurance social enterprises in a country, highlighting the need to look beyond formal economic and political institutional factors and the need to consider informal institutional factors such as religion. Contribution We contribute to the research literature on social enterprises by highlighting the key conditions in a country that are necessary for a high level of microinsurance social enterprises.

This study investigates the role of different dimensions of distance (interorganizational versus intraorganizational, physical versus psychic) on the success of offshore outsourcing of innovation projects. Using fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis, we identify organizational configurations of spatial, temporal, cultural and linguistic distances that are more likely to lead to successful collaborative outcomes from offshore outsourcing of innovation projects. The findings show that co-location by itself is insufficient to achieve successful offshore outsourcing of innovation but requires, in addition, the presence of high inter-organizational physical distance combined with low intra-organizational psychic distance. Our study highlights the need to jointly consider intra- and inter-organizational distances and both physical and psychic dimensions of distance in offshore outsourcing of innovation.

The purpose of this article is to understand what drives social enterprises in bottom of the pyramid (BOP) markets to stick to or drift away from their social mission. Based on an analysis of 192 microinsurance operators in 26 emerging markets, we find that (1) when donors are involved in the operations of the social enterprise, this leads to a greater commitment to the social mission and (2) social enterprises located in countries with poorly performing governments tend to have a lower commitment to their social mission. Given the need for social services in such countries, we offer some suggestions to increase the chances of social enterprises staying committed to their social mission.

This study investigates how home-country political connections affect the internationalization of service firms. There are conflicting arguments in the literature on the effect of political connections on firms’ internationalization with some researchers arguing that political connections have a facilitating effect while others argue that they have a constraining effect. In this paper, we argue that which effect dominates largely depends on the type of firm–because of the importance of being locally responsive to customers and heterogeneity among service firms, it is difficult to transfer and utilize the benefits of home-country political connections in international markets, as they are context-specific and home-country based. We also argue that, compared to content-oriented services, process-oriented service firms face less need for customer involvement and have a greater dependency on technical skills; therefore, the negative effect of home-country political connections will be weaker in process-oriented service firms. However, marketing capabilities possessed by the firm can help firms transfer and utilize the home-grown advantages in other countries, which can positively moderate the relationship between political connections and internationalization. We test our hypotheses using data on a sample of publicly listed service firms in China from 2012 to 2016 in a dynamic panel model.

This study proposes an integrative approach to corporate nonmarket strategy by examining how corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate political activities (CPAs) interactively affect firms' financial performance in China. Drawing on the social exchange theory and CPA and CSR literature, we propose CSR and CPA have a positive joint effect on firms' financial performance and explore how institutional heterogeneities alter the strength of this effect. Based on a panel dataset of Chinese listed firms from 2009 to 2015, we found a positive interaction between CSR and central-level political connections on firms' financial performance, and the positive interaction is stronger when the government involvement is high but weaker when guanxi is prevalent. However, we did not find similar results with local-level political connections. Our study contributes to the nonmarket strategy literature by integrating two normally separate lines of research, and emphasizing the value of managing nonmarket environments in an integrative manner.

As software systems grow in size and complexity, the process of configuring them to meet individual needs becomes more and more challenging. Users, especially those that are new to a system, are faced with an ever increasing number of configuration possibilities, making the task of choosing the right one more and more daunting. However, users are rarely alone in using a software system. Crowds of other users or the designers themselves can provide with examples and rules as to what constitutes a meaningful configuration. We introduce a technique for designing optimal interactive configuration elicitation dialogs, aimed at utilizing crowd and expert information to reduce the amount of manual configuration effort. A repository of existing user configurations supplies us with information about popular ways to complete an existing partial configuration. Designers augment this information with their own constraints. A Markov decision process (MDP) model is then created to encode configuration elicitation dialogs that maximize the automatic configuration decisions based on the crowd and the designers’ information. A genetic algorithm is employed to solve the MDP when problem sizes prevent use of common exact techniques. In our evaluation with various configuration models we show that the technique is feasible, saves configuration effort and scales for real problem sizes of a few hundreds of features.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore how visionary leadership influences employees’ creativity in R&D teams in China, and the role of employee knowledge sharing and goal orientation. Design/methodology/approach A survey was conducted on 331 professional technical engineers in R&D departments of 62 high-tech corporations in China. Hierarchical regression was used to model the relationships between visionary leadership style, employee goal orientations, knowledge sharing and employee creativity. Findings The results show that visionary leadership is positively associated with employee creativity in Chinese organizations and the relationship is positively mediated by employee knowledge sharing. Furthermore, employee “learning goal” orientation strengthens the relationship between visionary leadership and employee knowledge sharing, whereas employee “performance-avoid goal” orientation weakens the relationship between visionary leadership and employee knowledge sharing. Originality/value This study contributes to the literature on the effects of leadership on employee creativity by showing that, contrary to western organizations, where a less directive leadership style is generally recommended to enhance employee creativity, in Chinese organizations, visionary leadership is positively associated with employee creativity, but the effect is contingent on employees’ goal orientations and knowledge sharing.

This study investigates how the state influences the outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) of hybrid state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in China. Previous studies have provided conflicting arguments and empirical findings on the internationalization of SOEs, with some studies proposing a positive relationship between state ownership and OFDI, while others propose a negative relationship. In this paper, we argue that the mixed effects are due to different influences of different levels of state ownership and different types of political connections. We investigate our proposed hypotheses based on a sample of publicly listed hybrid Chinese SOEs between 2009 and 2016. We find an S-shaped relationship between state ownership and OFDI such that at low levels of state ownership, OFDI increases as state ownership increases; at medium levels of state ownership, OFDI decreases as state ownership increases; at high levels of state ownership, OFDI increases again as state ownership increases. We further find that executive-branch political connections between boards and top management teams of firms and the government have a negative effect on OFDI, while legislative-branch political connections have no significant effect on OFDI.

This paper examines how firm experience with armed conflict and host country engagement in conflict jointly affect the profitability of foreign subsidiaries. We test our hypotheses using a sample comprising 33,620 observations of foreign subsidiaries of 693 UK firms in 212 countries over the period 1999–2008. We show that (1) firm experience with conflict has a horizontal S-shaped relationship with subsidiary profitability, (2) extrastate conflict in the host country is positively related to subsidiary profitability and (3) the impact of firm experience with conflict is negatively moderated by the level of engagement of the host country in extrastate conflicts.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine how three key dimensions of a firm’s offshoring portfolio – location diversity, functional diversity and governance mode – affect the financial and innovation outcomes of offshoring. Design/methodology/approach The authors investigate the relationships between the diversity of a firm’s offshoring portfolio and its offshoring outcomes using a sample of US, European and Asia Pacific firms engaging in offshoring activities. Findings The authors found that: location diversity shows a significant “flipped S-shape” relationship with innovation outcomes, but has a negative impact on financial outcomes, functional diversity has a significant and positive effect on innovation outcome and the use of an outsourcing governance mode significantly moderates these relationships, such that the degree of offshore outsourcing weakens some of these effects. Originality/value The authors conclude that firms which strategically coordinate all three dimensions of their offshoring portfolio are more likely to achieve better innovation or financial outcomes from their use of offshoring in global supply chain and sourcing.

The goal of exploration to produce diverse search points throughout the search space can be countered by the goal of selection to focus search around the fittest current solution(s). In the limit, if all exploratory search points are rejected by selection, then the behaviour of the metaheuristic will be equivalent to one which performs no exploration at all (e.g. hill climbing). The effects of selection on exploration are clearly important, but our review of the literature indicates limited coverage. To address this deficit, we introduce new experiments which can specifically highlight the occurrence of “failed exploration” and its effects through selection that can trap a metaheuristic in a less promising part of the search space. We subsequently propose new lines of research to reduce the effects of selection and failed exploration which we believe are distinctly different from traditional lines of research to increase (pre-selection) exploration.

Purpose This paper aims to propose a new theoretical perspective on the organizational design of offshoring service organizations by adopting an information processing perspective which incorporates the factors of collaborative information technologies, task commoditization and global customer service delivery that are characteristic of modern-day knowledge-intensive service (KIS) organizations. Design/methodology/approach The authors analyze data from a large multiyear survey of offshoring service providers conducted in 12 countries. Findings The authors show how use of collaborative technology is significantly and positively related to spatial and configurational dispersion, task commoditization is significantly and positively related to spatial and temporal dispersion and need for global customer presence is not related to spatial, temporal or configurational dispersion. Research limitations/implications The paper integrates concepts from management information system (MIS), operations management and international business to show how collaborative technology, task characteristics and customer service requirements affect the global dispersion of KISs. Practical implications The results show how use of collaborative technology, task characteristics and global customer service requirements need to be jointly considered in the global dispersion of activities by KIS providers. Originality/value The study sheds light on the effect of the key factors on different dimensions of global dispersion (i.e. spatial/temporal/configurational dispersion) in offshoring service provider organizations. Second, it shows how the traditional information processing perspective on organizations can be updated and applied to KIS organizations by incorporating the factors of global collaborative information technologies, task commoditization and global customer service.

Renewable energy penetration can be increased by the use of IoT connected devices. The focus of optimization should be less on individual devices, but rather on the networked effect of millions of devices together. By implementing global optimization on electrical loads, it may be possible to eliminate the need for fossil fuel-based electricity generation in certain jurisdictions.

A deep learning-based technology for generating photo-realistic 3D avatars with dynamic facial textures from a single input image is presented. Real-time performance-driven animations and renderings are demonstrated on an iPhone X and we show how these avatars can be integrated into compelling virtual worlds and used for 3D chats.

A classification for peri-implant diseases and conditions was presented. Focused questions on the characteristics of peri-implant health, peri-implant mucositis, peri-implantitis, and soft- and hard-tissue deficiencies were addressed. Peri-implant health is characterized by the absence of erythema, bleeding on probing, swelling, and suppuration. It is not possible to define a range of probing depths compatible with health; Peri-implant health can exist around implants with reduced bone support. The main clinical characteristic of peri-implant mucositis is bleeding on gentle probing. Erythema, swelling, and/or suppuration may also be present. An increase in probing depth is often observed in the presence of peri-implant mucositis due to swelling or decrease in probing resistance. There is strong evidence from animal and human experimental studies that plaque is the etiological factor for peri-implant mucositis. Peri-implantitis is a plaque-associated pathological condition occurring in tissues around dental implants, characterized by inflammation in the peri-implant mucosa and subsequent progressive loss of supporting bone. Peri-implantitis sites exhibit clinical signs of inflammation, bleeding on probing, and/or suppuration, increased probing depths and/or recession of the mucosal margin in addition to radiographic bone loss. The evidence is equivocal regarding the effect of keratinized mucosa on the long-term health of the peri-implant tissue. It appears, however, that keratinized mucosa may have advantages regarding patient comfort and ease of plaque removal. Case definitions in day-to-day clinical practice and in epidemiological or disease-surveillance studies for peri-implant health, peri-implant mucositis, and peri-implantitis were introduced. The proposed case definitions should be viewed within the context that there is no generic implant and that there are numerous implant designs with different surface characteristics, surgical and loading protocols. It is recommended that the clinician obtain baseline radiographic and probing measurements following the completion of the implant-supported prosthesis. ispartof: JOURNAL OF CLINICAL PERIODONTOLOGY vol:45 issue:20 pages:S286-291 ispartof: location:IL, Chicago status: published

Display Omitted Fully automated laser-based ellipsometry for on product wafer measurements.Complete process characterization of advanced packaging applications.Superior fleet matching on multi-layer stacks using feed forward metrology.Accurate, high throughput measurements. The growing need for smaller, faster devices that consume less power at low cost has led to advances in wafer level packaging. The increasingly complex process employed at OSATs has generated a need for more advanced and automated measurement techniques. In this paper, we present results from the adoption of Focused Beam Ellipsometry in the characterization of thickness and optical constants of various single and multi-layer dielectrics films, thick photoresists on both blanket and product wafers. Measurements are routinely made post-deposition, post-etch and pre- and post CMP process. Wafer stress/wafer bow measurements provide information on the mechanical integrity of the films. The rapid non-contact, non-destructive technology enables full wafer characterization and provides information in minutes on product wafers.

With this fully automatic framework for creating a complete 3D avatar from a single unconstrained image, users can upload any photograph to build a high-quality head model within seconds. The model can be immediately animated via performance capture using a webcam. It digitizes the entire model using a textured-mesh representation for the head and volumetric strips for the hair. A simple web interface uploads any photograph, and a high-quality head model, including animation-friendly blend shapes and joint-based rigs, is reconstructed within seconds. Several animation examples are instantly generated for preview purposes, and the model can be loaded into Unity for immediate performance capture using a webcam.

Optimization in multi-modal search spaces requires both exploration and exploitation. The role of exploration is to find promising attraction basins, and the role of exploitation is to find the best solutions (i.e. the local optima) within these attraction basins. In many search techniques, the balance between exploration and exploitation can be adjusted by various parameter settings. An alternative approach is to develop (hybrid) techniques with distinct mechanisms for the task of exploration and the task of exploitation. We believe this second approach can be simpler and more effective. The presented LaF-CMAES hybrid involves relatively few design decisions (e.g. parameter selections), and it delivers highly competitive performance across a benchmark set of multi-modal functions.

Large 2.5D IC leads the trend for Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), graphic, and network application. Chip module (CM) is comprised of top die and Si interposer, and underfill (UF) is fully filled between them. However, coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) of UF is greater than 20ppm, and CTE mismatch occurs between UF and Si (CTE~3ppm). How to tune chip module warpage is a key for large 2.5D IC. Chip module size of conventional 2.5D IC is less than 30mm × 30mm, but side length of large 2.5D IC will be longer than 40mm, which causes UF volume is rapidly increasing, so CTE mismatch become more serious than before. In this study, compound structure and UF volume tuning are utilized for reducing chip module warpage. There are two top dies bonded on interposer, and size of top die and interposer is 20mm × 25mm and 40mm × 30mm. For compound structure, molding compound is covered on top die and interposer after UF curing and is capable to balance CTE mismatch from UF. For UF volume tuning, bump height (BH) control of micro bump on top die is implemented to optimize UF volume. In this study, oval micro bump is used and bump diameter is 40um × 70um. 1X and 0.69X BH are implemented. From UF volume study results, when UF volume reduces 31%, the warpage gap between chip module and substrate (SBT) can reduce 10% at room and high temperature. From compound structure study results, the chip module with molding compound successfully declines the effects of CTE mismatch and leads that warpage gap between chip module and substrate is also reduced 87% at high temperature.

International audience; Three porcelain shards representative of wucai (Famille verte, Famille rose and fencai), enamelled wares from Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong reigns have been studied using fixed instruments (optical microscope, EDS-SEM and Raman microspectrometer) in order to identify the amorphous and crystalline phases in the glaze, body and the different enamels. A comparison is made between the information collected with portable Raman setups excited with 532 and 785 nm lasers and equipped of sophisticated optics. Emphasis is put on the detection of pigments and opacifiers, in particular arsenic-based phases in blue coloured areas, in relation with the use of cobalt ores originated from European or China. The mobile Raman setup excited with green laser and equipped with a high magnification (x200) ultra long working distance microscope objective allows the identification of all the phases, as for the fixed instrument excited with blue 457 nm laser line. Confirmation of the identified phases is made by SEM-EDS. The old technologies are discussed and compared to those used to produce 18 th century French soft paste porcelains and Limoges enamels.

In order to offer insights into the management of HR challenges in Knowledge Intensive Firms/Organisations (KIO’s), this Special Issue explores three strands of research: International HRM, leadership and the knowledge-intensive firm/organisation. In this introduction against the background of global developments affecting KIOs, we will first highlight the key leadership issues in global KIOs, including managing, creating and sharing knowledge, and motivating and developing those employed in KIOs. Then we introduce the papers in the special issue, including a Practitioner’s Vision of HRM in a global KIO, and seven research papers from authors from Australia, Austria, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Pakistan, the Russian Federation, Switzerland, Thailand and the United Kingdom on leadership in KIOs that reflect the title of this article: leadership, leading knowledge and leading people in knowledge-intensive organisations. And finally, we sketch some future developments and recommendations for further research relevant to international HRM.

This paper introduces the first comprehensive demonstration of new disruptive innovation technology comprising multiple Xilinx patent-pending innovations for highly cost effective and high performance Xilinx FPGA, which is so called stack silicon-less interconnect technology (SLIT) that provides the equivalent high-bandwidth connectivity and routing design-rule as stack silicon interconnect (SSI) technology at a cost-effective manner. We have successfully demonstrated the overall process integration and functions of our new SLIT-employed package using Virtex® -7 2000T FPGA product. Chip-to-Wafer stacking, wafer level flux cleaning, micro-bump underfilling, mold encapsulation are newly developed. Of all technology elements, both full silicon etching with high etch selectivity to dielectric/fast etch rate and wafer warpage management after full silicon etching are most crucial elements to realize the SLIT technology. In order to manage the wafer warpage after full Si removal, a couple of knobs are identified and employed such as top reinforcement layer, micro-bump underfill properties tuning, die thickness/die-to-die space/total thickness adjustments. It's also discussed in the paper how the wafer warpage behaves and how the wafer warpge is managed. New SLIT module shows excellent warpage characteristics of only −30 μm ~ −40 μm at room temperature for 25 mm × 31 mm in size and +20 μm ~ +25 μm at reflow temperature. Thermal simulation results shows that thermal resistance of new SLIT package is almost comparable to that of standard 2000T FCBGA package using TSV interposer with standard heat sink configuration and air wind condition. The reliability assessment is now under the study.

The age of social media and immersive technologies has created a growing need for processing detailed visual representations of ourselves as virtual and augmented reality is growing into the next generation platform for online communication, connecting hundreds of millions of users. A realistic simulation of our presence in a mixed reality environment is unthinkable without a compelling and directable 3D digitization of ourselves. With the wide availability of mobile cameras and internet images, we introduce a technology that can build a realistic 3D avatar from a single photograph. This textured 3D face model includes hair and can be instantly animated by anyone in real-time through natural facial performances captured from a regular RGB camera. Immediate applications include personalized gaming and VR-enabled social networks using automatically digitized 3D avatars, as well as mobile apps such as video messengers (e.g., Snapchat) with face-swapping capabilities. As opposed to existing solutions, our technology enables the automatic generation of a complete head model from a fully unconstrained image.

Through Silicon Via (TSV) was original proposed for the three-dimensional (3D) IC packaging and now is realized in the high band width DRAM (HBM) application. TSV is also utilized in a passive silicon interposer and the insertion of such interposer into a flip chip packaging created another packaging platform commonly known as 2.5DIC for high density multiple ICs integration. However, since the 1st product announcement of FPGAs in 2011, the GPU integration with HBM is the other product until recently. High cost of ownership has been named for the main cause of 2.5D IC's slow adoptions, and the lack of standard that resulted in many process options contributing to the high cost for not meeting economic scale by each single option. There are four known processes options, using the form of interposer, single die or wafer, and when the ICs are attached to the interposer, before or after the entire interposer are completed, as naming conventions. With four years of development history and experience on all the above four process integration options, this paper will discuss the in details of the technology merits, challenges and solutions of each options. Comparison will be made in terms of the reliability and sustainable high yielding of the finished packages that contained high value ICs that is an ultimate decision factor for the adoption of Si interposer platform. Furthermore, considering different products endure different thermal budgets and to minimize the thermal processes after dies are attached, it derived to the suggestion of the CoW_last as the choice of process of record (PoR). The extendibility of CoW_last to the new generation of the more economic TSV-less packaging platform that are under development, will also be illustrated.

The original purpose of the Re-Distribution Layers(RDL) was to assist in the adaption of metal bumping and flipchip packaging technologies, by the addition of the metal anddielectric layers onto the wafer surface to re-route the legacydesigned irregular peripheral I/O layout, into a new area arraybond pads layout to facilitate a balanced metal bumps and flipchip bonding. The redistribution layer technology requiredpolymeric/organic thin film (e.g. BCB, Polyimide, PBO) asinsulator and with semi-additive metallization scheme (oftenCu pattern plating) to serve rerouting purpose. The redistribution trace technology, other continuing itsassociation with bumping and flip chip packaging and waferlevel chip scale packaging (WLCSP), now extend itsapplication into advanced packaging technologies, such as fanout wafer level packaging (FO WLP) and various TSV-less, substrate-less multiple chip integration, that to drive the costeffective miniaturization of system-in-package (SiP) application. The Cu RDL that in production, the line width/ line spacingare 10 micrometer (µm)/10 µm which make the full pitch of20 µm and half pitch of 10 µm. For the sake of the simplicity, half pitch will be used as index for benchmarking. In the areaof the multiple chip integration or SiP applications, particularity those that do not use laminate substrates, RDLplay an important role to interconnect multiple ICs with IOcounts in thousands to tens thousands, replacing the role ofmultiple build up layers of the laminate substrate, thus 10 µmhalf pitch no longer meet the need of connecting high densityIO and there is driving force to scale down RDL half pitch andincrease number of RDL layers, from single layers to two tothree layers of metal traces excluding under bumping metals(UBM) for attaching BGA balls. PWB industry is undergoingthe similar efforts to target to put substrate with 5 um linewidth into market. In this paper, development efforts in scaling down RDL halfpitch, with existing polymeric insulting film and Cu patternplating will be revealed. It is discovered that scaling from 10to 3 µm posed no significant technical difficulties with existingtools that are in production, as long as the Cu thickness areproportional shrunk to keep the width/ height aspect ratio. Below half pitch of 3 µm, it would be difficult to make suchfine pitch layer on top of other layers, since the topography ofmultiple RDL with any planarization, that is out of the depthof focus (DoF) range of 2 µm and 1 µm, and these 1 µm / 2 µmhalf pitches, would be limited to as the first RDL in themultiple RDL scheme. Cu dual damascene technology with CVD dielectric film (Sioxide, Si nitride) that were commonly used in the modern ICfabrication fab capable of the advanced node (90nm andbeyond), was also phased in and demonstrated that up to threelevels of 1um Cu RDL are feasible with this technology. Furthermore, hybrid integration of the fine line CVD RDLwith the RDL with polymeric dielectrics is also demonstrated.

In the present study we sought to evaluate the psychosocial and quality of life (QOL) impacts of cochlear implant (CI) treatment on both CI recipients and their partners in a Canadian population.A qualitative cross-sectional contemporary cohort evaluation was conducted by distributing specifically designed questionnaires to both CI recipients and their partners at their follow-up appointments over a month at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre.It was found that both CI recipients and their partners demonstrated substantial benefit and improvement in multiple psychosocial domains.Musical listening was found to show variable improvements between recipients. Further analysis found a simple correlation where the group of recipients who all had a hearing disability for a longer duration had demonstrated a higher proportion of improvement in musical listening. CI recipients endorsed having improved QOL which was in agreement with proxy observation by partners.Overall, CI use has been shown to have significant benefit to psychosocial well-being of CI recipients. This benefit is also conferred to their caregivers/partners; which in our society concerned about caregiver burden is quite important to recognize.

PurposeThis paper aims to examine the interaction between risk, learning and ownership decisions in international R&D joint ventures.Design/methodology/approachThe study focuses on international strategic R&D joint ventures of US firms. The sample is made up of 266 firms. Regression models are used in the testing of the hypotheses.FindingsThe authors show a clear difference between the effects of performance versus relational risks on ownership decisions in international joint ventures (IJVs). In response to performance risk, firms are less likely to pursue a majority ownership, whereas with relational risk the effect is opposite.Originality/valueA key contribution of this paper is that it shows the effects of performance versus relational risks on ownership decisions in IJVs. Another contribution is the finding that IJV experience moderates the effects of relational risk factors on firms' ownership decisions in joint ventures. With greater joint venture experience, firms are more likely to take a non‐dominant position in response to diverse partners as they develop routines and capabilities that allow them to better manage IJV partners and minimize the risk of partner opportunism without the need for majority ownership.

This paper examines the relationship between internationalization and performance in Chinese MNEs using panel data on 887 publicly listed Chinese firms over the nine-year period. A second aim of this paper was to test for the effects of the geographic regions where Chinese firms internationalize on their performance. The results show that the internationalization–performance relationship varies significantly depending on whether internationalization takes place within the Greater China region, within Asia or outside Asia. Internationalization within the Greater China region had the greatest benefit, the effect remaining positive and significant even after taking into account reverse causality effects.

International social ventures are now an increasingly common feature of the international business and social landscape in many countries worldwide. However, despite the increase in the number of social ventures and widespread interest that has resulted, theoretical development that deals specifically with international social ventures, or social ventures that operate across borders, has lagged behind, and there is little to guide potential social entrepreneurs thinking of setting up an international social venture. The aim of this article is to show how combining concepts from social exchange theory with international new venture theory can provide a useful conceptual framework that helps answer the central questions: What are the conditions for sustainable international social ventures? What difficulties are likely to arise in establishing such ventures? © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

This paper examines factors that contribute to financial misreporting by companies and the role played by the character of the CEO, financial analysts, the media and shareholders in bolstering unethical leadership in companies. Through the use of computer simulation models, it shows how a combination of CEO narcissism, financial incentives, shareholder expectations and media praise as well as unethical leadership, can do much to explain some of the findings highlighted in recent high profile financial accounting scandals. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This article examines the proposition that a major cause of the major financial accounting scandals that received much publicity around the world was unethical leadership in the companies and compares the role of unethical leaders in a variety of scenarios. Through the use of computer simulation models, it shows how a combination of CEO's narcissism, financial incentive, shareholders' expectations and subordinate silence as well as CEO's dishonesty can do much to explain some of the findings highlighted in recent high profile financial accounting scandals. Furthermore, it shows that the nature and impact of ethical leadership depends greatly on the institutional setting and can be expected to vary greatly by country and culture. In certain circumstances ethical leadership can have either a negligible or even opposite effect to that expected.

In this article we examine how five immigrant entrepreneurs in Malaysia and Singapore have internationalized their businesses and the role of transnational family networks in this process. We show that one of the key means by which these entrepreneurs are able to access resources and make use of contacts across borders is through transnational family and kinship networks that allow them to simultaneously engage in social and business activities in both countries. We discuss the characteristics of these family networks compared with other social networks that make them of particular value in internationalization. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

As demonstrated by the popularity of social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, Internet-based social networks have become an important part of daily life, and many businesses are now involved in such networks either as service providers or as participants. Furthermore, inter-organizational networks are becoming an increasingly common feature of many industries, not only on the Internet. However, despite the growing importance of networks for businesses, there is little theoretical study on the social responsibilities of businesses in such networks, and how these responsibilities are affected by different types of networks. This article explores how social network analysis, which has been developed from studies of social networks of individuals, can be used to shed light on corporate responsibilities in social networks.

Corporate social reporting, while not mandatory in most countries, has been adopted by many large companies around the world and there are now a variety of competing global standards for non-financial reporting, such as the Global Reporting Initiative and the UN Global Compact. However, while some companies (e.g., Henkel, BHP, Johnson and Johnson) have a long standing tradition in reporting non-financial information, other companies provide only limited information, or in some cases, no information at all. Previous studies have suggested that there are, country and industry-specific, differences in the extent of CSR reports (e.g., Kolk et al.: 2001, Business Strategy and the Environment10, 15–28; Kolk: 2005, Management International Review45, 145–166; Maignan and Ralston: 2002, Journal of International Business Studies33(3), 497–514). However, findings are inconclusive or contradictory and it is often difficult to compare previous studies owing to the idiosyncratic methods used in each study (Graafland et al.: 2004, Journal of Business Ethics53, 137–152). Furthermore, previous studies have relied mainly on simple measures, such as word counts and page counts of reports, to compare the extent of reporting that may not capture significant differences in the content of the reports. In this article, we seek to overcome some of these deficiencies by using textual analysis software and a more robust statistical method to more objectively and reliably compare the CSR reports of firms in different industries and countries. We examine a sample of leading companies in four countries (US, UK, Australia, and Germany) and test whether or not membership of the Global Compact makes a difference to CSR reporting and is overcoming industry and country specific factors that limit standardization. We conclude that GlobalCompact membership is having an effect only in certain areas of CSR reporting, related to the environment and workers, and that businesses from different countries vary significantly in the extent to which they promote CSR and the CSR issues that they choose to emphasize in their reports. These country differences are argued to be related to the different institutional arrangements in each country.

Knowledge-intensive organisations (KIOs) include universities, management consulting, the Civil Service/public administration, information and communication services, human resource management and ...

Finding good solutions on multi-modal optimization problems depends mainly on the efficacy of exploration. However, many search techniques applied to multi-modal problems were initially conceptualized with unimodal functions in mind, prioritizing exploitation over exploration. In this paper, we perform a study on the efficacy of exploration under random sampling, which leads to the identification of an important comparison bias that occurs when a solution which has benefited from local search is compared to the first (random) solution in a new search area. With the goal of eliminating this bias and improving the efficacy of exploration, we have developed a new search technique explicitly designed for multi-modal search spaces. “Leaders and Followers” aims to eliminate the negative effects of information accumulation and at the same time use the information from the best solutions in a way that they have controlled influence over the newly-sampled solutions. The proposed metaheuristic outperforms both Particle Swarm Optimization and Differential Evolution across a broad range of multi-modal optimization problems.

Large-scale global optimization is a challenging task which is embedded in many scientific and engineering applications. Among large scale problems, multimodal functions present an exceptional challenge because of the need to promote exploration. In this paper we present a hybrid heuristic specifically designed for optimizing large scale multimodal functions. The hybrid is based on the unbiased exploration ability of Minimum Population Search. Minimum Population Search is a recently developed metaheuristic able to efficiently optimize multimodal functions. However, MPS lacks techniques for exploiting search gradients. To overcome this limitation, we combine its exploration power with the intense local search of the CMA-ES algorithm. The proposed algorithm is evaluated on the test functions provided by the LSGO competition of IEEE Congress of Evolutionary Computation (CEC 2013).

In a broad sense, service offshoring is a specific type of service innovation because companies engaging into service offshoring will have to inevitably make changes in a number of areas, including internal procedures, business model, service delivery, technology, target customers, service content, legal environment of service, and so on. In addition, service innovation may also drive service offshoring, in that innovative service companies are more likely to internationalize and be successful that way. Effectiveness of service offshoring is largely determined by whether the company is able to choose the ‘right’ foreign location to perform the service. In this book chapter we extend research on location choice of service offshoring to the subnational level. We examine the patterns of distribution of offshoring activities in China, and determinants of the location selection at the city level. Our empirical study confirmed that the location of offshoring of services firms in China is highly influenced by location-specific factors, in particular the presence of a large educated workforce in the city.

RD in contrast, outsourcing and joint ventures encourage analytic learning and development of component and explicit knowledge.

An extensive body of literature in sociology and anthropology has shown that different societies have developed different structures for exchange of items such as goods, status and information. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how social exchange theory can help illuminate many of the underlying bases of different ethical perspectives in debates about social exchanges. Social exchange theory is applied to three common types of knowledge exchange – R&D joint ventures, commercial intellectual property exchange and academic exchange. Two key factors that underlie different ethical perspectives are shown to be differences in structures for social exchange and differences in views of the alienability of knowledge from its originator.

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the role of tacit knowledge in successful knowledge‐based cities. It focuses on a case study of Hsinchu Science Park in Taiwan. The growth of successful knowledge‐based cities is dependent on three interrelated processes that create and transfer tacit knowledge in cities: local knowledge creation, transfer of knowledge from external sources and transfer of that knowledge into productive activities. Researchers need to focus on processes for the creation and transfer of tacit knowledge in cities, and designers and policy makers of knowledge‐based cities need to focus on creating tacit knowledge in cities. Discusses the connection between tacit knowledge and growth of global cities.