Published: Feb. 25, 2014

For the last two decades, board diversity is increasingly considered as a significant mechanism of good corporate governance. Thus, the question arises whether a heterogeneously or rather a homogenously composed board contributes to the efficiency of a company’s management and monitoring. Especially national and international regulators and standard setters consider board diversity to be associated with an increasing firm performance. Therefore, the economic impact of board diversity aspects needs to be investigated empirically. This study examines the relationship between diversity within management boards and corporate performance for the German two-tier system by presenting a comprehensive literature analysis as well as …

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Published: Dec. 15, 2014

The South African government recognizes the importance of entrepreneurial activity as a means of energizing the country’s economy and encouraging growth and development. The rapid growth in family businesses in South Africa can be attributed to the rationalization process taking place in many large organizations, as well as to the growing inability of the informal sector to create new jobs. However, the contribution of family businesses to socio-economic growth has never really received sufficient attention. This article expands on the work of previous family-business literature in South Africa. From the literature, there is evidence of family-business failure which is due …

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Published: Sept. 18, 2014

This paper contributes to the ongoing debate regarding the contribution of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to firm’s performance. As the ICT impact on bank performance is beyond the scope pf most similar studies, this study further investigates the impact of Information and Communication Technology Cost Efficiency (ICTCE) on the performance of banks as well. The study assessed the impact of ICT on the performance of South African banking industry using annual data over the period 1990-2012 published by Bankscope – World banking information source. Data analysis is carried out in a dynamic panel environment using the orthogonal transformation approach. …

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Published: Feb. 20, 2014

The study investigates the impact of foreign direct investing on economic development of post Comecon transition economy countries. Neoclassical growth theory model is used to analyze the effects of FDI on economic growth. The results show significant FDI influence on economic growth of host countries. The paper concludes with explaining the results and suggesting some policy recommendations

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Published: April 1, 2018

The paper aims to investigate the impact of the dependence on the post-Soviet trade on the quality of economic institutions in the Russian subnational regions. For this purpose, it uses two approaches: it looks at how the effect of post-Soviet trade on growth changes over time (hypothesizing that if one observes the decline of this effect, the latter is more likely to be driven by the legacy of the Soviet economy and thus less conducive for the improvement of institutional quality) and at the correlation of post-Soviet trade and quantitative indicators of the quality of economic institutions. The results suggest …

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Published: May 1, 2017

RR Lyrae stars may be the best practical tracers of Galactic halo (sub-)structure and kinematics. The PanSTARRSl (PSI) Зтг survey offers multi-band, multi-epoch, precise photometry across much of the sky, but a robust identification of RR Lyrae stars in this data set poses a challenge, given PSl’s sparse, asynchronous multi-band light curves (<12 epochs in each of five bands, taken over a 4.5 year period). We present a novel template fitting technique that uses well-defined and physically motivated multi-band light curves of RR Lyrae stars, and demonstrate that we get accurate period estimates, precise to 2 s in >80% of cases. We augment these light-curve fits with other features from photometric time-series and provide them to progressively more detailed machine- learned classification models. From these models, we are able to select the widest (three-fourths of the sky) and deepest (reaching 120 kpc) sample of RR …

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Published: Jan. 1, 2017

ImageJ is a graphical user interface (GUI) driven, public domain, Java-based, software package for general image processing traditionally used mainly in life sciences fields. The image processing capabilities of ImageJ are useful and extendable to other scientific fields. Here we present AstroImageJ (AIJ), which provides an astronomy specific image display environment and tools for astronomy specific image calibration and data reduction. Although AIJ maintains the general purpose image processing capabilities of ImageJ, AIJ is streamlined for time-series differential photometry, light curve detrending and fitting, and light curve plotting, especially for applications requiring ultra-precise light curves (e.g., exoplanet transits). AIJ reads …

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Published: Jan. 1, 2021

The surface topography of diamond coatings strongly affects surface properties such as adhesion, friction, wear, and biocompatibility. However, the understanding of multi-scale topography, and its effect on properties, has been hindered by conventional measurement methods, which capture only a single length scale. Here, four different polycrystalline diamond coatings are characterized using transmission electron microscopy to assess the roughness down to the sub-nanometer scale. Then these measurements are combined, using the power spectral density (PSD), with conventional methods (stylus profilometry and atomic force microscopy) to characterize all scales of topography. The results demonstrate the critical importance of measuring topography across all …

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Published: Jan. 1, 2014

The Pan-Eurasian Experiment (PEEX) is a new multidisciplinary, global change research initiative focusing on understanding biosphere-ocean- cryosphere-climate interactions and feedbacks in Arctic and boreal regions in the Northern Eurasian geographical domain. PEEX operates in an integrative way and it aims at solving the major scientific and society relevant guestions in many scales using tools from natural and social sciences and economics. The research agenda identifies the most urgent large scale research guestions and topics of the landatmosphere-aquatic-anthropogenic systems and interactions and feedbacks between the systems for the next decades. Furthermore PEEX actively develops and designs a coordinated and coherent ground …

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Published: Jan. 1, 2014

This paper is based on field data obtained during short visits to a newly formed permafrost feature in a form of relatively narrow, deep crater. Excluding impossible and improbable versions of the crater's development, the authors conclude that it originated from warmer ground temperatures and an increase in unfrozen water content, leading to an increase in pressure from gas emissions from permafrost and ground ice. This conclusion is also supported by known processes in the palaeo-geography of Yamal lakes and recent studies of gas-hydrate behavior and subsea processes in gas-bearing provinces.

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