Being able to separate temporary global macroeconomic influences – caused by fluctuations in exchange rates, interest rates and inflation – from intrinsic performance – related to a superior product, production process or management – is crucial to assessing the development of a firm's competiveness. Against that background, this paper analyzes institutions’ role in making firms supply outside sha

Animal eyes have evolved to process behaviorally important visual information, but how retinas deal with statistical asymmetries in visual space remains poorly understood. Using hyperspectral imaging in the field, in vivo 2-photon imaging of retinal neurons, and anatomy, here we show that larval zebrafish use a highly anisotropic retina to asymmetrically survey their natural visual world. First, d

In recent years, there has been an increasing amount of literature on critical thinking and deep learning. Conversely, the traditional pedagogical methods of teaching lack the potentiality to make deep learning especially for the practice-oriented courses such as programming languages. Thus, this study is designed based on the Project-Based Learning (PBL) and Role-Playing (RP) which are integrated

ICTs can positively influence development outcomes. However, ICT4D projects have achieved limited success in achieving their development objectives. In this study, we conduct a literature review of ICT4D studies conducted over the period 2006 - 2016. We find that theory linking ICT use and development impact is lacking, and that mobile devices might offer high positive impact possibilities than pe

The main objective of this study is to introduce the new Sandvik’s production cost-model within Crushing & Screening (C&S) technology. So far, there have been different ways of determining different production costs in the industry, however, the previously published and presented methods have not been very efficient in calculating the costs per product and metric ton. Accordingly, the curr

There is a well-known story in climate change circles about the campaign run by opponents of action on climate change in the United States in the run-up to the Kyoto Protocol in 1997. A prominent ad in the campaign featured a stereotypical soccer mom, who declared: “The government wants to take away my SUV” (Schneider 2002). The ad is usually read in terms of the fossil fuel corporations’ strategy

Understanding the functional characteristics of naturally acquired antibodies against P. falciparum merozoite antigens is crucial for determining the protective functions of antibodies. Affinity (measured as kd) of naturally acquired antibodies against two key targets of acquired immunity, EBA175 and PfRh2, was determined using Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) in a longitudinal survey in Nigeria. A

Thickened flame (TF) model is one of the effective methods to resolve the flame front in turbulent premixed combustion modeling. The multi-step reaction mechanism is becoming increasingly important for combustion simulations such as pollutant formation, ignition and extinction. The effect of TF model on flame structures when coupling with multi-step reaction mechanism was investigated. The simulat

We consider the problem of finding an event-based sampling scheme that optimizes the trade-off between average sampling rate and control performance in a linear-quadratic-Gaussian (LQG) control problem setting with output feedback. Our analysis is based on a recently presented sampled-data controller structure, which remains LQG-optimal for any choice of sampling scheme. We show that optimization

Modification of a fatigue criterion valid for homogeneous multiaxial stress states to account for the beneficial effect of stress gradients is traditionally performed by modifying the stress terms in the fatigue criterion and thereby introducing new parameters that need to be calibrated. Here the stress terms are left unchanged and, instead, the parameters in the fatigue criterion are modified. Th

In Swedish historical archaeology, studies of towns have diverged from definition to deconstruction. In landscape studies the existence of occasional similar expressions of power in rural contexts as in towns is stressed. Another observation is that towns can display vague forms of urbanity, with lack of dense settlement and varied economy, as well as showing agrarian affiliations. A focus on sing

The aim of this article is to explore how ‘children's rights’ and ‘gender equality’ are articulated in parenting support policies in Sweden, and how these policies are enacted in practice with respect to the two perspectives mentioned. The analysis builds on key policy documents and interviews with civil servants working on parenting support on local, regional and national levels. The results show

Recent studies find that higher degrees of democracy are related to higher levels of bureaucratic quality. However, they only offer limited explanations for this pattern based on a unidimensional understanding of democracy. We argue that future uncertainties as perceived by the incumbent, the opposition, and voters are important for why bureaucratic reform takes place. Therefore, we expect no unif

This study considers evolutionary games with non-uniformly random matching when interaction occurs in groups of n ≥ 2 individuals using pure strategies from a finite strategy set. In such models, groups with different compositions of individuals generally co-exist and the reproductive success (fitness) of a specific strategy varies with the frequencies of different group types. These frequencies c