M&A and R&D: Asymmetric Effects on acquirers and targets?

We evaluate the impact of M&A activity on the growth of R&D spending and R&D intensity of 265 acquiring firms and 133 merger targets between 1990 and 2009. We use different matching techniques to construct separate control groups for acquirers and targets and use appropriate difference-in-difference estimation methods to single out the causal effect of mergers on R&D growth and intensity. We find that target firms substantially decrease their R&D efforts after a merger, while the R&D intensity of acquirers drops due to a sharp increase in sales.     

What Happens to Policies When Assuming Institutions? A Short Story About Romania’s Never-Ending Educational Reform

Over the past decades, educational reform has been one of the centerpieces of transition in Central and Eastern Europe. A huge degree of variability among countries exists, from sudden liberalization to securing the status quo previous to revolutionary political change. Reforms have ranged from institutional to instrumental changes. We argue that policies may lead to undesirable outcomes, when they assume a certain institutional framework. We then describe the evolution of Romania’s educational system, focusing on a case study of an implemented large-scale policy program: the Rural Education Project for Romania. We thus argue that by assuming institutional change such attempts are bound to fail because the existing status quo adapts actions to existing practices, thus leading to unexpected outcomes.     

不同患者群体容量反应性变量参数应用的强制性标准:重症监护病人窦性节律和控制呼吸流行情况的前瞻性研究（英文）

目的:通过对危重病人在入院后24小时内和整个重症监护过程中窦性心律和控制呼吸情况的调查,分析每搏量变异在评估危重病人容量反应的适用性,并探究每搏量变异度在败血症、肝硬化和胰腺炎病人中的适用性。创新点:通过探究窦性节律和控制呼吸情况评估每搏量变异度在重症监护病人临床上的适用性,弥补重症监护病人窦性节律和控制呼吸情况数据的空白。方法:在进行1241次热稀释法血流量测量前,对88位病人的窦性节律和控制呼吸情况进行调查。结论:每搏量变异度在主要的医疗重症监护病房中的适用性只约为25%~35%。两项强制性指标的流行性在重症监护病房的情况随时间的延长而降低。此外,每搏量变异度在胰腺炎和肝功能衰竭患者中的适用性尤其低。     

Is the Item-Position Effect in Achievement Measures Induced by Increasing Item Difficulty?

This work examines the hypothesis that the arrangement of items according to increasing difficulty is the real source of what is considered the item-position effect. A confusion of the 2 effects is possible because in achievement measures the items are arranged according to their difficulty. Two item subsets of Raven’s Advanced Progressive Matrices (APM), one following the original item order, and the other one including randomly ordered items, were applied to a sample of 266 students. Confirmatory factor analysis models including representations of both the item-position effect and a possible effect due to increasing item difficulty were compared. The results provided evidence for both effects. Furthermore, they indicated a substantial relation between the item-position effects of the 2 APM subsets, whereas no relation was found for item difficulty. This indicates that the item-position effect stands on its own and is not due to increasing item difficulty.     

The Pathic Model of Disability: Identity,Moral Force and the Politics of Pain

Critics of the ‘strong social model’ of disability developed in the U.K. commonly claim that it focuses too one-sidedly on social oppression, thereby neglecting the role of individual impairment. In this theoretical article, we contrast that model with what we call the ‘pathic model’ of disability, which we characterise through the case of people living with chronic pain in the U.S.A. We argue that the difference between these two models is due to differing socio-political contexts and national policies concerning welfare and addiction as well as normative assumptions regarding the moral force of focusing on individual pain. We conclude that the political goals of proponents of the ‘pathic model’ present a challenge to the presumption that the ‘strong social model’ is the most or only politically effective way to rectify disability-related social oppression.     

The effect of positive reappraisal on the availability of self-control resources and self-regulated learning*

Effectively regulating negative emotions is important for successful self-regulated learning. However, research has hardly examined which emotion regulation strategies benefit self-regulated learning. In an experimental study, it was examined whether positive reappraisal facilitates self-regulated learning by counterbalancing the depletion of self-control resources. Sixty-one university students engaged in either positive reappraisal or expressive suppression to regulate negative emotions induced by a film clip and then worked on a self-regulated learning task. Participants who engaged in positive reappraisal experienced more positive emotions after the film and had more self-control resources available than participants who used expressive suppression. Moreover, positive reappraisal increased skin conductance during emotion regulation, as compared to expressive suppression. Irrespective of emotion regulation type, positive emotions predicted post-film availability of self-control resources which was positively associated with subsequent self-regulated learning. The results demonstrate beneficial affective and resource-related consequences of positive reappraisal as well as its potential for fostering self-regulated learning.     

Valence bias in metacontrol of decision making in adolescents and young adults

The development of metacontrol of decision making and its susceptibility to framing effects were investigated in a sample of 201 adolescents and adults in Germany (12–25 years, 111 female, ethnicity not recorded). In a task that dissociates model-free and model-based decision making, outcome magnitude and outcome valence were manipulated. Both adolescents and adults showed metacontrol and metacontrol tended to increase across adolescence. Furthermore, model-based decision making was more pronounced for loss compared to gain frames but there was no evidence that this framing effect differed with age. Thus, the strategic adaptation of decision making continues to develop into young adulthood and for both adolescents and adults, losses increase the motivation to invest cognitive resources into an effortful decision-making strategy.     

God–Mother–Baby: What Children Think They Know

This study tested one hundred and nine 3‐ to 6‐year‐old children on a knowledge‐ignorance task about knowledge in humans (mother, baby) and God. In their responses, participants not reliably grasping that seeing leads to knowing in humans (pre‐representational) were significantly influenced by own knowledge and marginally by question format. Moreover, knowledge was attributed significantly more often to mother than baby and explained by agent‐based characteristics. Of participants mastering the task for humans (representational), God was largely conceived as ignorant “man in the sky” by younger and increasingly as “supernatural agent in the sky” by older children. Evidence for egocentrism and for anthropomorphizing God lends support to an anthropomorphism hypothesis. First‐time evidence for an agent‐based conception of others' knowledge in pre‐representational children is presented.     

Understanding children's epistemic beliefs in elementary education

Research shows that the beliefs individuals hold about knowledge and knowing (epistemic beliefs) influence learning approaches and outcomes. However, little is known about the nature of children's epistemic beliefs and how best to measure these. In this pilot study, 11 Australian children (in Grade 4 or Grade 6) were asked to ‘draw, write and tell’ about their epistemic beliefs using drawings, written responses and interviews, respectively. Drawings were analysed, with the majority of children depicting external, one-way sources of knowledge. The written statements and interviews were analysed using inductive thematic analysis, showing that children predominantly described knowledge acquisition as processes of task-based learning. Interviews also enabled children to describe a wider range of views. These results indicate that the methodological combination of ‘draw, write and tell’ allowed for a deeper understanding of the children's epistemic beliefs which holds implications for future research.