No / This article presents a vivid account of the day to day reality of a female manager in a busy UK city centre food retail store. Insights into some of the transformations in retail work are illuminated, namely restricted store budgets, lean staffing and a long-hours culture. The combination of these factors has resulted in increasing workplace demands and time pressures, with health and well-being consequences. This unique account enhances understandings of the twin challenges for managers in attempting to accommodate work-life balance for their staff and themselves personally. Despite these workplace pressures, the narrative is peppered with instances of practical and emotional concern and support.

No / This paper argues that the technology life cycle literature is confused and incomplete. This literature is first reviewed with consideration of the related concepts of the life cycles for industries and products. By exploring the inter-relationships between these, an integrated view of the technology life cycle is produced. A new conceptualization of the technology life cycle is then proposed. This is represented as a model that incorporates three different levels for technology application, paradigm and generation. The model shows how separate paradigms emerge over time to achieve a given application. It traces the eras of ferment and incremental change and shows how technology generations evolve within these. It also depicts how the eras are separated by the emergence of a dominant design, and how paradigms are replaced at a technological discontinuity. By adopting this structure, the model can demarcate the evolution of technologies at varying levels of granularity from the specific products in which they may be manifest to the industries in which they are exploited. By taking technology as the unit of analysis the model departs from previous work, which has adopted a product-based perspective predominantly. The paper discusses the managerial and research implications associated with the technology life cycle, and indicates how these inform future research directions. As well as contributing to academic knowledge, the results of this research are of value to those who make decisions about the development, exploitation and use of technology including technology developers, engineers, technologists, R & D managers, and designers.

No / Interest in third sector organisations (TSOs) is growing as their role in addressing social regeneration, especially in urban environments, is regarded as crucial by governmental and supra-governmental organisations. The challenge is increased in multicultural environments, where those from ethnic minorities may struggle to participate in the mainstream economy and society more broadly. There is an assumption that TSOs make a positive contribution to the social good of the diverse communities and client groups that they serve. However, although there have been many studies of ethicality in commercial and public sector organisations, few focus on TSOs. Furthermore, black and minority ethnic (BME) TSOs, in particular face specific pressures, caught between the high expectations of their capacity to engage with diverse communities where the public sector has failed and, in common with all TSOs, the struggle to secure the resources necessary to manage their organisations and deliver front-line services. In this article, we investigate how implicitly ethicality is constructed in TSOs, including those with a primary mission to provide support for and services to BME communities. Building on information obtained for 305 TSOs in a post-industrial city we develop a structural equation model (SEM) in order to evaluate the relationships between elements that we argue comprise ethicality. We then assess the manner in which TSOs generally, and BME TSOs specifically, vary in the manner in which they communicate their ethical purpose and the outcomes of their actions.

No / The existing literature treats advanced technology sourcing as the only cause of reverse productivity spillovers from local to foreign firms and implies that mutual spillovers between foreign and local firms can only happen in the developed world. This paper argues that the diffusion of indigenous technology and local knowledge helps the productivity enhancement of multinationals, so that there can be mutual spillovers even in a developing country. The results from a large-sample firm-level econometric analysis and a comparative case study of seven companies in Chinese manufacturing support this new argument, as mutual spillovers are identified between local Chinese firms and overseas Chinese or OECD-invested firms.

No / The issue of communicated accountability is particularly important in Faith-Based Charity Organisations as the donated funds and use of those funds are often meant to fulfil religious obligations for the well-being of society. Integrating Stewart¿s (1984) ladder of accountability with the Statement of Recommended Practice guidance for charities, this paper examines communicated accountability practices of Muslim and Christian Charity Organisations in England and Wales. Our content analysis results indicate communicated accountability to be generally limited, focusing on providing basic descriptive information rather than judgement-based information. Our interviews with trustees and preparers of Trustee Annual Reports in Muslim Charity Organisations identified the reasons being due to high donor trust and consequently weak demand by stakeholders for the latter type of information, as well as internal organisational issues related to the organisational structure and culture, lack of internal professional expertise and high accountability cost.

No / The first purpose of this paper is to assess the short-run forecasting capabilities of two competing financial duration models. The forecast performance of the Autoregressive Conditional Multinomial–Autoregressive Conditional Duration (ACM-ACD) model is better than the Asymmetric Autoregressive Conditional Duration (AACD) model. However, the ACM-ACD model is more complex in terms of the computational setting and is more sensitive to starting values. The second purpose is to examine the effects of market microstructure on the forecasting performance of the two models. The results indicate that the forecast performance of the models generally decreases as the liquidity of the stock increases, with the exception of the most liquid stocks. Furthermore, a simple filter of the raw data improves the performance of both models. Finally, the results suggest that both models capture the characteristics of the micro data very well with a minimum sample length of 20 days.

No / Family entrepreneurial teams are groups of related individuals who engage in entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurial teams studies emphasize the resources that members bring to the team. Family business studies suggest that relationships and social theories are important. Social capital explains the formation and composition of family entrepreneurial teams (FETs). Analysis is of case studies of FETs based in Honduras. A shared commitment to entrepreneurial stewardship of the family's assets underpins formation of FETs. Trust and shared values were important for membership. This study highlights that families are not internally consistent, and family ties are not equally strong.

No / Recent advances in the methods of skeletal age estimation have rekindled interest in their applicability to paleodemography. The current study contributes to the discussion by applying several long established as well as recently developed or refined aging methods to a subsample of 121 adult skeletons from the early medieval cemetery of Lauchheim. The skeletal remains were analyzed by 13 independent observers using a variety of aging techniques (complex method and other multimethod approaches, Transition Analysis, cranial suture closure, auricular surface method, osteon density method, tooth root translucency measurement, and tooth cementum annulation counting). The age ranges and mean age estimations were compared and results indicate that all methods showed smaller age ranges for the younger individuals, but broader age ranges for the older age groups. / Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research

No / PURPOSE: AQ4N is a novel bioreductive prodrug under clinical investigation. Preclinical evidence shows that AQ4N penetrates deeply within tumors and undergoes selective activation to form AQ4, a potent topoisomerase II inhibitor, in hypoxic regions of solid tumors. This proof-of-principle, phase I study evaluated the activation, hypoxic selectivity, and safety of AQ4N in patients with advanced solid tumors. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN: Thirty-two patients with cancer (8 glioblastoma, 9 bladder, 8 head and neck, 6 breast, and 1 cervix) received a single 200 mg/m(2) dose of AQ4N before elective surgery. AQ4 and AQ4N levels in 95 tissues (tumor, healthy tissue) were assessed by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. Tissue sections were also analyzed for AQ4 fluorescence using confocal microscopy, and for expression of the hypoxia-regulated glucose transporter, Glut-1. RESULTS: Activated AQ4 was detected in all tumor samples with highest levels present in glioblastoma (mean 1.2 microg/g) and head and neck (mean 0.65 microg/g) tumors; 22 of 32 patients had tumor AQ4 concentrations > or = 0.2 microg/g, levels previously shown to be active in preclinical studies. In 24 of 30 tumor samples, AQ4 was detected at higher concentrations than in adjacent normal tissue (tumor to normal ratio range 1.1-63.6); distant skin samples contained very low concentrations of AQ4 (mean 0.037 microg/g). Microscopic evaluation of tumor sections revealed that AQ4 colocalized within regions of Glut-1+ hypoxic cells. CONCLUSIONS: AQ4N was activated selectively in hypoxic regions in human solid tumors. Intratumoral concentrations of AQ4 exceeded those required for activity in animal models and support the evaluation of AQ4N as a novel tumor-targeting agent in future clinical studies.

No / Vascular disrupting agents (VDA) offer a strategy to starve solid tumors of nutrients and oxygen concomitant with tumor shrinkage. Several VDAs have progressed into early clinical trials, but their therapeutic value seems to be compromised by systemic toxicity. In this report, we describe the design and characterization of a novel VDA, ICT2588, that is nontoxic until activated specifically in the tumor by membrane-type 1 matrix metalloproteinase (MT1-MMP). HT1080 cancer cells expressing MT1-MMP were selectively chemosensitive to ICT2588, whereas MCF7 cells that did not express MT1-MMP were nonresponsive. Preferential hydrolysis of ICT2588 to its active metabolite (ICT2552) was observed in tumor homogenates of HT1080 relative to MCF7 homogenates, mouse plasma, and liver homogenate. ICT2588 activation was inhibited by the MMP inhibitor ilomastat. In HT1080 tumor-bearing mice, ICT2588 administration resulted in the formation of the active metabolite, diminution of tumor vasculature, and hemorrhagic necrosis of the tumor. The antitumor activity of ICT2588 was superior to its active metabolite, exhibiting reduced toxicity, improved therapeutic index, enhanced pharmacodynamic effect, and greater efficacy. Coadministration of ICT2588 with doxorubicin resulted in a significant antitumor response (22.6 d growth delay), which was superior to the administration of ICT2588 or doxorubicin as a single agent, including complete tumor regressions. Our findings support the clinical development of ICT2588, which achieves selective VDA targeting based on MT-MMP activation in the tumor microenvironment.