York University

About: York University is a education organization based out in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Poison control. The organization has 18899 authors who have published 43357 publications receiving 1568560 citations.

The production of micronuclei from chromosome aberrations in irradiated cultures of human lymphocytes.

Abstract: A rapid assay for chromosomal damage would greatly speed studies of the mechanism by which chromosomal aberrations are formed The characteristics of such an assay--micronuclei produced in cultured human lymphocytes--are given here, together with the evidence that the assay accurately measures X-ray-induced chromosomal damage Micronuclei arise from chromosomal fragments that are not incorporated into daughter nuclei at mitosis because they lack a centromere In our experiments the response of lymphocytes from different donors was very uniform and agreed well with what was expected from metaphase analysis of aberrations: (1) the increase in micronucleus frequency begins at the time of the first mitoses, 48 hours after the cultures are started, (2) the exponent of the dose response equation (y=kDn) was 12 for micronuclei For one-hit aberrations n=1 whereas for two-hit aberrations n=2 Since two-hit aberrations predominate in these cultures, a value of n= approximately 18 was expected if no increase in mitotic delay or cell death occurred at higher doses, and n less than 18 if an increase occurred, (3) the frequency of micronuclei was decreased by a factor of about two when the dose was fractionated, as expected when most of the aberrations are two-hit The rejoining time for four or five donors was between 30 and 60 minutes, (4) the X-ray-induced micronucleus frequency in cells from people with Down's syndrome (trisomy-21) was twice that of control donors as expected from metaphase analysis [22,23] Since the micronucleus assay reflects the aberration frequencies so well and is so fast, it is suitable for a rapid assessment of chromosomal damage

Organizational Slack and Firm Performance During Economic Transitions: Two Studies from an Emerging Economy

Abstract: How does organizational slack affect firm performance? Organization theory posits that slack, despite its costs, has a positive impact on firm performance. In contrast, agency theory suggests that slack breeds inefficiency and inhibits performance. The empirical evidence, largely from developed economies, has been inconclusive. Moreover, little effort has been made to empirically test whether such an impact (positive or negative) is linear or curvilinear. This article joins the debate by extending empirical work to the largely unexplored context of economic transitions. Specifically, two studies, based on survey and archival data (N = 57 and 1532 firms, respectively), are undertaken in China’s emerging economy. Our results suggest (1) that organization theory generates stronger predictions when dealing with unabsorbed slack, and (2) that agency theory yields stronger validity when focusing on absorbed slack. Furthermore, we also find that the impact of slack on performance is curvilinear, which resembles inverse U-shaped curves. Overall, our findings call for a contingency perspective to specify the nature of slack when discussing its impact on firm performance.

Individual Creativity and Group Ability to Utilize Individual Creative Resources: A Multilevel Model

Abstract: The performance of 94 groups on 13 different open-ended tasks was studied. At the individual-team-member level, domain knowledge and performance-relevant behavioral measures of the three components of Amabile's (1983, 1996) theory of individual creativity related in predicted ways to individual differences. Support was found for new “cross-level” processes, labeled “team creativity-relevant processes.” At the group level, these processes moderated the relationship between aggregated individual creativity and group creativity.

Managing for Stakeholders, Stakeholder Utility Functions, and Competitive Advantage.

Abstract: A firm that manages for stakeholders allocates more resources to satisfy the needs and demands of its legitimate stakeholders than would be necessary to simply retain their willful participation in the firm’s productive activities. We explain why this sort of behavior unlocks additional potential for value creation, as well as the conditions that either facilitate or disrupt the value-creation process. Firms that manage for stakeholders develop trusting relationships with them based on principles of distributional, procedural, and interactional justice. Under these conditions, stakeholders are more likely to share nuanced information regarding their utility functions, thereby increasing the ability of the firm to allocate its resources to areas that will best satisfy them (thus increasing demand for business transactions with the firm). In addition, this information can spur innovation, as well as allow the firm to deal better with changes in the environment. Competitive advantages stemming from a managing-for-stakeholders approach are argued to be sustainable because they are associated with path dependence and causal ambiguity. These explanations provide a strong rationale for including stakeholder theory in the discussion of firm competitiveness and performance.