Is the psychology of high profits detrimental to industrial renewal? Experimental evidence for the theory of transformation pressure

The theory of transformation pressure maintains, by reference to cognitive and emotional factors, that productivity and innovation are stimulated by a decline in actual profits. In periods of increasing profits, firms governed by historical relativism, the peak-end rule and overconfidence will opt for the status quo. In the following profit recession, actors become more alert, calculating and creative, favoring a transformation, especially if they fear that the survival of the firm is at stake. The theory of transformation pressure was tested by a within-subjects experiment where undergraduate students in macroeconomics acted as managers for an established company. The role play sheds light on the students' investment strategy choices and underlying psychological perceptions under varying profit conditions. The theory was only partly confirmed by the experiment. There are arguments in industrial economics, psychology and neuroscience for a qualified theory of transformation pressure. Productivity is enhanced by moderate pressure or by periodic shifts between hard pressure and good opportunity.</p

Streptococcus pneumoniae: transmission, colonization and invasion.

Streptococcus pneumoniae has a complex relationship with its obligate human host. On the one hand, the pneumococci are highly adapted commensals, and their main reservoir on the mucosal surface of the upper airways of carriers enables transmission. On the other hand, they can cause severe disease when bacterial and host factors allow them to invade essentially sterile sites, such as the middle ear spaces, lungs, bloodstream and meninges. Transmission, colonization and invasion depend on the remarkable ability of S. pneumoniae to evade or take advantage of the host inflammatory and immune responses. The different stages of pneumococcal carriage and disease have been investigated in detail in animal models and, more recently, in experimental human infection. Furthermore, widespread vaccination and the resulting immune pressure have shed light on pneumococcal population dynamics and pathogenesis. Here, we review the mechanistic insights provided by these studies on the multiple and varied interactions of the pneumococcus and its host