159,513 research outputs found

    Hydrogen and fuel cell technologies for heating: A review

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    The debate on low-carbon heat in Europe has become focused on a narrow range of technological options and has largely neglected hydrogen and fuel cell technologies, despite these receiving strong support towards commercialisation in Asia. This review examines the potential benefits of these technologies across different markets, particularly the current state of development and performance of fuel cell micro-CHP. Fuel cells offer some important benefits over other low-carbon heating technologies, and steady cost reductions through innovation are bringing fuel cells close to commercialisation in several countries. Moreover, fuel cells offer wider energy system benefits for high-latitude countries with peak electricity demands in winter. Hydrogen is a zero-carbon alternative to natural gas, which could be particularly valuable for those countries with extensive natural gas distribution networks, but many national energy system models examine neither hydrogen nor fuel cells for heating. There is a need to include hydrogen and fuel cell heating technologies in future scenario analyses, and for policymakers to take into account the full value of the potential contribution of hydrogen and fuel cells to low-carbon energy systems

    Where are the world's top 100 I.T. firms - and why?

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    Various publications tabulate and publish lists of the ?top 100? information-technology (I.T.) firms. The July 1997 issue of PD Magazine, for example, has a list showing that most of the world?s key firms in computing, software, semiconductors, and related fields are American. They are also heavily concentrated in such western states as Texas, Utah, Washington, and of course California. The distribution of firms and entrepreneurs is markedly different from 15 years ago. For example, the December 1997 Upside Magazine list of the top 100 people in I.T. contains only three individuals from supposedly ?high-tech? Massachusetts ? or no more than the number predicted by the state?s share of the US population. The paper will extend my work tracking the westward rebirth of American computing since the early 1980s. It will complement the employment shifts I have already documented with new mappings of firms and entrepreneurs. The hypotheses is that the PC revolution spurs a regional realignment of US computing away from the more hierarchical and bureaucratized firms of the Northeast to flatter, more agile, and more entrepreneurial firms in the younger economic cultures of the West. A look at the specific enterprises and entrepreneurs will illuminate the process by which the US regained its leadership in I.T. within the world economy.

    The European Union Innovation Performance in View of the Lisbon Strategy

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    The paper is divided into four parts. First deals with the characteristics of the role of knowledge-based economy and innovativeness of the economic system in Lisbon Strategy. Second is devoted to the issue of innovativeness of the EU economies as compared to the US and Japan. Third presents evaluation of the Lisbon Strategy implementation. Fourth analyses the renewed Lisbon Strategy.Artykuł składa się z wprowadzenia, czterech części i zakończenia. Część pierwsza poświęcona jest prezentacji roli gospodarki opartej na wiedzy i innowacyjności w Strategii Lizbońskiej. Część druga zawiera analizę poziomu innowacyjności gospodarek UE na tle USA i Japonii. W części trzeciej przedstawiono ocenę realizacji głównych celów Strategii Lizbońskiej, a w czwartej założenia nowej wersji owej Strategii

    The Mobile Generation: Global Transformations at the Cellular Level

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    Every year we see a new dimension of the ongoing Digital Revolution, which is enabling an abundance of information to move faster, cheaper, in more intelligible forms, in more directions, and across borders of every kind. The exciting new dimension on which the Aspen Institute focused its 2006 Roundtable on Information Technology was mobility, which is making the Digital Revolution ubiquitous. As of this writing, there are over two billion wireless subscribers worldwide and that number is growing rapidly. People are constantly innovating in the use of mobile technologies to allow them to be more interconnected. Almost a half century ago, Ralph Lee Smith conjured up "The Wired Nation," foretelling a world of interactive communication to and from the home that seems commonplace in developed countries today. Now we have a "Wireless World" of communications potentially connecting two billion people to each other with interactive personal communications devices. Widespead adoption of wireless handsets, the increasing use of wireless internet, and the new, on-the-go content that characterizes the new generation of users are changing behaviors in social, political and economic spheres. The devices are easy to use, pervasive and personal. The affordable cell phone has the potential to break down the barriers of poverty and accessibility previously posed by other communications devices. An entire generation that is dependant on ubiquitous mobile technologies is changing the way it works, plays and thinks. Businesses, governments, educational institutions, religious and other organizations in turn are adapting to reach out to this mobile generation via wireless technologies -- from SMS-enabled vending machines in Finland to tech-savvy priests in India willing to conduct prayers transmitted via cell phones. Cellular devices are providing developing economies with opportunities unlike any others previously available. By opening the lines of communication, previously disenfranchised groups can have access to information relating to markets, economic opportunities, jobs, and weather to name just a few. When poor village farmers from Bangladesh can auction their crops on a craigslist-type service over the mobile phone, or government officials gain instantaneous information on contagious diseases via text message, the miracles of mobile connectivity move us from luxury to necessity. And we are only in the early stages of what the mobile electronic communications will mean for mankind. We are now "The Mobile Generation." Aspen Institute Roundtable on Information Technology. To explore the implications of these phenomena, the Aspen Institute Communications and Society Program convened 27 leaders from business, academia, government and the non-profit sector to engage in three days of dialogue on related topics. Some are experts in information and communications technologies, others are leaders in the broader society affected by these innovations. Together, they examined the profound changes ahead as a result of the convergence of wireless technologies and the Internet. In the following report of the Roundtable meeting held August 1-4, 2006, J. D. Lasica, author of Darknet and co-founder of Ourmedia.org, deftly sets up, contextualizes, and captures the dialogue on the impact of the new mobility on economic models for businesses and governments, social services, economic development, and personal identity

    Innovative Tokyo

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    This paper compares and contrasts Tokyo's innovation structure with the industrial districts model and the international hub model in the literature on urban and regional development. The Tokyo model embraces and yet transcends both industrial districts and international hub models. The paper details key elements making up the Tokyo model-organizational knowledge creation, integral and co-location systems of corporate R&D and new product development, test markets, industrial districts and clusters, participative consumer culture, continuous learning from abroad, local government policies, the national system of innovation, and the historical genesis of Tokyo in Japan's political economy. The paper finds that the Tokyo model of innovation will continue to evolve with the changing external environment, but fundamentally retains its main characteristics. The lessons from the Tokyo model is that openness, a diversified industrial base, the continuing development of new industries, and an emphasis on innovation, all contribute to the dynamism of a major metropolitan region.Labor Policies,Environmental Economics&Policies,Public Health Promotion,ICT Policy and Strategies,Agricultural Knowledge&Information Systems,ICT Policy and Strategies,Environmental Economics&Policies,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Agricultural Knowledge&Information Systems,Innovation

    The UK's global gas challenge

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    A UKERC Research Report exploring the UK's global gas challenge. This report takes an interdisciplinary perspective, which marries energy security insights from politics and international relations, with detailed empirical understanding from energy studies and perspectives from economic geography that emphasise the spatial distribution of actors, networks and resource flows that comprise the global gas industry. Natural gas production in the UK peaked in 2000, and in 2004 it became a net importer. A decade later and the UK now imports about half of the natural gas that it consumes. The central thesis of the project on which this report is based is that as the UK’s gas import dependence has grown, it has effectively been ‘globalising’ its gas security; consequently UK consumers are increasingly exposed to events in global gas markets. - See more at: http://www.ukerc.ac.uk/publications/the-uk-s-global-gas-challenge.html#sthash.wEP831Zn.dpu

    The global cultural commons after Cancun: identity, diversity and citizenship

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    The cultural politics of global trade is a new and unexplored terrain because the public domain of culture has long been associated with national sovereignty. States everywhere have invested heavily in national identity. But in an age of globalization, culture and sovereignty have become more complex propositions, subject to global pressures and national constraints. This paper argues three main points. First, new information technologies increasingly destabilize traditional private sector models for disseminating culture. At the same time, international legal rules have become more restrictive with respect to investment and national treatment, two areas at the heart of cultural policy. Second, Doha has significant implications for the future of the cultural commons. Ongoing negotiations around TRIPS, TRIMS, GATS and dispute settlement will impose new restrictions on public authorities who wish to appropriate culture for a variety of public and private ends. Finally, there is a growing backlash against the WTO’s trade agenda for broadening and deepening disciplines in these areas. These issues have become highly politicized and fractious, and are bound to vex future rounds as the global south, led by Brazil, India and China flexes its diplomatic muscle

    Japan' New Competitive Advantage: Enterprises' Innovative Initiatives and Government's Reforms

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    This article is a continuation of the report "Japan's new competitive advantage. Arguments and proposals for structural reorientation" published in the "Comparative Economic Research for Central & Eastern Europe", vol. 13, no 1/2/2010, which mainly dealt with the role of the private sector's cooperation with governmental agencies. The discussion presented below is divided into four sections. Section one outlines the history of new ITC firms (mobile communications, computers) after the year 2000 and addresses innovation factors. Section two characterizes Japan's "dual economy" with respect to economic competitiveness and innovation. Section three discusses the major structural reforms (Japan Post, the Housing Loan Corporation and the Japan Highway Corporation) that were undertaken in Japan in the 21st c. Section four of the article provides final conclusions.Artykuł ten stanowi kontynuację tekstu opublikowanego w "Comparative Economic Research for Central & Eastern Europe", Tom 13, nr 1/2/2010, p.t. Nowa przewaga konkurencyjna Japonii. Argumenty i propozycje na rzecz przeorientowania struktur. Została w nim wyeksponowana rola sektora prywatnego we współpracy z agendami rządu. Artykuł składa się z czterech części. W części pierwszej przedstawiono historię nowych firm w branży teleinformatycznej (telefonia komórkowa, komputery) po 2000 roku, a także wskazano na determinanty innowacyjności. W części drugiej scharakteryzowano "podwójną ekonomię" Japonii w kontekście konkurencyjności i innowacyjności gospodarki. W części trzeciej omówiono najważniejsze reformy strukturalne w Japonii w XXI wieku: Poczty, Housing Loan Corporation oraz Japan Highway Corporation. W części czwartej artykułu zaprezentowano wnioski końcowe
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