Susceptibility of Several Northeastern Conifers to Fusarium circinatum and Strategies for Biocontrol

Producción CientíficaFusarium circinatum, the causal of pine pitch canker disease (PPC), is now considered among the most important pathogens of Pinaceae in the world. Although in Europe PPC is only established in the Iberian Peninsula, the potential endangered areas cover over 10 million hectares under the current host distribution and climatic conditions. It is therefore a priority to test the susceptibility of those species and their provenances, within Central and Northern Europe and find biological control agents (BCAs) against the disease. In this study, the susceptibility of Pinus sylvestris, P. mugo and Picea abies Romanian provenances to F. circinatum was tested using three inoculum doses. In parallel, the potential use of Trichoderma atroviride and Trichoderma viride as BCAs against F. circinatum was also tested. This study has demonstrated, for the first time, the susceptibility of P. mugo to F. circinatum. Likewise, the susceptibility of P. abies was also confirmed. The fact that the Romanian provenance of P. sylvestris has not been susceptible to F. circinatum suggests genetic resistance as a potential tool to manage the disease. This, together with the apparent effectiveness of Trichoderma species as BCAs, seems to indicate that an integrated management of the disease might be feasible.European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST Action FP1406 PINESTRENGTH)Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad (projects AGL2012-39912 / AGL2015-69370-R)Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (grant SFRH/BPD/122928/2016

Reverse Technology Transfer: A Patent Citation Analysis of the European Chemical and Pharmaceutical sectors

One consequence of the internationalisation of R&D, particularly in high-tech sectors such as chemicals and pharmaceuticals, may be the transfer of foreign technology from the multinational to other firms in its home country. This phenomenon, which may be termed inter-firm reverse technology transfer, has not yet been directly analysed by either the international management literature or the literature on foreign direct investment. But its implications for policy – particularly in Europe – may be significant. Drawing on the evolutionary theory of the multinational, and on the concept of embeddedness, this paper is a first attempt at addressing this issue. We test the hypothesis of inter-firm reverse technology transfer by performing a patent citation analysis on a database of USPTO patents applied for by 29 chemical and pharmaceutical companies over the period 1980-99. Our findings suggest that multinationals, especially in the pharmaceutical sector, act as a channel for the transmission of knowledge developed abroad to other home country firms. These results point to an alternative understanding of foreign direct R&D investment and its implications for both the home country’s technological activity, and its competitive performance in general.economics of technology ;

Reverse Technology Transfer: A Patent Citation Analysis of the European Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sectors

One consequence of the internationalisation of R&D, particularly in high-tech sectors such as chemicals and pharmaceuticals, may be the transfer of foreign technology from the multinational to other firms in its home country. This phenomenon, which may be termed inter-firm reverse technology transfer, has not yet been directly analysed by either the international management literature or the literature on foreign direct investment. But its implications for policy – particularly in Europe – may be significant. Drawing on the evolutionary theory of the multinational, and on the concept of embeddedness, this paper is a first attempt at addressing this issue. We test the hypothesis of inter-firm reverse technology transfer by performing a patent citation analysis on a database of USPTO patents applied for by 24 chemical and pharmaceutical companies over the period 1980-99. Our findings suggest that multinationals act as a channel for the transmission of knowledge developed abroad to other home country firms. These results point to an alternative understanding of foreign direct R&D investment and its implications for both the home country’s technological activity, and its competitive performance in generalMultinational firms; patent citation; embeddedness; international technology transfer

Software Pauli Tracking for Quantum Computation

The realisation of large-scale quantum computing is no longer simply a hardware question. The rapid development of quantum technology has resulted in dozens of control and programming problems that should be directed towards the classical computer science and engineering community. One such problem is known as Pauli tracking. Methods for implementing quantum algorithms that are compatible with crucial error correction technology utilise extensive quantum teleportation protocols. These protocols are intrinsically probabilistic and result in correction operators that occur as byproducts of teleportation. These byproduct operators do not need to be corrected in the quantum hardware itself. Instead, byproduct operators are tracked through the circuit and output results reinterpreted. This tracking is routinely ignored in quantum information as it is assumed that tracking algorithms will eventually be developed. In this work we help fill this gap and present an algorithm for tracking byproduct operators through a quantum computation. We formulate this work based on quantum gate sets that are compatible with all major forms of quantum error correction and demonstrate the completeness of the algorithm.Comment: 5 Pages, 1 figure, Accepted for Design, Automation and Test In Europe (DATE'2014

Sampling-based Buffer Insertion for Post-Silicon Yield Improvement under Process Variability

At submicron manufacturing technology nodes process variations affect circuit performance significantly. This trend leads to a large timing margin and thus overdesign to maintain yield. To combat this pessimism, post-silicon clock tuning buffers can be inserted into circuits to balance timing budgets of critical paths with their neighbors. After manufacturing, these clock buffers can be configured for each chip individually so that chips with timing failures may be rescued to improve yield. In this paper, we propose a sampling-based method to determine the proper locations of these buffers. The goal of this buffer insertion is to reduce the number of buffers and their ranges, while still maintaining a good yield improvement. Experimental results demonstrate that our algorithm can achieve a significant yield improvement (up to 35%) with only a small number of buffers.Comment: Design, Automation and Test in Europe (DATE), 201

Do Multinationals Transplant their Business Model?

What determines whether or not multinational firms transplant their mode of organisation to other countries? We embed the theory of knowledge hierarchies in an industry equilibrium model of monopolistic competition to examine how the economic environment may affect the decision of a multinational firm about transplanting its business organisation to other countries. We test the theory with original and matched parent and affiliate data on the internal organisation of 660 Austrian and German multinational firms and 2200 of their affiliate firms in Eastern Europe. We find that three factors stand out in promoting the multinational firm’s decision to transplant the business model to the affiliate firm in the host country: a competitive host market, the corporate culture of the multinational firm, and when an innovative technology is transferred to the host country. These factors increase the respective probabilities of organisational transfer by 18.5 percentage points, 37, and 31 percentage points

Tracing The Spatial Patterns Of Innovation Determinants In Regional Economic Performance

This paper investigates factors of innovation and their role in regional economic performance for a sample of 261 EU NUTS 2 regions over 2009–2012. In our study, we identify regions with spillover as well as drain effects of innovation factors on economic performance. The spatial analysis indicates that both regional innovativeness and regional development, are strongly determined by the region’s location and neighbourhood, with severe consequences for the Eastern and Central Europe. We assessed the impact of innovation factors and their spatial counterparts on economic performance by spatial Durbin panel model. The model is designed to test the existence and strength of country-effect of innovativeness on the level of regional economic status. This allows for controlling the country-specific socio-economic factors, without reducing the number of degrees of freedom. Our model shows that regions benefit economically from their locational spillovers in terms of social capital. However, the decomposition of R&D expenditures revealed competition effect between internal R&D and external technology acquisition favouring in-house research over the outsourced ones

Factors impacting technology business incubator performance

© 2019 World Scientific Publishing Europe Ltd. Technology business incubators support economic growth by developing innovative technologies. However, assessing the performance of technology business incubators in Saudi Arabia has not been well recognised. This study provides a conceptual framework for assessing technology business incubators based on knowledge sharing practices and sharing, diffusion of innovation and individual creativity. Partial least squares structural equation modelling, such as (PLS-SEM) path modelling was used to test the model. The results provide empirical insights about the performance of technology business incubators. The findings show knowledge donation and collection has positive effects on technology business incubator. The importance-performance map analysis shows additional findings and conclusions for managerial actions

Thermal response test numerical modeling using a dynamic simulator

Background Borehole heat exchangers are a growing technology in the area of house/building air conditioning, most of all in northern Europe. Methods In order to have a good project, we need to have a reliable value of ground thermal conductivity, which is normally obtained by interpreting the data retrieved by running a thermal response test. Different are the ways of interpreting the data provided by the test (e.g., infinite line source theory, finite line source theory, etc.), and in this paper. Results We will first simulate a thermal response test using finite element subsurface flow system, a heat and flow dynamic simulator. Conclusions Then, a sensitivity analysis of the effect of the different grout properties on the results of a thermal response test is shown