Policy approaches regarding technology transfer: Portugal and Switzerland compared

The environment in which technology transfer takes place plays a key role in defining the best approaches and, ultimately, their success. In the present paper we analyse the extent to which Technology Transfer Offices (TTOs) efficiency is influenced by framework conditions and, in particular, by the innovation policies and programmes. We hypothesise that countries with higher technology transfer efficiency levels would have innovation policies more supportive to technology transfer efforts. Results based on an in depth account and statistical analysis of over 60 innovation policies from Switzerland (widely associated to high levels of technology transference efficiency) and Portugal (a laggard country in this particular) corraborate our initial hypothesis. Switzerland policies overall include more references to knowledge and technology transfer, in the form of licenses, R&D collaboration and spin-offs, than Portuguese policies. One exception is the case of patents (intellectual property rights, in general) with stronger weight in Portuguese policies and, to some extent, the support to spin-off creation and venture capital. The findings highlighted significant differences in variables with impact in technology transfer, namely the priorities addressed, target groups and funding eligibility, aspects of the innovation process targeted and forms of funding. From the exercise it was possible to derive some policy implications. Specifically, we advance that if a country wishes to increase technology transfer efficiency then it should implement a mandate for R&D cooperation between different actors, give priority to fund cutting edge science and research performers, and attribute a higher emphasis on applied industrial research and prototype creation aspects of the innovation process.Technology transfer, innovation policies, technology transfer efficiency

Policy approaches regarding technology transfer: Portugal and Switzerland compared

The environment in which technology transfer takes place plays a key role in defining the best approaches and, ultimately, their success. In the present paper we analyse the extent to which Technology Transfer Offices (TTOs) efficiency is influenced by framework conditions and, in particular, by the innovation policies and programmes. We hypothesise that countries with higher technology transfer efficiency levels would have innovation policies more supportive to technology transfer efforts. Results based on an in depth account and statistical analysis of over 60 innovation policies from Switzerland (widely associated to high levels of technology transference efficiency) and Portugal (a laggard country in this particular) corraborate our initial hypothesis. Switzerland policies overall include more references to knowledge and technology transfer, in the form of licenses, R&D collaboration and spin-offs, than Portuguese policies. One exception is the case of patents (intellectual property rights, in general) with stronger weight in Portuguese policies and, to some extent, the support to spin-off creation and venture capital. The findings highlighted significant differences in variables with impact in technology transfer, namely the priorities addressed, target groups and funding eligibility, aspects of the innovation process targeted and forms of funding. From the exercise it was possible to derive some policy implications. Specifically, we advance that if a country wishes to increase technology transfer efficiency then it should implement a mandate for R&D cooperation between different actors, give priority to fund cutting edge science and research performers, and attribute a higher emphasis on applied industrial research and prototype creation aspects of the innovation process.Technology transfer, innovation policies, technology transfer efficiency

Energy relaxation of an excited electron gas in quantum wires: many-body electron LO-phonon coupling

We theoretically study energy relaxation via LO-phonon emission in an excited one-dimensional electron gas confined in a GaAs quantum wire structure. We find that the inclusion of phonon renormalization effects in the theory extends the LO-phonon dominated loss regime down to substantially lower temperatures. We show that a simple plasmon-pole approximation works well for this problem, and discuss implications of our results for low temperature electron heating experiments in quantum wires.Comment: 10 pages, RevTex, 4 figures included. Also available at http://www-cmg.physics.umd.edu/~lzheng

E-Governance Mediated Agriculture for Sustainable Life in India

AbstractThis era is called as ICT era which comprises the ICT Mediated Agriculture Extension in Rural as well as Urban areas to disseminate the ethics of information by Decision Support System (DSS), Management Information System(MIS) and Expert System(ES) by impregnating the User Interface and Knowledge Management System. So, E-Agriculture, therefore describes an emerging field focused on the enhancement of agricultural and rural development through improved information and communication process. The main Objective is to provide an Interface to farmers and consumers and to facilitate linking up of agriculture produce marketing cooperative.ITCs,E-chaupal,IT-Kiosks,Eid-party agriline,Gyandoot Project,Warana weired Village,Information Village Project of MSSRF(MS Swaminathan Research Foundation),I-kisan project of Nagarjun group of companies,Kisan Call Center(KCC),Bhoomi Project,Village Knowledge Center etc. are the recent development in e-governance mediated agriculture in India.It add value to the lives of Farmers and End-users in a Sustainable way through Knowledge Management Portals, e-kiosks, Common Service centers in grass root leve

Occurrence and profiles of PCBs and PBDEs in harbour seals and harbour porpoises from the southern North Sea

Harbour porpoises (Phocoena phocoen) and harbour seals (Phoca vitulina), two representative top coastal pollution. Concentrations of sum PCBs were 1-2 orders of magnitude higher than concentrations of sum PBDEs (with median values of 23.1 μg.g- lw (lipid weight) and 12.4 μ.g-1 lw for sum PCBs and 0.33 μ.g- lw and 0.76 μ.g-1 lw for sum PBDEs in harbour seals and harbour porpoises respectively) and were highly dependent of age group and gender. For both species, the highest PCB concentrations were observed in adult males as the result of accumulation for years and years, while the highest PBDE concentrations were measured in juveniles probably due to better developed metabolic capacities for these congeners with age in adults. Results for PCBs were higher than observations in harbour seals and porpoises from other areas, while results for PBDEs were comparable indicating that the North Sea is a highly contaminated area. Relative PCB and PBDE profiles were constructed to compare metabolic capacities between harbour seals and porpoises. A higher contribution of lower chlorinated and nonpersistent congeners, such as CB 52, CB 95, CB 101, CB 118 and CB 149 indicated that harbour porpoises are unable to metabolize these compounds. Similar to PCBs, higher contributions of other PBDEs than BDE 47 were observed in harbour porpoises, suggesting that this species has difficulties to metabolize these congeners. In contrast, harbour seals showed a higher ability to metabolize PCBs and PBDEs

Trust and control interrelations: New perspectives on the trust control nexus

This article is the post-print version of the published article that may be accessed at the link below. Copyright @ 2007 Sage Publications.This article introduces the special issue on New Perspectives on the Trust-Control Nexus in Organizational Relations. Trust and control are interlinked processes commonly seen as key to reach effectiveness in inter- and intraorganizational relations. The relation between trust and control is, however, a complex one, and research into this relation has given rise to various and contradictory interpretations of how trust and control relate. A well-known discussion is directed at whether trust and control are better conceived as substitutes, or as complementary mechanisms of governance. The articles in this special issue bring the discussion on the relationship between both concepts a step further by identifying common factors, distinctive mechanisms, and key implications relevant for theory building and empirical research. By studying trust and control through different perspectives and at different levels of analysis, the articles provide new theoretical insights and empirical evidence on the foundations of the trust-control interrelations

Topological order in 1D Cluster state protected by symmetry

We demonstrate how to construct the Z2*Z2 global symmetry which protects the ground state degeneracy of cluster states for open boundary conditions. Such a degeneracy ultimately arises because the set of stabilizers do not span a complete set of integrals of motion of the cluster state Hamiltonian for open boundary conditions. By applying control phase transformations, our construction makes the stabilizers into the Pauli operators spanning the qubit Hilbert space from which the degeneracy comes.Comment: 1 figure, To be published in Quantum Information Processin

Solidification behavior of intensively sheared hypoeutectic Al-Si alloy liquid

The official published version of this article can be found at the link below.The effect of the processing temperature on the microstructural and mechanical properties of Al-Si (hypoeutectic) alloy solidified from intensively sheared liquid metal has been investigated systematically. Intensive shearing gives a significant refinement in grain size and intermetallic particle size. It also is observed that the morphology of intermetallics, defect bands, and microscopic defects in high-pressure die cast components are affected by intensive shearing the liquid metal. We attempt to discuss the possible mechanism for these effects.Funded by the EPSRC