Nanotechnology Publications and Patents: A Review of Social Science Studies and Search Strategies

This paper provides a comprehensive review of more than 120 social science studies in nanoscience and technology, all of which analyze publication and patent data. We conduct a comparative analysis of bibliometric search strategies that these studies use to harvest publication and patent data related to nanoscience and technology. We implement these strategies on 2006 publication data and find that Mogoutov and Kahane (2007), with their evolutionary lexical query search strategy, extract the highest number of records from the Web of Science. The strategies of Glanzel et al. (2003), Noyons et al. (2003), Porter et al. (2008) and Mogoutov and Kahane (2007) produce very similar ranking tables of the top ten nanotechnology subject areas and the top ten most prolific countries and institutions.nanotechnology, research and development, productivity, publications, patents, bibliometric analysis, search strategy

The Mechanisms of Electron Acceleration During Multiple X Line Magnetic Reconnection with a Guide Field

The interactions between magnetic islands are considered to play an important role in electron acceleration during magnetic reconnection. In this paper, two-dimensional (2-D) particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations are performed to study electron acceleration during multiple X line reconnection with a guide field. The electrons remain almost magnetized, and we can then analyze the contributions of the parallel electric field, Fermi and betatron mechanisms to electron acceleration during the evolution of magnetic reconnection by comparing with a guide-center theory. The results show that with the proceeding of magnetic reconnection, two magnetic islands are formed in the simulation domain. The electrons are accelerated by both the parallel electric field in the vicinity of the X lines and Fermi mechanism due to the contraction of the two magnetic islands. Then the two magnetic islands begin to merge into one, and in such a process electrons can be accelerated by the parallel electric field and betatron mechanisms. During the betatron acceleration, the electrons are locally accelerated in the regions where the magnetic field is piled up by the high-speed flow from the X line. At last, when the coalescence of the two islands into a big one finishes, electrons can further be accelerated by the Fermi mechanism because of the contraction of the big island. With the increase of the guide field, the contributions of Fermi and betatron mechanisms to electron acceleration become less and less important. When the guide field is sufficiently large, the contributions of Fermi and betatron mechanisms are almost negligible.Comment: 22 pages, 5 figures, accepted by The Astrophysical Journa

The Global Challenges of the Knowledge Economy: China and the EU

This paper addresses some of the challenges confronting the European Union and China as they build their knowledge economies, and their on-going and possible future actions to address such challenges. Fifty years after the creation of what became the European Union, we argue that there is an urgent need to develop a new European Lisbon Agenda, preparing the EU for globalization. A new and "outward-looking" Lisbon strategy would focus on three key areas: international trade in services, internationalization of research networking, and access to brains and talent. The paper shows that the success of the Chinese economy over the past three decades can be partially attributed to its ability to absorb globally advanced technology and huge flows of foreign investment, its large pool of knowledge and talent, and its enactment of a policy framework that provides incentives to domestic and foreign firms to innovate - a strategy very much reminiscent of Europe's own internal Lisbon agenda. To move further, China needs to overcome the obstacles of regional disparities, transform its industry and deepen industry-academy linkages, which are also unavoidable tasks for the sustainable development of Europe. We contend that the scope for comparative studies of the EU and China, for mutual learning from each other's experience - even for joint initiatives - is substantial.Knowledge Economy, Industry-University Partnerships, Globalization, Internationalization, Highly Skilled Migration, European Union, China

Cross-border Investment and Economic Integration: The Case of Guangdong Province and Hong Kong SAR

In this paper, we undertake a comparative study of the performance of local and foreign competitors’ manufacturing firms in a FDI-recipient region—Guangdong Province, China—and analyzes the policy implications of the comparison for the advanced, FDI-outflow region—Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR). By highlighting changes in productivity that vary with changes in manufacturing firm ownership, we reveal that domestic firms have been catching up with their foreign counterparts, including Hong Kong-based firms, though foreign firms have successfully strengthened their dominating position in Guangdong’s manufacturing industry.Total Factor Productivity, Manufacturing Sectors, Asia, China, Guangdong, Hong Kong