The geography of innovation as reflected by social media

Capturing whether mysteries of trade are ‘in the air’ remains a central issue for understanding the spatial nature of innovative activities. We offer new insights on the intangible dimension of the geography of innovation comparing the spatial distribution of patenting rates and a novel measure of ‘innovative buzz’ from a 9-billion-word corpus based on 900 million geolocated tweets across US counties. We find the use of words connected to innovation and technology to be characterised by significant spatial concentration. The results show the presence of strong bivariate correlation in the spatial clustering between the two elements, pointing to stimulating opportunities in the use of big data from social media for economic geography research

Risk Factors for Immediate and Delayed-Onset Fever After Percutaneous Transhepatic Biliary Drainage

Objectives To prospectively investigate the pre and intraprocedural risk factors for immediate (IF) and delayedonset (DOF) fever development after percutaneous transhepatic biliary drainage (PTBD). Methods Institutional review board approval and informed patient consent were obtained. Between February 2013 and February 2014, 97 afebrile patients (77 at the Sapienza University of Rome, Italy and 20 at the Sun Yatsen University of Guangzhou, China) with benign (n = 31) and malignant (n = 66) indications for a first PTBD were prospectively enrolled. Thirty pre- and intra-procedural clinical/radiological characteristics, including the amount of contrast media injected prior to PTBD placement, were collected in relation to the development of IF (within 24 h) or DOF (after 24 h). Fever was defined as C37.5 C. Binary logistic regression analysis was used to assess independent associations with IF and DOF. Results Fourteen (14.4 %) patients developed IF and 17 (17.5 %) developed DOF. At multivariable analysis, IF was associated with pre-procedural absence of intrahepatic bile duct dilatation (OR 63.359; 95 % CI 2.658–1510.055; P = 0.010) and low INR (OR 4.7 9 10-4 ; 95 % CI 0.000–0.376; P = 0.025), while DOF was associated with unsatisfactory biliary drainage at the end of PTBD (OR 4.571; 95 % CI 1.161–17.992; P = 0.030)

Serpagli, celebrating his 44th Silurian-research birthday

The editors are pleased to dedicate this volume on the Silurian of Sardinia to Enrico Serpagli, an outstanding personality of Italian palaeontology, who devoted substantial part of his professional life to marine faunas and biostratigraphy of Ordovician and Silurian sedimentary formations mostly of southern Sardinia. Two of the editors are former doctoral students of Enrico Serpagli and PS has been collaborating with him since his first, early postgradual visit to Sardinia in 1982

Serial innovators in the UK:does size matter?

This article aims to shed light on the presence and importance of a significant number of small firms amongst serial innovators. Contrary to the common expectation in the innovative persistence literature, we posit that small serial innovators also benefit from operating within patterns of creative accumulation. However, it is in the quality of the technology and in the very nature of the knowledge accumulation process that the differences between small and large serial innovators can be found. Using a sample of 811 UK-based, highly innovative companies that patented over 66,000 inventions from 1990 to 2006, we find evidence in support of our theory. While large serial innovators experience higher innovation rates due to the scale of their innovation efforts, small serial innovators benefit more from processes of search depth characterized by the internal recombination of their previous knowledge. We find that important differences exist also in the very nature of the technologies being developed by small and large serial innovators

Listening to the buzz:Exploring the link between firm creation and regional innovative atmosphere as reflected by social media

This paper presents a novel approach to capture ‘buzz’, the vibrancy and knowledge exchange propensity of localised informal communication flows. Building on a conceptual framework based on relational economic geography, we argue the content of buzz may allow to probe into the character of places and investigate what is ‘in the air’ within regional entrepreneurial milieux. In particular, we analyse big data to listen for the presence of buzz about innovation – defined by discursive practices that reflect an innovative atmosphere – and explore how this may influence regional firm creation. Using information from 180 million geolocated Tweets comprising almost two billion words across NUTS3 regions in the UK for the year 2014, our results offer novel evidence, robust to different model specifications, that regions characterised by a relatively higher intensity of discussion and vibrancy around topics related to innovation may provide a more effective set of informal resources for sharing and recombination of ideas, defining regional capabilities to support and facilitate entrepreneurial processes. The findings contribute to the literature on the intangible dimensions in the geography of innovation and offer new insights on the potential of natural language processing for economic geography research

Retiolites angustidens Elles & Wood, 1908 (Graptholitina) from the Silurian of Mt. Cocco (Carnic Alps, Italy)

Retiolites angustidens, trovato in un blocco isolato di calcare a Orthoceras nell’area di Monte Cocco in associazione con Monograptus cf. priodon, viene qui descritto e figugurato per la prima volta nelle Alpi Carniche: in precedenza la sua presenza, infatti, era stata segnalata, ma mai documentata. Dato che tutti i graptoliti rinvenuti hanno un limitato valore stratigrafico, l’età precisa dell’associazione studiata è attribuita alla Biozona a Pterospathodus am. amorphognathoides (Llandovery sup.) in base ai conodonti.Retiolites angustidens is described and figured for the first time from the Carnic Alps, from a loose block collected from Mt. Cocco area. ! e association includes also Monograptus cf. priodon: this species, in fact, was previously reported, but never documented, from this area. Since all the graptolites found have a limited stratigraphic value, the precise age of the studied association is determined by conodonts as belonging to the latest Llandovery (Pterospathodus am. amorphognathoides conodont Zone)

The Silurian of Sardinia

The present volume “The Silurian of Sardinia” is composed of two related components. The first part comprises seven contributions introduced by an historical overview on the studies already carried out on the Silurian faunas of Sardinia. It aims to delineate a comprehensive scenario of the Silurian of Sardinia within a proper geological setting. A global overview regarding the palaeoenvironment and palaeogeography is also provided. The second part of the volume consists of seven research papers that illustrate actual knowledge on major fossil groups encountered in the Silurian limestones and shales of southern Sardinia

Serial and persistent innovation in UK small companies

In this thesis, we endeavour to explore the characteristics and the role of exceptionally innovative small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) within the UK system of innovation. The focus is placed on 'serial' and 'persistent' innovators, defined as independent companies with an unusually high frequency of innovation over time. The aim of the thesis is to identify such companies and analyse those factors, both internal and external to the enterprise, which influence such a sustained stream of innovation within SMEs. Persistence in innovation is an important element within the discussion on the properties of the patterns of innovative activities and industry dynamics. In this thesis, we propose three main empirical studies which look at rather unexplored areas in the literature on persistent innovation, focusing on the presence and the specific characteristics of small persistent and serial innovators and the role of cumulated knowledge capabilities in explaining the presence and the extent of such phenomenon. In particular, we follow a multidimensional approach, investigating the related and yet different phenomena of persistent and serial innovation through different perspectives built upon empirical evidence from patent data as well as innovation surveys. Our intended contribution to the literature is centred around the presence of persistent and serial innovation across small companies, the role played by elements internal and external to the enterprise in sustaining their innovation activity and, finally, the extent and the determinants of technological diversification across small serial innovators. Additionally, we explore differences and similarities across firm size. The first study explores the effect that specific patterns of innovative activity and firm-specific technology characteristics exert on the rate of innovation of serial innovators. Then, it offers a comparative perspective observing the differences between small and large serial innovators. In particular, we test the hypothesis that the specific qualities of cumulativeness, described in terms of dynamic economies of scale and dynamic increasing returns, play a central role in defining the differences across firm size. Analysing patent counts and citation-weighted patent counts with a negative binomial GEE model, this study provides evidence that serial small innovators benefit from technological regimes characterized by patterns of creative accumulation and from combinative capabilities based on accumulated internal knowledge competencies as sources of both technological learning and creation. The second study investigates the presence and the determinants of technological diversification across small serial innovators. After presenting stylised facts on the relationship between serial innovators and technological diversification, we focus on the elements that may bring small innovative firms to engage in the costly process of technological diversification, analysing the trade-off that is likely to take place between the need to explore new technological opportunities and the significant element of path dependency delineated by the specific core technological competencies that usually characterise small innovative companies. Using a fractional response model for panel data estimated within a GEE framework, we find that increasing technological opportunities present an inverted U relationship with diversification, while technological trajectories defined by coherence in both technological search and core competencies support specialization. The third study addresses the question of whether there is persistence in innovative activities across UK companies. In particular, we analyse the presence of persistent innovation through a panel dataset obtained from three successive rounds of the UK Innovation Survey, covering the period of time between the year 2002 and the year 2008. Explicitly accounting for unobserved firm heterogeneity, we provide evidence of persistence in innovation for both large and small companies. Moreover, our findings confirm that important interaction effects exist between the effect exerted by the presence of persistent innovation, in the form of dynamic increasing returns within the process of knowledge accumulation, and technological intensity inherent to firms' innovation activity, at least among small companies