Composing a database of minority enterprises in Scotland: a discussion based on the concept of mixed embeddedness.

Purpose – To address the issue of the low take-up of available ethnic business support the article proposes the composition of a database for Scotland, thereby providing baseline data on minority businesses and hence providing a sampling frame for future research. The database will hold the following information: name and gender of the business owner, sector, location, number of employees as an indicator of company size, generation, the year in which the business was established, as well as the legal form of ownership of businesses. Design/methodology/approach – The database draws from the concept of mixed embeddedness as well as the political agenda of the Scottish Executive for the sector. Data sources used are commercial databases, the Yellow Pages of Scotland, local business registers across Scotland, a telephone survey and personal contact/networking with businesses. Findings – In order to facilitate the composition of a Scottish database of minority businesses, this article has looked at existing theories of minority business support and issues currently considered in the literature. Based on the literature underpinning research on ethnic minority firms, a justification for the proposed database has been developed, which provides a sampling frame in the Scottish context and allows for new approaches to research. Research limitations/implications – Though 100 per cent coverage of minority businesses in Scotland is a desired target, complete coverage may not be achievable. Some business might simply not be interested in participating in the research and cannot, therefore, be included in the database despite the multi-facet methodology applied. Originality/value – By proposing a methodology for composing the database, the article tackles a long-standing issue in the area of ethnic business research. It is hoped that the database will improve understanding among policy makers and support organisations, in terms of the particular needs of individual businesses. Consequently, the better understanding should account for a more tailored and more attractive support, which, in turn, improves the take-up of existing mechanisms

Techno-Economic Assessment of Soiling Losses and Mitigation Strategies for Solar Power Generation

The light-collecting surfaces of solar power systems cover areas of more than 3,000 km2 worldwide, with PV modules accounting for the majority. An often-neglected problem is the contamination of these surfaces, so-called “soiling,” which leads to significantly reduced energy yields, especially in high-insolation arid and semi-arid climates. Indeed, an inadequate soiling mitigation strategy in high solar-potential and soiling-prone locations such as China, India, or the Middle East can cancel out in few weeks the impressive progress in solar cell and CSP efficiency made in recent decades. Currently, there is no one-solution-fits-all to the problem of soiling due to its site-specific and seasonal variability, differences in local energy costs, and the availability and costs of resources required for cleaning, such as water or labor. Indeed, frequent cleaning can increase the energy generation costs and water consumption dramatically, leading to a need for water-less and inexpensive soiling mitigation technologies. Our analysis indicates that in addition to optimized cleaning plans, automated cleaning machines, anti-soiling coatings, tracking system modifications, PV module design, improved soiling monitoring, and site adaption can be economically feasible and effective solutions to reduce the negative impact of soiling. Other technologies like electrodynamic screens or dew mitigation need further research and development to improve functionality and become economically relevant for large-scale application

Structural Alterations of MET Trigger Response to MET Kinase Inhibition in Lung Adenocarcinoma Patients

Purpose: We sought to investigate the clinical response to MET inhibition in patients diagnosed with structural MET alterations and to characterize their functional relevance in cellular models.Experimental Design: Patients were selected for treatment with crizotinib upon results of hybrid capture-based next-generation sequencing. To confirm the clinical observations, we analyzed cellular models that express these MET kinase alterations.Results: Three individual patients were identified to harbor alterations within the MET receptor. Two patients showed genomic rearrangements, leading to a gene fusion of KIF5B or STARD3NL and MET One patient diagnosed with an EML4-ALK rearrangement developed a MET kinase domain duplication as a resistance mechanism to ceritinib. All 3 patients showed a partial response to crizotinib that effectively inhibits MET and ALK among other kinases. The results were further confirmed using orthogonal cellular models.Conclusions: Crizotinib leads to a clinical response in patients with MET rearrangements. Our functional analyses together with the clinical data suggest that these structural alterations may represent actionable targets in lung cancer patients. Clin Cancer Res; 24(6); 1337-43. (c)2017 AACR