The Impact of Public Research Units on Regional Innovation Processes and Regional Economic Development

It is well-known today that innovation activities of private firms play a significant role for economic growth in less-developed regions. There are many studies on these interrelations and on explaining how regional innovation processes are working and which factors are important for them. However, some important questions have still not been completely answered by these studies. One of these questions is that of the role of public research units (PRU, which include publicly financed universities and research institutes) in the process of regional innovation. There have already been several studies on the economic impacts of selected PRU on economic growth. But it is not comprehensively answered so far to what extent the impact on economic growth of a PRU is concentrated on the region where the PRU itself is located. In other words: Whether the ”knowledge transfers offered by a PRU will have more effects on firms located nearby (at a small distance from the PRU) than on firms at other locations - or if other factors than spatial distance are more important for the decision of private firms to use knowledge transfers from certain PRU. The paper presents the results of a research project for answering this question for the case of the Halle region (= the southern part of the German Land Saxony-Anhalt). It is based on an empirical analysis (two postal surveys on PRU and on knowledge-based private firms) with a focus on the most important types of knowledge transfers. For those firms which are cooperating with PRU, if it is shown that spatial distance is an important factor, in the sense that firms which are located nearer to the PRU are cooperating more intensively with the PRU than firms which are located in other regions. But also important for the firms is the import of knowledge transfers from PRU which are located outside Saxony-Anhalt. With regard to the determining factors which are important for the spatial direction of knowledge transfers, it is shown that apart from spatial proximity, also various factors on the demand side may inhibit knowledge transfers. Therefore, for being effective, regional policy should also deal with the demand side (and not just with public research units) to create better conditions for knowledge transfers in structural weak regions.

The 'Where' of Sovereign Power and Exception. Palestinian Life and Refugee Camps in Lebanon

This thesis focuses on the Palestinian refugees’ experience in Lebanon since 1948, to critically engage with Agamben’s theory of exception. Agamben conceives of the ‘camp’ as the space where the normal juridical order and the inhabitants’ rights are suspended, the hidden matrix of the modern where the sovereign confronts nothing but bare life. Refugees are framed as the ultimate embodiment of bare life, a life stripped of rights and protection and at the mercy of state authorities. This research critiques this understanding in three ways. Firstly, by disenfranchising the concept of sovereign power from statehood, I adopt a multiscalar approach to uncover the complex network of sovereigns and decisions impacting upon the Palestinian life. From the international level (UN and humanitarian organisations) to the regional level (Arab states and Lebanon), I discuss the roles and responsibility of multiple actors in the production of Palestinian bare life showing the global scope of sovereign power. Secondly, by disengaging the concept of power from political institutions, I include the Palestinian refugees’ agency in the chessboard of power relations. Focusing on lived experiences and critically engaging with state-centric and law-centric perspectives, the thesis uncovers the micropolitics on the ground constituted by multiple forms of resistance that refugees adopt in their ongoing struggles for survival and recognition. The recognition of this agency and political significance of refugees’ lives is paramount if a just solution to the Palestinian refugee question is to be found. Finally, this study interrogates and problematises the uncritical assimilation of refugee camps to spaces of exception. By looking at the evolution of Shatila refugee camp and its relation to the city of Beirut, I discuss the formation of a new spatial model that I call ‘campscape’. As social and spatial boundaries increasingly blur, the ‘campscape’, which includes the refugee camp and informal settlements around, is the space in which the refugee meets the other outcasts of the Lebanese political and economic system

An Early Cretaceous astropectinid (Echinodermata, Asteroidea) from Patagonia (Argentina): a new species and the oldest record of the family for the Southern Hemisphere

Los asterozoos son echinodermos de vida libre, con forma de estrella, y componentes importantes de las faunas marinas bentónicas a nivel mundial. Su registro fósil, sin embargo, es pobre y fragmentario, probablemente debido a la desarticulación de los osículos. En particular, los asteroideos fósiles son poco frecuentes en América del Sur. Se presenta aquí una nueva especie de estrella de mar de edad valanginiana proveniente de la Formación Mulichinco (cuenca Neuquina), en un contexto de ambiente somero de ‘shoreface’ dominado por tormentas. El espécimen pertenece a la Familia Astropectinidae y fue asignado al género Tethyaster Sladen. T. antares sp. nov., se caracteriza por una relación R:r de 2.43:1, marginales rectangulares más anchos en los ángulos interbraquiales, inferomarginales (28 pares a lo largo de un arco medial) con perfil ligeramente convexo y espinas planas (una por osículo en las áreas interbraquiales y dos por osículo en los brazos). Las características sedimentológicas y tafonómicas indican un enterramiento rápido. La presencia de fasciolas bien desarrolladas sugiere la posibilidad de que el espécimen se hallara parcialmente enterrado al comienzo de su ruta tafonómica. Este registro representa el hallazgo más antiguo de Astropectinidae en el Hemisferio Sur y el primer registro del género Tethyaster en el Cretácico Inferior de Sudamérica.Asterozoans are free living, star-shaped echinoderms which are important components of benthic marine faunas worldwide. Their fossil record is, however, poor and fragmentary, probably due to dissarticulation of ossicles. In particular, fossil asteroids are infrequent in South America. A new species of starfish is reported from the early Valanginian of the Mulichinco Formation, Neuquén Basin, in the context of a shallow-water, storm-dominated shoreface environment. The specimen belongs to the Astropectinidae, and was assigned to a new species within the genus Tethyaster Sladen, T. antares sp. nov., characterized by a R:r ratio of 2.43:1, rectangular marginals wider in the interbrachial angles, inferomarginals (28 pairs along a median arc) with slightly convex profile and flat spines (one per ossicle in the interbrachials and two per ossicle in the arms). Both the sedimentologic features of the bearing bed, and the taphonomic signature point to a rapid burial. Considering the presence of well-developed fascioles, it is likely that the specimen was already half buried at the beginning of its taphonomic pathway. This record represents the oldest finding of Astropectinidae in the Southern Hemisphere and the first record of the genus Tethyaster for the Lower Cretaceous of South America.Fil: Fernández, Diana Elizabeth. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Estudios Andinos "Don Pablo Groeber". Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Estudios Andinos "Don Pablo Groeber"; ArgentinaFil: Perez, Damián. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales "Bernardino Rivadavia"; ArgentinaFil: Luci, Leticia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Estudios Andinos "Don Pablo Groeber". Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Estudios Andinos "Don Pablo Groeber"; ArgentinaFil: Carrizo, Martin Alejandro. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales "Bernardino Rivadavia"; Argentin

Unpeeling Action: Critical Writing, Training and Process

For political philosopher Hannah Arendt, action is also that which inserts us into the world, makes possible our public appearance and our political participation. In performance, action is that which invites us in, marks or blurs the boundaries between public and private, theatrical gesture and its spectating. In writing about performance, I am confronted with action two-fold. In the instance in which I encounter it in the live moment, raw and incomplete; and in the textual gesture I extend in return. This paper considers the relationship between critical writing about performance and training practice, through an exploration of action. It draws on Arendt’s philosophy to examine the ways in which action operates in pedagogical approaches to critical writing. It does so by considering the plural modes of action and representation as found in a Jackson Pollock painting inspired by William Shakespeare’s The Tempest. In this manner a gentle confrontation is staged between the process of critical writing, marked by encounter, resistance, articulation, interpretation and dialogue, my own experience of training critical writers, and the politics of description that shape the critical text. The article considers how this confrontation might offer configurations of encounters with performance, allowing for change and specificity in the training process

The simultaneous extraction of multiple social categories from unfamiliar faces

The research was supported by an award from the Experimental Psychology Society's Small Grant scheme.Peer reviewedPostprin

Screening of Irish Fruit and Vegetable Germplasm for Novel Anti-tumour and Pesticidal Compounds

Conference paperPhytochemicals are a rich source of novel therapeutic and insecticidal agents (McLaughlin and Chang, 1999). Considerable research effort has been directed at screening exotic and medicinal plants in the search for novel products. However, plants which have traditional food uses have been little explored. In addition the range, type and level of individual bioactive compounds can vary significantly between different species, different cultivars of the same species and different tissue types of the plant (Reilly, in press) Therefore, the objective of this study was to screen a range of fruits and vegetables which can be grown in Ireland for novel bioactive compounds for use in food production and as bio-pesticides.The author wishes to acknowledge the financial support from the Dublin Institute of Technology through an ABBEST fellowshi