A Revised Exoplanet Yield from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS)

The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) has a goal of detecting small planets orbiting stars bright enough for mass determination via ground-based radial velocity observations. Here we present estimates of how many exoplanets the TESS mission will detect, physical properties of the detected planets, and the properties of the stars that those planets orbit. This work uses stars drawn from the TESS Input Catalog Candidate Target List and revises yields from prior studies that were based on Galactic models. We modeled the TESS observing strategy to select approximately 200,000 stars at 2-minute cadence, while the remaining stars are observed at 30-min cadence in full-frame image data. We placed zero or more planets in orbit around each star, with physical properties following measured exoplanet occurrence rates, and used the TESS noise model to predict the derived properties of the detected exoplanets. In the TESS 2-minute cadence mode we estimate that TESS will find 1250+/-70 exoplanets (90% confidence), including 250 smaller than 2 Earth-radii. Furthermore, we predict an additional 3100 planets will be found in full-frame image data orbiting bright dwarf stars and more than 10,000 around fainter stars. We predict that TESS will find 500 planets orbiting M-dwarfs, but the majority of planets will orbit stars larger than the Sun. Our simulated sample of planets contains hundreds of small planets amenable to radial velocity follow-up, potentially more than tripling the number of planets smaller than 4 Earth-radii with mass measurements. This sample of simulated planets is available for use in planning follow-up observations and analyses.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJS. Table 2 is available in machine-readable format from https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.613767

Real-time monitoring of stress evolution during thin film growth by in situ substrate curvature measurement

Strain engineering is the art of inducing controlled lattice distortions in a material to modify specific physicochemical properties. Strain engineering is applied for basic fundamental studies of physics and chemistry of solids but also for device fabrication through the development of materials with new functionalities. Thin films are one of the most important tools for strain engineering. Thin films can in fact develop large strain due to the crystalline constrains at the interface with the substrate and/or as the result of specific morphological features that can be selected by an appropriate tuning of the deposition parameters. Within this context, the in situ measurement of the substrate curvature is a powerful diagnostic tool allowing a real time monitoring of the stress state of the growing film. This manuscript reviews a few recent applications of this technique and presents new measurements that point out the great potentials of the substrate curvature measurement in strain engineering. Our study also shows how, due to the high sensitivity of the technique, the correct interpretation of the results can be in certain cases not trivial and require complementary characterizations and an accurate knowledge of the physicochemical properties of the materials under investigation

From Closed to Open Innovation in Emerging Economies: Evidence from the Chemical Industry in Brazil

In this article, we examine how firms in an emerging economy perform research and development (R&D) activities in regards to the concept of open innovation. Most literature on open innovation shows multinational knowledge-intensive firms with wellestablished R&D processes mainly in developed countries. Searching for management contributions for firms in emerging economies, we qualitatively analyzed two chemical firms in Southern Brazil that have different profiles and are representative samples of typical firms in the region. Our results show that firms did not fully exploit the potential benefits brought by open innovation, even when complete opening was not the main goal. The firms were similar concerning interactions with partners and stages where relationships occur. The generation of ideas was an open activity performed both by firms and by clients, and interactions with universities were getting stronger. the other hand, intellectual property has not been used as means of profiting from innovation activities. Our main finding refers to the internal mediation of relationships with partners. R&D teams rarely contact external organizations directly; instead, they leave such interactions to other departments within their firms. Relationships with clients are mediated through technical and commercial departments, and interactions with suppliers are intermediated by the supply staff.publishedVersio

Vetoing atmospheric neutrinos in a high energy neutrino telescope

We discuss the possibility to suppress downward atmospheric neutrinos in a high energy neutrino telescope. This can be achieved by vetoing the muon which is produced by the same parent meson decaying in the atmosphere. In principle, atmospheric neutrinos with energies $E_\nu > 10$ TeV and zenith angle up to 60 degree can be vetoed with an efficiency of > 99%. Practical realization will depend on the depth of the neutrino telescope, on the muon veto efficiency and on the ability to identify downward moving neutrinos with a good energy estimation.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in Physical Review

Cost effectiveness of option B plus for prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV in resource-limited countries: evidence from Kumasi, Ghana.

BackgroundAchieving the goal of eliminating mother-to-child HIV transmission (MTCT) necessitates increased access to antiretroviral therapy (ART) for HIV-infected pregnant women. Option B provides ART through pregnancy and breastfeeding, whereas Option B+ recommends continuous ART regardless of CD4 count, thus potentially reducing MTCT during future pregnancies. Our objective was to compare maternal and pediatric health outcomes and cost-effectiveness of Option B+ versus Option B in Ghana.MethodsA decision-analytic model was developed to simulate HIV progression in mothers and transmission (in utero, during birth, or through breastfeeding) to current and all future children. Clinical parameters, including antenatal care access and fertility rates, were estimated from a retrospective review of 817 medical records at two hospitals in Ghana. Additional parameters were obtained from published literature. Modeled outcomes include HIV infections averted among newborn children, quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs), and cost-effectiveness ratios.ResultsHIV-infected women in Ghana have a lifetime average of 2.3 children (SD 1.3). Projected maternal life expectancy under Option B+ is 16.1 years, versus 16.0 years with Option B, yielding a gain of 0.1 maternal QALYs and 3.2 additional QALYs per child. Despite higher initial ART costs, Option B+ costs $785/QALY gained, a value considered very cost-effective by World Health Organization benchmarks. Widespread implementation of Option B+ in Ghana could theoretically prevent up to 668 HIV infections among children annually. Cost-effectiveness estimates remained favorable over robust sensitivity analyses.ConclusionsAlthough more expensive than Option B, Option B+ substantially reduces MTCT in future pregnancies, increases both maternal and pediatric QALYs, and is a cost-effective use of limited resources in Ghana

The production of scientific evidence on indirect land use change and its role in EU biofuels policy

One of the most heatedly debated aspects of EU’s policy on biofuels in recent times concern indirect land use change (ILUC) induced by the production of biofuels. However, when the EU Renewable Energies Directive (RED) adopted in 2008, regulating ILUC was not considered for the time being. Ever since, the fundamental conflicts on biofuels regarding their social and ecological effects crystallize in the debates on ILUC, which is underpinned by the wide range of results of scientific research on the topic. Starting from explaining the concept of ILUC and from conceptual considerations regarding new ways of knowledge production and its use in the policy process, we firstly trace the policy process on biofuels’ ILUC with a special focus on the actors and their stances in this context. Subsequently, mainly by document analysis, we give a detailed overview of the research on biofuels’ ILUC, focusing on which actors are related to the various ILUC studies and on what the relationship between these actors and the studies’ orientations (methodologies, etc.) and outcomes is. The analysis shows how the increase in ILUC research and its characteristics can be related to the societal problems arising from biofuels production, to the actors involved in it, and to their stakes in the issue. This points to the social embeddedness of ILUC research into societal as well as political practices and therefore – at least partly – qualifies it as a new mode of knowledge production. Furthermore, it points to special role scientific evidence plays regarding the policy process on the regulation of ILUC in the EU. In this respect, our observations suggest that, on the one hand, the scientific evidence on biofuels’ ILUC as well as the uncertainty and complexity has been well perceived and taken up in the policy process. On the other hand, however, its role has eventually been reduced to an instrumental one, serving to legitimize and rationalize decisions agreed upon elsewhere beforehand

Innovation search: the role of innovation intermediaries in the search process

The aim of this paper is to explore how innovation search is conceptualised, given that firms increasingly use innovation intermediaries. The paper examines the search processes which involves the role of innovation intermediaries in different stages of the innovation search process. The study discovered that innovation search activity is a much more extended and complex process, not being as targeted or as specific than previously conceptualised, and involves a set of search stages, which are associated with a loosely coupled iterative search process. Innovation intermediaries were also discovered to be undertaking new, more extended roles in the search process, through, for example, combining new search procedures with online digital platforms.publishedVersio

IT-enabled Process Innovation: A Literature Review

The importance of Information Technology (IT) is growing, and in a hypercompetitive market IT must be used as a strategic asset for companies to succeed. In order to gain strategic benefits from IT, companies need to be innovative when deploying IT. This can be achieved by reengineering business processes to take advantage of the possibilities IT provides. In 1993 Thomas H. Davenport presented a framework describing the role of IT in process innovation . Based on this framework, the purpose of this paper is to conduct a literature review to answer the following research question: What kind of opportunities does IT provide for process innovation? . Davenport\u27s framework is used as an analytical lens to review articles from the top 20 IS and management journals. The paper provides an overview and an in-depth analysis of the literature on IT-enabled process innovation and suggests avenues for future research as well as recommendations for practitioners. Our analyses reveal five distinct themes related to opportunities for IT-enabled process innovation, all of which offer guidance to practitioners and highlight gaps in our current knowledge about how to leverage IT for innovation purposes