Clusters industriais abertos e fechados: a estrutura social da inovação

In this theoretical essay we discuss knowledge and innovation in clusters and the benefits of clustering from a knowledge-based perspective. Knowledge-based resources and innovations are important sources of competitive advantage for firms. Aware of the importance of continuously seeking new knowledge, firms increasingly seek knowledge-rich locations such as specific industry clusters across the world. These locations are characterized by the concentration of firms operating in related and supporting activities, a specialized work force and a specialized institutional environment that nurtures the industry. However, it is not likely that these clusters are always locations from which the firms will be able to draw the intended knowledge benefits. The social structure of the relationships between individuals and firms determines the extent to which knowledge will be created, will flow between co-located firms and will bound the knowledge benefits firms may capture. We finish with a discussion of the need of further examination of the network dynamics involved in an industry cluster to obtain a clearer identification of the actual positive externalities that may accrue to co-locating firms. Key words: strategy, industry clusters, innovation.Este artigo discute o conhecimento e a inovação em clusters e os benefícios da clusterização a partir de uma perspectiva baseada no conhecimento. Recursos baseados em conhecimento e inovações são fontes importantes para a vantagem competitiva das firmas. Conscientes da importância de buscar continuamente conhecimento novo, as firmas buscam, cada vez mais, encontrar localizações ricas em conhecimento como “cluster industriais” específicos em todo o mundo. Essas localizações são caracterizadas pela concentração de firmas operando em atividades relacionadas e apoiadas por força de trabalho especializada e em um ambiente institucional especializado que nutre a indústria. Entretanto, não é possível que esses clusters sejam sempre localizações nas quais as firmas estarão habilitadas a conseguir os benefícios de conhecimento pretendidos. Ainda, a estrutura social dos relacionamentos entre indivíduos e firmas determinará a extensão em que o conhecimento é criado, flui entre firmas na mesma localização e limita os benefícios de conhecimento que a firma pode capturar. Finalmente, concluímos o artigo com a discussão da necessidade de investigação adicional sobre a dinâmica das redes de relacionamento envolvidas em um cluster industrial para a obtenção de uma identificação mais clara das externalidades positivas atuais que possam ser acumuladas em firmas co-localizadas. Palavras-chave: estratégia, clusters industriais, inovação

Clusters industriais abertos e fechados: a estrutura social da inovação

In this theoretical essay we discuss knowledge and innovation in clusters and the benefits of clustering from a knowledge-based perspective. Knowledge-based resources and innovations are important sources of competitive advantage for firms. Aware of the importance of continuously seeking new knowledge, firms increasingly seek knowledge-rich locations such as specific industry clusters across the world. These locations are characterized by the concentration of firms operating in related and supporting activities, a specialized work force and a specialized institutional environment that nurtures the industry. However, it is not likely that these clusters are always locations from which the firms will be able to draw the intended knowledge benefits. The social structure of the relationships between individuals and firms determines the extent to which knowledge will be created, will flow between co-located firms and will bound the knowledge benefits firms may capture. We finish with a discussion of the need of further examination of the network dynamics involved in an industry cluster to obtain a clearer identification of the actual positive externalities that may accrue to co-locating firms. Key words: strategy, industry clusters, innovation.Este artigo discute o conhecimento e a inovação em clusters e os benefícios da clusterização a partir de uma perspectiva baseada no conhecimento. Recursos baseados em conhecimento e inovações são fontes importantes para a vantagem competitiva das firmas. Conscientes da importância de buscar continuamente conhecimento novo, as firmas buscam, cada vez mais, encontrar localizações ricas em conhecimento como “cluster industriais” específicos em todo o mundo. Essas localizações são caracterizadas pela concentração de firmas operando em atividades relacionadas e apoiadas por força de trabalho especializada e em um ambiente institucional especializado que nutre a indústria. Entretanto, não é possível que esses clusters sejam sempre localizações nas quais as firmas estarão habilitadas a conseguir os benefícios de conhecimento pretendidos. Ainda, a estrutura social dos relacionamentos entre indivíduos e firmas determinará a extensão em que o conhecimento é criado, flui entre firmas na mesma localização e limita os benefícios de conhecimento que a firma pode capturar. Finalmente, concluímos o artigo com a discussão da necessidade de investigação adicional sobre a dinâmica das redes de relacionamento envolvidas em um cluster industrial para a obtenção de uma identificação mais clara das externalidades positivas atuais que possam ser acumuladas em firmas co-localizadas. Palavras-chave: estratégia, clusters industriais, inovação

Microwave hydrodiffusion and gravity: an emergent technology for green extraction of non-volatile compounds

Microwave technologies are more and more present in food applications due to their performance in shortening the time of treatments such as drying, pasteurization, defrosting, or postharvesting. While solvent-free microwave extraction has been extensively used as a green procedure for essential oil and volatile compounds from aromatic herbs [1], its applications have been extended to enhance extraction of phytocompounds simultaneously with drying. In this work, microwave hydrodiffusion and gravity was performed in a laboratory microwave oven (NEOS-GR, Milestone, Italy), in order to evaluate its efficiency in the extraction of nonvolatile compounds such as: free sugars, f1bers, colour, and phenolic compounds. Five different matrices were tested: broccoli by-products (90% moisture), apple pomace (80% moisture), spent coffee grounds (65% moisture), Pterospartum tridentatum inflorescences, and brown algae, the latter two in dried state. The flow behaviour was very dependent on matrix (Figure 1): for broccoli, the time to obtain 50 ml aliquots increased along time while for apple pomace it was always the same after the initial and final heating periods, and for the spent coffee grounds it was always decreasing. Good recoveries were observed when using high water content matrices, such as apple pomace and broccoli. However, when using hydrated matrices, such as brown algae and Pterospartum tridentatum inflorescences, it was observed that the amount of material extracted is very low. In the case of spent coffee qrounds (a material where water is added to the ground coffee when preparing espresso coffee), the initial low recoveries can be overcome by the eo-addition of ethanol, allowing to obtain fractions rich in phenolic compounds, as well as brown compounds (with antioxidant activity) and caffeine. NEOS-GR, using microwave hydrodiffusion and gravity is a green extraction technology obtain hydrophilic compounds from wet matrices using its own water, allowing the extraction of valuable non-volatile compounds.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Microwave hydrodiffusion and gravity: an emergent technology for green extraction of non-volatile compounds

Microwave technologies are more and more present in food applications due to their performance in shortening the time of treatments such as drying, pasteurization, defrosting, or post-harvesting [1]. While solvent-free microwave extraction has been extensively used as a green procedure for essential oil and volatile compounds from aromatic herbs [2], its applications have been extended to enhance extraction of phytocompounds simultaneously with drying. In microwave drying, operational cost is lower because energy is not consumed in heating the walls of the apparatus or the environment [3].info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

A new strategy for enhancing imputation quality of rare variants from next-generation sequencing data via combining SNP and exome chip data

Background: Rare variants have gathered increasing attention as a possible alternative source of missing heritability. Since next generation sequencing technology is not yet cost-effective for large-scale genomic studies, a widely used alternative approach is imputation. However, the imputation approach may be limited by the low accuracy of the imputed rare variants. To improve imputation accuracy of rare variants, various approaches have been suggested, including increasing the sample size of the reference panel, using sequencing data from study-specific samples (i.e., specific populations), and using local reference panels by genotyping or sequencing a subset of study samples. While these approaches mainly utilize reference panels, imputation accuracy of rare variants can also be increased by using exome chips containing rare variants. The exome chip contains 250 K rare variants selected from the discovered variants of about 12,000 sequenced samples. If exome chip data are available for previously genotyped samples, the combined approach using a genotype panel of merged data, including exome chips and SNP chips, should increase the imputation accuracy of rare variants. Results: In this study, we describe a combined imputation which uses both exome chip and SNP chip data simultaneously as a genotype panel. The effectiveness and performance of the combined approach was demonstrated using a reference panel of 848 samples constructed using exome sequencing data from the T2D-GENES consortium and 5,349 sample genotype panels consisting of an exome chip and SNP chip. As a result, the combined approach increased imputation quality up to 11 %, and genomic coverage for rare variants up to 117.7 % (MAF < 1 %), compared to imputation using the SNP chip alone. Also, we investigated the systematic effect of reference panels on imputation quality using five reference panels and three genotype panels. The best performing approach was the combination of the study specific reference panel and the genotype panel of combined data. Conclusions: Our study demonstrates that combined datasets, including SNP chips and exome chips, enhances both the imputation quality and genomic coverage of rare variants

Modelação hierárquica ou multinível. Uma metodologia estatística e um instrumento útil de pensamento na investigação em ciências do desporto

O propósito deste trabalho é apresentar aspectos fundamentais da modelação hierárquica ou multinível aos investigadores das Ciências do Desporto dos países de língua oficial portuguesa. Acima de tudo, salienta a necessidade, cada vez maior, de considerar a natureza hierárquica da informação contida num número elevado de pesquisas. Mostra, também, que a não consideração desta estrutura enviesa fortemente as conclusões dos estudos. É efectuada uma apresentação fortemente didáctica do tipo tutorial, que percorre as ideias de base da metodologia, apresenta um exemplo ilustrativo de alguns aspectos da análise e sugere algumas pistas fundamentais para se realizar pesquisa neste domínio

Practical aspects of imputation-driven meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies

Motivated by the overwhelming success of genome-wide association studies, droves of researchers are working vigorously to exchange and to combine genetic data to expediently discover genetic risk factors for common human traits. The primary tools that fuel these new efforts are imputation, allowing researchers who have collected data on a diversity of genotype platforms to share data in a uniformly exchangeable format, and meta-analysis for pooling statistical support for a genotype–phenotype association. As many groups are forming collaborations to engage in these efforts, this review collects a series of guidelines, practical detail and learned experiences from a variety of individuals who have contributed to the subject

Is schizophrenia a risk factor for breast cancer?—evidence from genetic data

Observational epidemiological studies have found an association between schizophrenia and breast cancer, but it is not known if the relationship is a causal one. We used summary statistics from very large genome-wide association studies of schizophrenia (n = 40675 cases and 64643 controls) and breast cancer (n = 122977 cases and 105974 controls) to investigate whether there is evidence that the association is partly due to shared genetic risk factors and whether there is evidence of a causal relationship. Using LD-score regression, we found that there is a small but significant genetic correlation (rG) between the 2 disorders (rG = 0.14, SE = 0.03, P = 4.75 × 10-8), indicating shared genetic risk factors. Using 142 genetic variants associated with schizophrenia as instrumental variables that are a proxy for having schizophrenia, we estimated a causal effect of schizophrenia on breast cancer on the observed scale as bxy = 0.032 (SE = 0.009, P = 2.3 × 10-4). A 1 SD increase in liability to schizophrenia increases risk of breast cancer 1.09-fold. In contrast, the estimated causal effect of breast cancer on schizophrenia from 191 instruments was not significantly different from zero (bxy = -0.005, SE = 0.012, P = .67). No evidence for pleiotropy was found and adjusting for the effects of smoking or parity did not alter the results. These results provide evidence that the previously observed association is due to schizophrenia causally increasing risk for breast cancer. Genetic variants may provide an avenue to elucidating the mechanism underpinning this relationship