Scientific and Technological Regimes in Nanotechnology: Combinatorial Inventors and Performance

Academics and policy makers are questioning about the relation between science and technology in the emerging field of nano science and technology (NST) and the effectiveness of different institutional regimes. We analyze the performance of inventors in the NST using multiple indicators. We clustered patents in three groups according to the scientific curricula of the inventors. The first two groups are composed by patents whose inventors respectively are all authors of at least one scientific publication in the NST and none of then has obtained a scientific publication in that field. Thirdly, we isolated those patents that have at least one inventor, who is also author of at least one scientific publication in the NST. The underlining presumption of this classification is that of a proxy of different institutional search regimes of the inventive activity; pure academic research, pure industrial R&D, and academic-industrial research partnerships.Science-Technology Relation, Emerging Field, Nanotechnology, Patent Quality, Inventive Productivity.

The Growth of Industrial Sectors: Theoretical Insights and Empirical Evidence from U.S. Manufacturing

In this paper, we study the growth rates of 4-digit sectors in U.S. manufacturing. Two measures of size (value of shipments, value added) are considered, for each of the 38 years (1959-1996) of a sample of 458 4-digit sectors, drawn from the NBER Manufacturing Productivity database. Whole sample results are partly in line with firm growth facts: (i) sectoral growth rates are distributed according to heavy-tailed Subbotin distributions, with shape coefficient between 1.0 (Laplace) and 1.5; (ii) the volatility of growth rates is decreasing with respect to size, with a scaling exponent varying over time, but always between -0.20 and -0.10. Preliminary analyses on more homogeneous groups cast doubts on the evidence of scaling, but leave basically unaffected the distributional properties of sectoral growth. These results shed light on the role of inter-firm correlations, market concentration, and positive intersectoral feedbacks as drivers of meso-economic dynamics.Sectoral Growth, Subbotin Distribution, Scaling, U.S. Manufacturing

The effect of coronary calcifications on interpretation of non-invasive investigations for coronary artery disease in patients with typical chest pain

Coronary artery disease (CAD) is the most common cause of mortality. Invasive coronary angiography remains the gold standard for the diagnosis of patients with stable CAD and acute coronary syndromes (ACS). However, the accurate diagnosis of CAD is complex and may involve a number of different investigations, including non-invasive techniques, primarily based on patient symptoms. The aim of this thesis was to investigate the prediction of CAD from coronary calcium scoring using multi-detector computed tomography (MDCT) against exercise treadmill testing (ETT [n=360]), myocardial perfusion imaging using magnetic resonance imaging (CMR [n=120]), and myocardial ischaemia assessed using Dobutamine stress echocardiography (DSE [n=35]) in a retrospective cohort of patients with typical chest pain. All 515 patients underwent conventional coronary angiography within 1-month of their non-invasive investigations. The results of this thesis demonstrated that MDCT is more accurate than ETT in identifying significant CAD, whereas a negative ETT was accurate in excluding CAD, as such the two investigations are complementary. Compared to CMR, MDCT was more accurate in detecting significant CAD. However, the burden of perfusion defects during stress was associated with a progressive increase in CAC in patients with non-obstructive CAD only. Finally, DSE was abnormal in patients with non-significant coronary stenosis but with high CAC and a positive ETT, which may suggest microvascular disease. In addition, resting wall motion abnormalities on echocardiography was associated with coronary calcification by MDCT. Non-invasive techniques for the assessment, diagnosis and treatment of CAD remains an integral component for the investigation of chest pain. Future research is required to investigate the relative importance of non-invasive assessments of CAD with respect to coronary intervention, adverse cardiovascular outcomes and all-cause mortality

Financial Patenting in Europe

We take a first look at financial patents at the European Patent Office (EPO). As is the case at the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), the number of financial patents in Europe has increased significantly in parallel with significant changes in payment and financial systems. Scholars have argued that financial patents, like other business methods patents, have low value and are owned for strategic reasons rather than for protecting real inventions. We find that established firms in non-financial sectors with diversified patent portfolios own a large share of financial patents at the EPO. However, new specialized technology providers in the financial area also hold a number of such patents. Decisions on the financial patent applications take longer and they are more likely to be refused by the patent office, suggesting greater uncertainty over validity than for other patents. They are also more likely to be opposed, which is consistent with the fact that their other economic value indicators are higher.market valuation, intangible assets, patents, software, Europe

Modelling credit risk for innovative firms: the role of innovation measures

Financial constraints are particularly severe for R&D projects of SMEs, which cannot generally rely on equity markets and, in the EU, on a sufficiently developed VC industry. If innovative SMEs have to depend on banks to finance their R&D projects, it is particularly important to develop models able to estimate their probability of default (PD) in consideration of their peculiar features. Based on the signaling value of some innovative assets, the purpose of this paper is to show the importance to include them into models which have proved to be successful for SMEs. To this end, we take a logit model and test it on a unique dataset of innovative SMEs (based on PATSTAT database, EPO BULLETIN and AMADEUS) to estimate a two-year PD with default years 2006-2008. In the regression analysis the innovation-related variables are two in order to account for R&D productivity at the level of the firm and to consider the value of the inventive output. Our analyses first address measurement issues concerning innovation-related variable and then show that, while the accounting variables and the patent value are always significant with the expected sign, the patent number per se reduces the PD only in the presence of an appropriate equity level.innovative SMEs; default probability; patent value

IVOA Recommendation: IVOA Support Interfaces

This document describes the minimum interface that a (SOAP- or REST-based) web service requires to participate in the IVOA. Note that this is not required of standard VO services developed prior to this specification, although uptake is strongly encouraged on any subsequent revision. All new standard VO services, however, must feature a VOSI-compliant interface. This document has been produced by the Grid and Web Services Working Group. It has been reviewed by IVOA Members and other interested parties, and has been endorsed by the IVOA Executive Committee as an IVOA Recommendation. It is a stable document and may be used as reference material or cited as a normative reference from another document. IVOA's role in making the Recommendation is to draw attention to the specification and to promote its widespread deployment. This enhances the functionality and interoperability inside the Astronomical Community

The role of temperature in the variability and extremes of electricity and gas demand in Great Britain

The daily relationship of electricity and gas demand with temperature in Great Britain is analysed from 1975 to 2013 and 1996 to 2013 respectively. The annual mean and annual cycle amplitude of electricity demand exhibit low frequency variability. This low frequency variability is thought to be predominantly driven by socio-economic changes rather than temperature variation. Once this variability is removed, both daily electricity and gas demand have a strong anti-correlation with temperature (r elec = −0.90 , r gas = −0.94). However these correlations are inflated by the changing demand–temperature relationship during spring and autumn. Once the annual cycles of temperature and demand are removed, the correlations are ${r}_{{\rm{elec}}}=-0.60$ and ${r}_{{\rm{gas}}}=-0.83$. Winter then has the strongest demand–temperature relationship, during which a 1 °C reduction in daily temperature typically gives a ~1% increase in daily electricity demand and a 3%–4% increase in gas demand. Extreme demand periods are assessed using detrended daily temperature observations from 1772. The 1 in 20 year peak day electricity and gas demand estimates are, respectively, 15% (range 14%–16%) and 46% (range 44%–49%) above their average winter day demand during the last decade. The risk of demand exceeding recent extreme events, such as during the winter of 2009/2010, is also quantified

Many Strong Voices: Outline for an assessment project design

This document defines, guides, and supports the development and implementation of a full assessment of vulnerability and adaptation to climate change in Small Island Developing States (SIDS), under the Many Strong Voices (MSV) programme. A summary of impacts of climate change on SIDS is provided along with a literature review and analysis of vulnerability and adaptation to climate change in SIDS, supplemented by consultations with SIDS partners, to indicate data availability and quality along with how to fill in data gaps. Then, an initial structure for the assessment is detailed with recommendations for implementing a SIDS assessment of climate change vulnerability and adaptation.Recommendations describe the need for the work, the scientific methods to adopt, the focus on case studies, and the emphasis on a problem- driven and action research approach involving local consultations.Research, policy, and practice outcomes of the assessment are also described