How enterprise strategies are related to innovation and productivity change: an empirical study of Japanese manufacturing firms

This study analyzes the total factor productivity of 1067 Japanese manufacturing firms. In production estimation, we employ the directional distance function and Luenberger productivity indicator. Research and development strategy survey data are used to analyze the determinant factors related to improvements in innovation and productivity. Our results indicate that increasing technology and knowledge through a ‘black box’ process is related to an increase in productivity. Furthermore, the protection and management of production knowledge and expertise is a valid method of increasing global technical change

Antidromic vasodilatation and the migraine mechanism

Despite the fact that an unprecedented series of new discoveries in neurochemistry, neuroimaging, genetics and clinical pharmacology accumulated over the last 20 years has significantly increased our current knowledge, the underlying mechanism of the migraine headache remains elusive. The present review article addresses, from early evidence that emerged at the end of the nineteenth century, the role of ‘antidromic vasodilatation’ as part of the more general phenomenon, currently defined as neurogenic inflammation, in the unique type of pain reported by patients suffering from migraine headaches. The present paper describes distinctive orthodromic and antidromic properties of a subset of somatosensory neurons, the vascular- and neurobiology of peptides contained in these neurons, and the clinical–pharmacological data obtained in recent investigations using provocation tests in experimental animals and human beings. Altogether, previous and recent data underscore that antidromic vasodilatation, originating from the activation of peptidergic somatosensory neurons, cannot yet be discarded as a major contributing mechanism of the throbbing head pain and hyperalgesia of migraine

Photoelectrochemical characteristics of cells with dyed and undyed nanoporous p-type semiconductor CuO electrodes

ArticleJOURNAL OF PHOTOCHEMISTRY AND PHOTOBIOLOGY A-CHEMISTRY. 194(2-3): 143-147 (2008)journal articl

Secondary heat hyperalgesia detected by radiant heat stimuli in humans: Evaluation of stimulus intensity and duration

Diverging observations on secondary hyperalgesia to heat stimuli have been reported in the literature. No studies have investigated the importance of heat stimulus intensity and duration for the assessment of secondary heat hyperalgesia. The present study was designed to investigate systematically ( 1) if pain sensitivity to radiant heat stimuli ( focused Xenon light) is altered in the area of secondary punctuate hyperalgesia induced by intradermal injection of capsaicin and ( 2) if heat stimulus duration and intensity had an influence on the ability to detect secondary heat hyperalgesia

Observation of four-fold azimuthal angle dependence in the terahertz radiation power of (100) p-InAs

The azimuthal angle dependence of the terahertz (THz) radiation power of (100) p-type InAs under 1-T magnetic field is presented. Results exhibited four-fold symmetry for the s-polarized THz radiation power. Moreover, the two-fold symmetry for the p-polarized THz radiation was modified to four-fold symmetry for a 1-T applied magnetic field. A tentative explanation regarding a magnetic field-enhanced L-valley carrier scattering is proposed. The actual physical origin of these results is currently under investigation. ©2006 IEEE