Social Capital, Creative Destruction and Economic Growth

The dynamic structure of profit rates for 156 US manufacturing companies is analyzed by means of fractional integration techniques as an alternative to the commolny used ARMIA models with respect to the "persistence of profits". The results show - despite the short lengths of the series - that 35,5% of the series have long range dependence and 54% are nonstationary. This is a confirmation of the strong challenge to the competitive environment hypothesis obtained by previous studies.

Infrared astronomy

The role and contributions of Frank McDonald in extending high energy astrophysics to the sub-eV photon energy range (in putting infrared astronomy into orbit) are discussed

In situ synthesis of size-controlled, stable silver nanoparticles within ultrashort peptide hydrogels and their anti-bacterial properties

We have developed a silver-releasing biomaterial with promising potential for wound healing applications. The material is made of ultrashort peptides which can self-assemble in water to form hydrogels. Silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) were synthesized in situ within the biomaterial, using only UV irradiation and no additional chemical reducing agents. The synthetic strategy allows precise control of the nanoparticle size, with the network of peptide fibers preventing aggregation of Ag NPs. The biomaterial shows increased mechanical strength compared to the hydrogel control. We observed a sustained release of Ag NPs over a period of 14 days. This is a crucial prerequisite for effective anti-bacterial therapy. The ability to inhibit bacterial growth was tested using different bacterial strains, namely gram-negative Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa and gram-positive Staphylococcus aureus. Inhibition of bacterial growth was observed for all strains. The best results were obtained for Pseudomonas aeruginosa which is known for exhibiting multidrug resistance. Biocompatibility studies on HDFa cells, using Ag NP-containing hydrogels, did not show any significant influence on cell viability. We propose this silver-releasing hydrogel as an excellent biomaterial with great potential for applications in wound healing due to its low silver content, sustained silver nanoparticle release and biocompatibility

Synthesis and bioactivity of a conjugate composed of green tea catechins and hyaluronic acid

(-)-Epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) is a green tea polyphenol that has several biological activities, including anti-cancer activity and anti-inflammation. Hyaluronic acid (HA) is a naturally-occurring polysaccharide that is widely used as a biomaterial for drug delivery and tissue engineering due to its viscoelastic, biocompatible and biodegradable properties. By conjugating HA with EGCG, the resulting HA-EGCG conjugate is expected to exhibit not only the inherent properties of HA but also the bioactivities of EGCG. Toward this end, we report the synthesis of an amine-functionalized EGCG as an intermediate compound for conjugation to HA. EGCG was reacted with 2,2-diethoxyethylamine (DA) under acidic conditions, forming ethylamine-bridged EGCG dimers. The EGCG dimers were composed of four isomers, which were characterized by HPLC, high-resolution mass spectrometry and NMR spectroscopy. The amine-functionalized EGCG dimers were conjugated to hyaluronic acid (HA) through the formation of amide bonds. HA-EGCG conjugates demonstrated several bioactivities which were not present in unmodified HA, including resistance to hyaluronidase-mediated degradation, inhibition of cell growth and scavenging of radicals. The potential applications of HA-EGCG conjugates are discussed

THE POTENTIAL OF MOVING PICTURES DOES PARTICIPATORY VIDEO ENABLE LEARNING FOR LOCAL INNOVATION?

N° ISBN - 978-2-7380-1284-5International audienceLearning is essential for local innovation and enhancing the ability of the rural clients to discover new solutions to prevailing challenges. Equally, the growing complexities of the challenges in the theatre of agriculture and rural development require multi-actor learning process. Participatory communication through face-to-face interaction remains an important approach to support local people's innovation capacity. Is there any mean other than face-to-face interaction that enables learning for innovations? Video has been used for several decades, however, in most cases instrumentally as a mass media for expert information dissemination. In recent years the interest in the alternative use of video, mostly known as participatory video, has grown. This study attempts to understand the potential of participatory video to support learning for local innovation by reviewing available literature about the cases of participatory video in the field of agriculture and natural resource management. A deductive coding approach was employed in order to identify the potentials of participatory video. The documented cases we found in the literature suggest that participatory video has a substantial role for both vertical and horizontal flow of local knowledge and information in a multi-actor setting. It creates a ‘safe space' for communication where different actors are able to articulate their perceptions. What follows, actors get an opportunity for reciprocal learning process. Participatory video facilitates communication for the marginalized segment of developing nations in Asia and Africa to represent their knowledge and skills and to link these to other knowledge bodies such as scientific, formal, managerial and bureaucratic. Participatory video stimulates reflection and experimentation by creating new impetus for learning within and across stakeholder (actor) groups. Nevertheless, potentials of participatory video depend on careful analysis of social competencies of facilitators, institutional ambience and role of intermediaries and facilitating organizations. We also proposed future research angles on these issues

Werbewirkung von Layer-Ads: Ergebnisse eines Online-Experiments

Um der vergleichsweise geringen bzw. abnehmenden Werbewirkung klassischer Werbebanner und Pop-Ups zu begegnen, hat die Werbebranche eine Reihe neuer Werbemittel für das WWW entwickelt. Ein Beispiel für ein solches neueres Werbeformat sind die so genannten Layer-Ads, welche in der Praxis zunehmend an Bedeutung gewinnen. Jedoch bestehen Zweifel, ob diese Werbemittel tatsächlich zu einer besseren Werbewirkung führen, da ihre offensive Platzierung von den Internet-Nutzern als störender empfunden werden mag. In der vorliegenden Untersuchung wird daher mittels einer experimentell angelegten WWW-Befragung die Werbewirkung eines animierten Werbebanners im Vergleich zu einem Werbebanner mit kombiniertem Layer-Ad gemessen. Erfasst werden dabei zentrale Werbewirkungsgrößen wie die Zahl der AdClicks, die Markenerinnerung, die Werbeerinnerung sowie das Werbemittel- und das Werbeträger-Image. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass die Kombination aus Werbebanner und Layer-Ad insgesamt zu einer höheren Werbewirkung führt, in einzelnen Wirkungsdimensionen jedoch auch Nachteile gegenüber dem klassischen animierten Werbebanner ohne Layer-Ad-Sequenz hat

Einstellungen von pädagogischen Fachkräften aus der Schweiz, Deutschland und Österreich zur mathematischen Förderung im Kindergarten

Im Rahmen des IBH-Projekts spimaf (Kooperationspartner PH St.Gallen, PH Weingarten, Uni Zürich, BaKiP Feldkirch und das Land Vorarlberg) wurden Einstellungen von pädagogischen Fachkräften zur mathematischen Förderung im Kindergarten erfasst. Mit den erhobenen Daten wurde u. a. die Frage untersucht, ob sich vor dem Hintergrund der länderspezifischen Kontextbedingungen Unterschiede in den Einstellungen der pädagogischen Fachkräfte zur mathematischen Förderung im Kindergarten zeigen. Ausgangspunkt war ein Ergebnis des Vorgängerprojekts SpiF, in dem sich – im Gegensatz zu Studien in Deutschland – keine signifikanten Unterschiede in den Lernfortschritten von einer Interventionsgruppe, die mit einem Trainingsprogramm zur mathematischen Förderung gearbeitet hat, zur Kontrollgruppe gezeigt haben (Hauser et al. 2014). Mögliche Ursachen für dieses Ergebnis könnten in Unterschieden im Bereich der Einstellungen der im Vorschulbereich tätigen Personen in Deutschland und der Schweiz liegen

Profit Persistence and Stock Returns

This paper attempts to assemble evidence for the relationship between the product and the financial market. Drawing back on work in industrial organization, we analyze the relationship between profit persistence and expected stock returns. We show that long-run profit persistence together with other additional economic firm fundamentals have a significant impact on stock returns and on their volatility even after adjusting for risk. At the same time we bring evidence for a 'low volatility anomaly'

Assessment of financing needs of SMEs in the Western Balkans countries. Country report: Albania

This report is one of a series of reports produced by Business & Finance Consulting GmbH (BFC) for European Investment Bank (EIB) as part of the project “Assessment of financing needs of SMEs in Western Balkans countries.” The series of reports includes individual reports on Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia as well as a synthesis report which considers the results of all six reports. The purpose of the project is to assess the financing needs of SMEs in the Western Balkans and identify market failures that prevent SME access to finance. The project was carried out from October 2015 to April 2016 by a team of three experts from BFC. Onsite visits were conducted for each country in order to meet with representatives from financial institutions, development institutions, government organizations, and other relevant experts who can provide insights into the SME sector