Factors Affecting the Efficiency of the BRICSs' National Innovation Systems: A Comparative Study Based on Dea and Panel Data Analysis

Efficiency scores of the National Innovation System (NIS) for 22 countries, including the BRICS, G7, are calculated with the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). Relevant factors that may affect the innovation system efficiency are summarized based on the NIS Approach and the New Growth Theory. Empirical study is further made with the Panel Data Analysis (PDA) and the Principal Component Analysis. The results of efficiency calculation and empirical test show that: (1) The BRICS differ greatly in the efficiency of NIS, with China, India and Russia ranking fairly high, and Brazil, South Africa among the few bottom; (2) The influencing factors involve a lot of elements, including the ICT infrastructure, enterprise R&D, market environment, government governance, education system, economic scale, natural endowments, external dependence, which is conformed to the NIS approach and New Growth Theory; (3) Enterprises innovation activities are of key importance to the NIS. To improve the efficiency of the innovation system, efforts should be made to improve the market circumstance, governance, and financial structure, and create a sound environment for innovation. (4) ICT infrastructure, economic scale and openness affect the diffusion of knowledge and technology, and in turn the NIS efficiency. (5) The BRICS have characters of low governance level and high natural resources dependency in common, which is determined by their developing stage and extensive growth pattern. To avoid the so called middle-income trap in the coming future, the BRICS should dedicate to transform the factor-driven pattern to an innovation-driven one. As for China, there is still much to be improved in the fields of ICT infrastructure, government governance, education system. During the 12th Planning, more efforts should be put into these fields and make better external conditions for innovation activities

Social Constructivist Practice With Youth

Social constructivism is an important and creative perspective for helping social workers in their work with adolescents. This paper demonstrates how theoretical orientations and clinical techniques that adhere to a social constructivist perspective can be integrated with the developmental realities of adolescence to provide effective social work interventions. Funda- mental assumptions are discussed and are related to problems of practice. Case studies are utilized to demonstrate social constructivist principles in clinical work with adolescents

Oats Lower Age-Related Systemic Chronic Inflammation (iAge) in Adults at Risk for Cardiovascular Disease

Despite being largely preventable, cardiovascular disease (CVD) is still the leading cause of death globally. Recent studies suggest that the immune system, particularly a form of systemic chronic inflammation (SCI), is involved in the mechanisms leading to CVD; thus, targeting SCI may help prevent or delay the onset of CVD. In a recent placebo-controlled randomized clinical trial, an oat product providing 3 g of β-Glucan improved cholesterol low-density lipoprotein (LDL) levels and lowered cardiovascular risk in adults with borderline high cholesterol. Here, we conducted a secondary measurement of the serum samples to test whether the oat product has the potential to reduce SCI and improve other clinical outcomes related to healthy aging. We investigated the effects of the oat product on a novel metric for SCI called Inflammatory Age® (iAge®), derived from the Stanford 1000 Immunomes Project. The iAge® predicts multimorbidity, frailty, immune decline, premature cardiovascular aging, and all-cause mortality on a personalized level. A beneficial effect of the oat product was observed in subjects with elevated levels of iAge® at baseline (>49.6 iAge® years) as early as two weeks post-treatment. The rice control group did not show any significant change in iAge®. Interestingly, the effects of the oat product on iAge® were largely driven by a decrease in the Eotaxin-1 protein, an aging-related chemokine, independent of a person’s gender, body mass index, or chronological age. Thus, we describe a novel anti-SCI role for oats that could have a major impact on functional, preventative, and personalized medicine