Regional determinants of new business formation in China: Prefecture-level evidence

Using a panel data model, we study the effects of regional and industry-level traits on new business formation (NBF) for 164 industries across 266 Chinese prefectures between 1998 and 2007. The objective is to provide empirical estimates on effects of prefecture traits on entry rates, and in particular on effects of prefecture knowledge capital stocks on R&D-intensive new business formation. In line with literature on knowledge spillovers, we find extensive evidence of a positive prefecture knowledge capital stock effect on R&D-intensive NBF rates, whereas knowledge capital stocks do not predict non R&D-intensive entry rates. Among regional and industry-level characteristics, we find that prefecture supplier and customer market strength are strongly linked to higher business entry rates. Our results for China contrast with recent findings on the effects of regional traits on firm entry rates in India and the US, indicating distinct regional patterns of Chinese entrepreneurship

Austrian Startup Monitor

Der Austrian Startup Monitor 2018 ist der erste umfassende Bericht über den Status, die Perspektiven und das Umfeld österreichischer Startups. Der Bericht basiert auf einer im Frühjahr 2018 durchgeführten Befragung von 512 GründerInnen oder GeschäftsführerInnen. Um Startups für die Befragung zu identifizieren, wurden mithilfe von unterschiedlichen Quellen insgesamt mehr als 1.500 Startup- Gründungen seit 2004 recherchiert

Learning from Recent Work on Innovation Processes and the Co-evolution of Technology, Economy and Society

CrESSI Deliverable D4.1, part 2

Ex-post-Evaluierung der Pilotförderungaktion für Inkubatoren JumpStart Phase 1 und Phase 2

Start-up Inkubatoren bzw. Akzeleratoren nehmen am Innovationsstandort Österreich eine wachsende Rolle ein. Junge, dynamisch wachsende Unternehmen fragen zunehmend Arbeitsumgebungen nach, in denen sie Infrastruktur und Dienstleistungen aus einer Hand erhalten, um sich besser auf die Entwicklung des Unternehmens bzw. des Produkts fokussieren zu können. Obwohl es in Österreich bereits eine Reihe von Inkubatoren/Akzeleratoren gibt, so fehlen sehr oft die Mittel, um auch im internationalen Vergleich professionelle Dienstleistungen inkubierten Firmen anbieten zu können. Um diese Hindernisse zu überwinden, wurde im Jahr 2015 das Pilot-Programm "JumpStart" gestartet. Bisher wurden 2 Ausschreibungsrunden 2015/2016 für das Modul 1 erfolgreich abgeschlossen und die besten 10 Konzepte von Inkubatoren/Akzeleratoren ausgewählt und gefördert. Im Rahmen des Moduls 2 werden jeweils bis zu fünf Unternehmen, die in den unter Modul 1 geförderten Inkubatoren/Akzeleratoren betreut werden, für eine Förderung ausgewählt. Vor diesem Hintergrund untersucht diese Studie das Programmdesign, die Programmumsetzung sowie die Programmwirkung (Outputs, Outcomes und Impacts) des JumpStart-Programms. Darauf aufbauend werden Vorschläge für die Weiterentwicklung des Programms formuliert. Dazu wurden 25 Interviews mit den LeiterInnen der geförderten Inkubatoren, mit inkubierten Startups und weiteren Stakeholdern durchgeführt. Ferner wurde im Frühjahr 2021 eine Online-Befragung an Startups, die an JumpStart-Inkubatoren ansässig waren oder sind bzw. deren Dienstleistungen in Anspruch genommen haben, durchgeführt. Die Ergebnisse dieser Befragung werden mit Daten von Startups aus dem ASM (Kontrollgruppe) vergleichend analysiert

Sarcopenia in Neurological Patients: Standard Values for Temporal Muscle Thickness and Muscle Strength Evaluation.

Temporal muscle thickness (TMT) was investigated as a novel surrogate marker on MRI examinations of the brain, to detect patients who may be at risk for sarcopenia. TMT was analyzed in a retrospective, normal collective cohort (n = 624), to establish standard reference values. These reference values were correlated with grip strength measurements and body mass index (BMI) in 422 healthy volunteers and validated in a prospective cohort (n = 130) of patients with various neurological disorders. Pearson correlation revealed a strong association between TMT and grip strength (retrospective cohort, ρ = 0.746; p < 0.001; prospective cohort, ρ = 0.649; p < 0.001). A low or no association was found between TMT and age (retrospective cohort, R2 correlation coefficient 0.20; p < 0.001; prospective cohort, ρ = -0.199; p = 0.023), or BMI (retrospective cohort, ρ = 0.116; p = 0.042; prospective cohort, ρ = 0.227; p = 0.009), respectively. Male patients with temporal wasting and unintended weight loss, respectively, showed significantly lower TMT values (p = 0.04 and p = 0.015, unpaired t-test). TMT showed a high correlation with muscle strength in healthy individuals and in patients with various neurological disorders. Therefore, TMT should be integrated into the diagnostic workup of neurological patients, to prevent, delay, or treat sarcopenia

High correlation of temporal muscle thickness with lumbar skeletal muscle cross-sectional area in patients with brain metastases.

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to assess the correlation of temporal muscle thickness (TMT), measured on routine cranial magnetic resonance (MR) images, with lumbar skeletal muscles obtained on computed tomography (CT) images in brain metastasis patients to establish a new parameter estimating skeletal muscle mass on brain MR images. METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed the cross-sectional area (CSA) of skeletal muscles at the level of the third lumbar vertebra on computed tomography scans and correlated these values with TMT on MR images of the brain in two independent cohorts of 93 lung cancer and 61 melanoma patients (overall: 154 patients) with brain metastases. RESULTS: Pearson correlation revealed a strong association between mean TMT and CSA in lung cancer and melanoma patients with brain metastases (0.733; p<0.001). The two study cohorts did not differ significantly in patient characteristics, including age (p = 0.661), weight (p = 0.787), and height (p = 0.123). However, TMT and CSA measures differed significantly between male and female patients in both lung cancer and melanoma patients with brain metastases (p<0.001). CONCLUSION: Our data indicate that TMT, measured on routine cranial MR images, is a useful surrogate parameter for the estimation of skeletal muscle mass in patients with brain metastases. Thus, TMT may be useful for prognostic assessment, treatment considerations, and stratification or a selection factor for clinical trials in patients with brain metastases. Further studies are needed to assess the association between TMT and clinical frailty parameters, and the usefulness of TMT in patients with primary brain tumors

Search for dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks in √s = 13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for weakly interacting massive particle dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks is presented. Final states containing third-generation quarks and miss- ing transverse momentum are considered. The analysis uses 36.1 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at √s = 13 TeV in 2015 and 2016. No significant excess of events above the estimated backgrounds is observed. The results are in- terpreted in the framework of simplified models of spin-0 dark-matter mediators. For colour- neutral spin-0 mediators produced in association with top quarks and decaying into a pair of dark-matter particles, mediator masses below 50 GeV are excluded assuming a dark-matter candidate mass of 1 GeV and unitary couplings. For scalar and pseudoscalar mediators produced in association with bottom quarks, the search sets limits on the production cross- section of 300 times the predicted rate for mediators with masses between 10 and 50 GeV and assuming a dark-matter mass of 1 GeV and unitary coupling. Constraints on colour- charged scalar simplified models are also presented. Assuming a dark-matter particle mass of 35 GeV, mediator particles with mass below 1.1 TeV are excluded for couplings yielding a dark-matter relic density consistent with measurements