Do Cultural and Creative Industries (CCI) matter for innovation and value creation in knowledge-based business? Aims, forms and practice of collaboration in Italy

Purpose: This paper provides the first results of a scoping study exploring in detail how Cultural and Creative Industries(CCI) can represent a source and resource of critical and creative thinking as well as a set of processes to be deployed in order to foster and support innovation. Scope: Focusing on a sample of Italian companies, the aims, the forms and the specific practices of collaborations between CCI and knowledge-based and traditional businesses are identified and discussed. Method: In order to derive and test theories, trace causal pathways, explore hypotheses, researchers have designed and implemented qualitative research methods and conducted investigation mainly based on web-available data, archives and interview-based information. Results: The case examples of relevant Italian companies effectively provide evidences of the impact and modalities of adopting initiatives to develop innovation capacity. Recommendations and conclusions: The investigation of a sample of Italian companies suggests that most of the attention is focused on collaborations aimed to reinforce company image and reputation, to develop corporate social responsibility and to improve brand recognition

One size does (obviously not) fit all: Using product attributes for wine market segmentation

The intense competition affecting the wine industry in recent decades has forced wineries and retailers to reshape their marketing strategies on the basis of consumer preferences. The current study aims to identify such preferences and the effects they might have in influencing consumer decisions. Preferences for different wine attributes as well as the psychographic traits of respondents were revealed through a web-based questionnaire administered to 504 wine consumers living in the wider metropolitan area of New York. Best-worst scaling (BWS) was used to detect consumer preferences for eleven wine attributes. Based on individual best-worst scores, a latent class segmentation analysis was implemented to classify consumers into four segments on the basis of psychographic characteristics such as involvement, subjective knowledge, innovativeness and loyalty proneness. The four segments identified (i.e. experientials, connoisseurs, risk minimizers and price-sensitive) differ significantly in terms of their preferences towards wine and psychographic characteristics, suggesting that a mass marketing approach is no longer suitable. Accordingly, managers need to adapt their marketing strategies to meet the preferences of different target groups. The results provide broad implications for marketers, wineries and retailers interested in successfully targeting consumers in a highly competitive market

Use of a Remote Laboratory to Promote Meaningful Learning in the Teaching of Electronic Devices

La experimentación real con laboratorios remotos constituye un logro tecnológico cuyas posibilidades para la enseñanza y el aprendizaje merecen ser investigadas. En este trabajo se presentan resultados de un estudio llevado a cabo en Argentina, en el marco de un dictado experimental en la asignatura Física IV, con estudiantes de segundo curso de Ingeniería Electrónica. El objetivo fue explorar la utilidad del "Laboratorio Remoto de Física Electrónica" para favorecer aprendizajes significativos en el área de fundamentos científicos y técnicos de dispositivos electrónicos básicos. Los resultados permiten concluir acerca del empleo y la aceptación del laboratorio remoto por los estudiantes.Actual experimentation with the use of remote labs is a technological achievement whose teaching and learning opportunities deserve an extensive research. This paper presents results of a study led in Argentina, as a part of an experimental course of Physics IV, involving second year students of Electronic Engineering. The aim of the study was to explore the usefulness of the "Remote Laboratory of Electronic Physics" to promote meaningful learning in the area of scientific and technical basis of basic electronic devices. The results draw conclusions on the use and acceptance of remote laboratory from the students' perspective

Survey of Certifiable Air Data Systems for Urban Air Mobility

In the near future, vertical take off and landing aircraft of the urban air mobility sector will be integrated into the civil airspace and they will be characterised by several levels of autonomous flying capabilities. Many countries worldwide are funding several researches to identify and develop enabling technologies to make urban air mobility as safe as modern aviation. One of the most critical aspect of those aeroplanes rely on the reduced fuselage dimensions and available space on board to welcome all those safety critical systems commonly used on commercial aviation. The air data system is one of the safety critical system that is equipped with several probes and vanes, protruding externally from the aircraft fuselage, and some of its functionalities are adequately redundant for general aviation and large aeroplanes. Even though an airworthiness standard applicable to urban air mobility is not ready yet, worldwide there are several efforts that will lead to type certification standards in next years. This work presents a brief survey of certified technologies available for sensing solutions feeding air data systems and solutions based on synthetic sensors certifiable in a couple of years. The survey relies on certified and certifiable innovative data sensing units for realistic urban air mobility applications. To this aim, a safety assessment analysis is presented in order to support the validity of the certifiable air data sensing solutions presented in this paper

Pirna Sequence Variants Associated With Prostate Cancer In African Americans And Caucasians

Background: Prostate cancer is the most common cancer among men, and the incidence is 1.65 times higher in African Americans than Caucasians. The newly discovered PIWI/piRNA pathway, which regulates transposon and gene expression via small non-coding RNAs, has been implicated in certain aspects of cancer etiology. We hypothesize a novel involvement of the pathway via aberrant gene regulation due to sequence variants within piRNAs and test this hypothesis in relation to prostate cancer in both an African American and Caucasian sample. Methods: To interrogate SNPs embedded in piRNA sequences, we utilized genome-wide genotype data to impute 1,000 Genomes SNPs falling within piRNAs. We then tested for associations at these variants in bothe populations, while controlling for appropriate covariates and principal components. The regions encompassing significant SNPs were subsequently fine mapped. Results: In the African American sample one variant falling within a piRNA, rs61101785, was significantly associated with prostate cancer (FDR-p \u3c 0.10). Fine mapping showed this variant to be the peak of an association signal. The variant is absent in the Caucasian sample. Conclusions: We have tested a novel hypothesis for the involvement of PIWI/piRNAs in cancer risk in a cancer estimated to make up 25% of new male cancer cases in 2015. Our results show the potential for a variant within a piRNA to affect cancer risk. Additionally, the risk variant is absent in Caucasians, potentially explaining some of the racial differences in prostate cancer risk

Safety Analysis of a Certifiable Air Data System Based on Synthetic Sensors for Flow Angle Estimation

This work deals with the safety analysis of an air data system (ADS) partially based on synthetic sensors. The ADS is designed for the small aircraft transportation (SAT) community and is suitable for future unmanned aerial vehicles and urban air mobility applications. The ADS’s main innovation is based on estimation of the flow angles (angle-of-attack and angle-of-sideslip) using synthetic sensors instead of classical vanes (or sensors), whereas pressure and temperature are directly measured with Pitot and temperature probes. As the air data system is a safety-critical system, safety analyses are performed and the results are compared with the safety objectives required by the aircraft integrator. The present paper introduces the common aeronautical procedures for system safety assessment applied to a safety critical system partially based on synthetic sensors. The mean time between failures of ADS’s sub-parts are estimated on a statistical basis in order to evaluate the failure rate of the ADS’s functions. The proposed safety analysis is also useful in identifying the most critical air data system parts and sub-parts. Possible technological gaps to be filled to achieve the airworthiness safety objectives with nonredundant architectures are also identified

Partners in Progress: Publishers and Librarians Support Open Access Publishing

There is a tendency to discuss open access (OA) publishing as though it is monolithic. Those of us engaged in the work of researching, preparing, and negotiating, however, know OA agreements are as unique as the community they serve. Open access agreements are created based on local needs, with the input of a variety of stakeholders, and require flexibility on the part of the publisher and institutional client. Open access agreements represent a partnership, and ideally one that furthers the goals of both parties. This discussion between Joseph Lerro, Open Research Business Development Manager with Taylor & Francis, and Rachel Scott, Associate Dean for Information Assets at Illinois State University (ISU) and Editor of Library Resources & Technical Services, explores one such partnership that led to an innovative, social-sciences focused OA agreement. By sharing our experiences as publisher and librarian, our hope is to add complexity to discourse that has pigeonholed transformative agreements. The following prompts and our responses to them frame the considerations we brought into the partnership, reiterate our shared goals, and highlight some takeaways that we hope will be of interest to those newer to negotiating OA agreements

ThrustPod: a novel solution for vertical take-off and landing systems

The work introduces a patented solution, named ThrustPod, to adapt the state-of-the-art fixed-wing aircraft for vertical take-off and landing operations. The proposed system is conceived to overcome the need of tilting surfaces or rotors and to overcome the aerodynamic low performance of multicopters. The ThrustPod is applicable to very light and general aviation aircraft and next generation air vehicles that aim to operate on urban and regional routes. The proposed solution is based on retractable thrusters to provide the required vertical thrust for the take-off and landing phases. The more suitable thrusters can be adopted, e.g. ducted fans or propellers. Another characteristic is the modularity as the ThrustPod can be scaled on different vehicle categories. In fact, the proposed solution can be used on different fixed-wing aircraft to provide vertical and take-off capabilities or to design novel airframes. The work proposes an integrated preliminary design process to optimise both the aircraft and the ThrustPod configuration to define fuselage length, thruster’s arrangement, power budget, energy management and performance evaluation of a potential aircraft for urban air mobility applications. The aim of the present work is to present a preliminary design application to evaluate advantages and drawback with respect to the most promising urban air mobility vehicles