Contextualising Regional Innovation Systems in a Globalising Learning Economy: On Knowledge Bases and Institutional Frameworks

In order to advance the understanding of which types of regional innovation system represent effective innovation support for what kinds of industry in different regions analyses must be contextualized by reference to the actual knowledge base of various industries as well as to the regional and national institutional framework, which strongly shape the innovation processes of firms. Of special importance is the linkage between the larger institutional frameworks of the national innovation and business systems, and the character of regional innovation systems. In making the arguments about a general correspondence between the macro-institutional characteristics of the economy and the dominant form and character of its regional innovation systems a link is provided to the literature on ‘varieties of capitalism’ and national business systems. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media, Inc. 2006Regional innovation systems, knowledge bases, institutional frameworks, O18, O31,

Addressing the skills gap in Saudi Arabia: does vocational education address the needs of private sector employers?

This article reports the findings of data drawn from doctoral research on the extent to which recent changes in vocational training have addressed a perceived skills gap between the needs of private sector employers and potential workers in Saudi Arabia. While the Saudi government has made efforts to enhance the quality of vocational education, and has an ongoing policy of Saudisation to try to encourage employment of Saudi workers rather than expatriates, this study presents evidence that suggests a skills gap still exists. The findings highlight a perception among private sector employers that technical education fails to offer Saudi students sufficient vocational training to teach them the level of skills and attitudes to work that the employers require. The perceived skills gap centres on three factors: work ethics, specialised knowledge and generic skills

Common Genetic Variation In Cellular Transport Genes and Epithelial Ovarian Cancer (EOC) Risk

Contains fulltext : 154822.PDF (publisher's version ) (Open Access)BACKGROUND: Defective cellular transport processes can lead to aberrant accumulation of trace elements, iron, small molecules and hormones in the cell, which in turn may promote the formation of reactive oxygen species, promoting DNA damage and aberrant expression of key regulatory cancer genes. As DNA damage and uncontrolled proliferation are hallmarks of cancer, including epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC), we hypothesized that inherited variation in the cellular transport genes contributes to EOC risk. METHODS: In total, DNA samples were obtained from 14,525 case subjects with invasive EOC and from 23,447 controls from 43 sites in the Ovarian Cancer Association Consortium (OCAC). Two hundred seventy nine SNPs, representing 131 genes, were genotyped using an Illumina Infinium iSelect BeadChip as part of the Collaborative Oncological Gene-environment Study (COGS). SNP analyses were conducted using unconditional logistic regression under a log-additive model, and the FDR q<0.2 was applied to adjust for multiple comparisons. RESULTS: The most significant evidence of an association for all invasive cancers combined and for the serous subtype was observed for SNP rs17216603 in the iron transporter gene HEPH (invasive: OR = 0.85, P = 0.00026; serous: OR = 0.81, P = 0.00020); this SNP was also associated with the borderline/low malignant potential (LMP) tumors (P = 0.021). Other genes significantly associated with EOC histological subtypes (p<0.05) included the UGT1A (endometrioid), SLC25A45 (mucinous), SLC39A11 (low malignant potential), and SERPINA7 (clear cell carcinoma). In addition, 1785 SNPs in six genes (HEPH, MGST1, SERPINA, SLC25A45, SLC39A11 and UGT1A) were imputed from the 1000 Genomes Project and examined for association with INV EOC in white-European subjects. The most significant imputed SNP was rs117729793 in SLC39A11 (per allele, OR = 2.55, 95% CI = 1.5-4.35, p = 5.66x10-4). CONCLUSION: These results, generated on a large cohort of women, revealed associations between inherited cellular transport gene variants and risk of EOC histologic subtypes

Filling in the gaps: European governance, the open method of coordination and the European Commission

The article addresses the way in which EU policy-making operates, explains the relevance of 'lifelong learning' for the European Commission and analyses the mechanisms by which the Commission has advanced policy-making in education and training since the Lisbon Summit. The article reviews in particular the alleged lack of effectiveness of the Open Method of Coordination in education and, second, the notion that the EU advances 'slowly and persistently' in its acquisition of competences in this area