Does Quality Make a Difference? Employment Effects of High- and Low-Quality Start-Ups

This paper investigates the impact of new firms' quality on the magnitude of their employment effects. Our results clearly show that the quality of start-ups, measured by their affiliation with sectors and innovative industries, strongly influences the direct and the overall employment contribution of new firms. In particular, start-ups in manufacturing industries generate larger direct and overall growth effects than those in services. Moreover, new businesses in innovative manufacturing and in knowledge-intensive service industries make a larger direct contribution to employment than start-ups affiliated with other industries. We also find a relatively strong overall effect of new business formation in knowledge-intensive service industries. However, the impact of start-ups in innovative manufacturing industries on overall regional employment growth is not statistically significant, which may be mainly due to their rather small share in all start-ups and because they impact more on firms and employment in other regions than do start-ups in non-innovative manufacturing. Finally, we discuss the implications for entrepreneurship policy that can be derived from our findings.Entrepreneurship, new business formation, innovative industries, regional development, entrepreneurship policy

Does Quality Make a Difference?: Employment Effects of High- and Low-Quality Start-Ups

This paper investigates the impact of new firms' quality on the magnitude of their employment effects. Our results clearly show that the quality of start-ups, measured by their affiliation with sectors and innovative industries, strongly influences the direct and the overall employment contribution of new firms. In particular, start-ups in manufacturing industries generate larger direct and overall growth effects than those in services. Moreover, new businesses in innovative manufacturing and in knowledge-intensive service industries make a larger direct contribution to employment than start-ups affiliated with other industries. We also find a relatively strong overall effect of new business formation in knowledge-intensive service industries. However, the impact of start-ups in innovative manufacturing industries on overall regional employment growth is not statistically significant, which may be mainly due to their rather small share in all start-ups and because they impact more on firms and employment in other regions than do start-ups in non-innovative manufacturing. Finally, we discuss the implications for entrepreneurship policy that can be derived from our findings.Entrepreneurship, new business formation, innovative industries, regional development, entrepreneurship policy

Using the Semantic Grid to Build Bridges between Museums and Indigenous Communities

In this paper we describe a Semantic Grid application designed to enable museums and indigenous communities in distributed locations, to collaboratively discuss, describe, annotate and define the rights associated with objects in museums that originally belonged to or are of cultural or historical significance to indigenous groups. By extending and refining an existing application, Vannotea, we enable users on access grid nodes to collaboratively attach descriptive, rights and tribal care metadata and annotations to digital images, video or 3D representations. The aim is to deploy the software within museums to enable the traditional owners to describe and contextualize museum content in their own words and from their own perspectives. This sharing and exchange of knowledge will hopefully revitalize cultures eroded through colonization and globalization and repair and strengthen relationships between museums and indigenous communities

A synchronous multimedia annotation system for secure collaboratories

In this paper, we describe the Vannotea system - an application designed to enable collaborating groups to discuss and annotate collections of high quality images, video, audio or 3D objects. The system has been designed specifically to capture and share scholarly discourse and annotations about multimedia research data by teams of trusted colleagues within a research or academic environment. As such, it provides: authenticated access to a web browser search interface for discovering and retrieving media objects; a media replay window that can incorporate a variety of embedded plug-ins to render different scientific media formats; an annotation authoring, editing, searching and browsing tool; and session logging and replay capabilities. Annotations are personal remarks, interpretations, questions or references that can be attached to whole files, segments or regions. Vannotea enables annotations to be attached either synchronously (using jabber message passing and audio/video conferencing) or asynchronously and stand-alone. The annotations are stored on an Annotea server, extended for multimedia content. Their access, retrieval and re-use is controlled via Shibboleth identity management and XACML access policies

Staged Concept for Treatment of Severe Postsaphenectomy Wound Infection

The saphenous vein remains the most commonly used conduit in coronary artery bypass surgery. Vein harvest is a critical component with significant morbidity associated with leg wounds from open technique. Occurring complications are hematoma, postoperative pain, skin changes, neuropathy, and septic or nonseptic wound complications. Within the context of a recent case, we present our approach to postsaphenectomy wound management

Physical and Electrical Performance Limits of High-Speed SiGeC HBTs-Part II: Lateral Scaling

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Twentieth Annual Bibliography, 2004 (Contemporary German Literature Collection)

Bibliography of contemporary German literature volumes added the previous year to Washington University Libraries\u27 Contemporary German Literature Collection. These acquisitions generally include novels, poetry, short story collections, essays, autobiographical works, and literary and cultural periodicals from publishers in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. This Collection serves as the research arm for the Department of Germanic Languages and Literature\u27s Max Kade Center for Contemporary German Literature. This bibliography is compiled by Washington University\u27s Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures in cooperation with the University Libraries. See also Contemporary German Literature Collection and Max Kade Center for Contemporary German Literature

Dynamics of neuroinflammation in the macrosphere model of arterio-arterial embolic focal ischemia: an approximation to human stroke patterns

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Neuroinflammation evolves as a multi-facetted response to focal cerebral ischemia. It involves activation of resident glia cell populations, recruitment of blood-derived leucocytes as well as humoral responses. Among these processes, phagocyte accumulation has been suggested to be a surrogate marker of neuroinflammation. We previously assessed phagocyte accumulation in human stroke by MRI. We hypothesize that phagocyte accumulation in the macrosphere model may resemble the temporal and spatial patterns observed in human stroke.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>In a rat model of permanent focal ischemia by embolisation of TiO₂-spheres we assessed key features of post-ischemic neuroinflammation by the means of histology, immunocytochemistry of glial activation and influx of hematogeneous cells, and quantitative PCR of TNF-α, IL-1, IL-18, and iNOS mRNA.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In the boundary zone of the infarct, a transition of ramified microglia into ameboid phagocytic microglia was accompanied by an up-regulation of MHC class II on the cells after 3 days. By day 7, a hypercellular infiltrate consisting of activated microglia and phagocytic cells formed a thick rim around the ischemic infarct core. Interestingly, in the ischemic core microglia could only be observed at day 7. TNF-α was induced rapidly within hours, IL-1β and iNOS peaked within days, and IL-18 later at around 1 week after ischemia.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The macrosphere model closely resembles the characteristical dynamics of postischemic inflammation previously observed in human stroke. We therefore suggest that the macrosphere model is highly appropriate for studying the pathophysiology of stroke in a translational approach from rodent to human.</p