University planning and design under confucianism, colonialism, communism and capitalism : the Vietnamese experience

The university in Vietnam represents a thread of continuity that has managed to survive the political, economic and social turmoil faced so frequently by the Vietnamese people. This paper traces the evolution of the Vietnamese university in terms of its site planning and building design from the Hanoi Van Mieu, a Confucian \u27temple of literature\u27 which, built in 1070AD, is regarded as the country\u27s first university, to today&rsquo;s system of general and specialised universities and polytechnic institutions. In the late 1990s another step in the process of evolution began with the rationalization and amalgamation of the tertiary system to form two large, multi-campus and multi-disciplinary universities &ndash; the Hanoi National University and the Ho Chi Minh National University.<br /

Why do Academic Scientists Engage in Interdisciplinary Research ?

This article provides a first empirical study of the determinants of the propensity to which academic scholars tend to perform interdisciplinarity research. For that purpose we introduce a measure of interdisciplinarity as the diversity of their research production across scientific domains. Our dataset concerns more than nine hundred permanent researchers employed by a large French university which is ranked first among French universities in terms of Impact. As expected we find that the traditional academic career incentives do not stimulate interdisciplinary research while having connections with industry does. The context of work in the laboratory (size, colleagues’ status, age and affiliations) strongly affects the propensity to undertake interdisciplinary research.Economics of science, Academic incentives, Interdisciplinary research, Laboratory, University.

The impact of non-technological innovation on technical innovation: do services differ from manufacturing? An empirical analysis of Luxembourg firms

Generally speaking, the support of technological innovation has been viewed in terms of input such as R&D and instruments such as legal protection. The literature on innovation highlights the interactive nature of the innovation process in which non-technological activities are essential. However, few works have taken into account the role of other innovative strategies such as marketing and organisational innovation, a role which may differ according to whether the firm is involved in manufacturing or in services. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to fill this gap by highlighting the effects of non-technological innovation strategies on technological innovation. For the empirical work, we used firm-level data drawn from the Community Innovation Survey 2006 for Luxembourg. Our results show that the effects of non-technological innovations differ depending on the phase of the innovation process. Marketing and organisational innovations significantly increase the likelihood of innovation, but not the commercial success of innovation. The study also shows the differentiated effects of the two types of non-technological innovation in manufacturing and service, and confirms the key role of organisational innovation for services.CIS; Innovation; Marketing; Organisation; Technological Innovation

Do firms rely on sources of information for organizational innovation?

The growing literature on knowledge and information has focused on the impact of information sources on technological innovation. Our objective was to explore the use made by firms of internal and external (market, research and generally available) sources of information for their organizational innovation practices? implementation. Furthermore, we studies whether these sources may vary according to whether the firm operates in the manufacturing or service industry. Multivariate probit models? results on 2008 Community Innovation Survey (CIS) data show notable differences between services and manufacturing, for instance that employees? skill levels are more important for manufacturing than for services. Overall, this paper provides strong evidence of the heterogeneity in firms? sources of information to engage in organizational innovation. On one hand, differences appear in the sources of innovation used for the various types of organizational innovation, indicating the appropriateness to differentiate organizational innovation practices rather than using an aggregated measure of organizational innovation. On the other hand, the sources of information vary according to the type of industry, even though some similarities appear. Managerial and theoretical implications for organizational innovation are provided.CIS; manufacturing/services; organizational innovation; sources of information

Stereometric ultrasonic distance sensor

Bakalářská práce se zabývá návrhem a realizací senzorické soustavy pro detekci a lokalizaci překážky. Poloha překážky je dána dvěma parametry: vzdáleností a úhlem od středu. Navržená soustava se skládá ze dvou ultrazvukových senzorů SRF02 a je řízena mikrokontrolérem Atmega128 přes sběrnici I2C. Rozmístění těchto senzorů bylo optimalizováno pomocí matematického modelu tak, aby navržená soustava pracovala s optimální přesností a byla schopna sledovat největší možný prostor. Soustavou naměřené výsledky jsou poté zobrazeny na modulu LCD displeje nebo mohou být uloženy v mikrokontroléru jako parametry pro jiné úlohy.This bachelor thesis deals with designing and realizing a sensory system for detecting the presence of targets and its location. Target is located by two parameters: the distance and the view angle from sensory system. This system is set up by two ultrasonic distance sensors SRF02, driven by microcontroller Atmega128, using I2C communication protocol. The placement of the two ultrasonic distance sensors is optimized by using mathematical model, it enables the system to perform optimum accuracy and be able to observe the largest area possible. The measurement results then will be shown on LCD display module or they can be saved and used as input parameters for other tasks.

Synergistic effects of organizational innovation practices and firm performance

Organizational innovation has been shown to be favourable for technological innovation. However, the question of which organizational practices should be combined ? and thus of their compatibility ? remains unanswered. We here empirically investigate the complementarities between different organizational practices (business practices, knowledge management, workplace organization and external relations). Firm-level data were drawn from the Community Innovation Survey (CIS) carried out in 2008 in Luxembourg. Supermodularity tests provide evidence of the impact of complementary asset management to raise firms? innovative performance. The organizational practices? combinations differ according to whether the firm is in the first step of the innovation process (i.e. being innovative) or in a later step (i.e. performing as far as innovation is concerned). When adopting organizational practices, managers should therefore be aware of their effects on technological innovation. These results also have implications for public policies in terms of innovation support.Complementarities; Organizational innovation; Technological innovations; Supermodularity; Innovative performance

A new inverse trigonometric shear deformation theory for isotropic and functionally graded sandwich plates

A new inverse trigonometric shear deformation theory is proposed for the static, buckling and free vibration analyses of isotropic and functionally graded (FG) sandwich plates. It accounts for a inverse trigonometric distribution of transverse shear stress and satisfies the traction free boundary conditions. Equations of motion obtained here are solved for three types of FG plates: FG plates, sandwich plates with FG core and sandwich plates with FG faces. Closed-form solutions are obtained to predict the deflections, stresses, critical buckling loads and natural frequencies of simply supported plates. A good agreement between the obtained predictions and the available solutions of existing shear deformation theories is found to demonstrate the accuracy of the proposed theory

Identifying material aspects and boundaries for sustainability reporting: Case studies in Czech corporations

Appropriately identify significant aspects can be seen as a significant important task in performing sustainable activities and preparing sustainable reports. Currently, GRI issues G4 guidelines to instruct organization in this main task. This paper examines the Czech companies which have identified these material aspects by applying G4, then evaluates how firms perform and disclose information regarding to this topic. From that, successful and failure in implementing G4 guidelines can be revealed. The research focuses on real cases of six Czech firms that comply with G4 in 2014 and 2015. The research firstly examines the guidelines content for identifying material aspects. Then, these companies' sustainable reports are observed to investigate how firms define and disclose material aspects. Comparison in determining sustainable measures between companies' preparation and guidelines, and between companies in different sectors are performed to provide better understanding for implementing GRI guides in corporations for other companies. After the evaluation, the paper found that even though all firms declared that they are in accordance with G4, the quality of information is not consistent. Only one firm had proper disclosure while these other fives totally neglected the guidelines, or just applied some main standard disclosures according to G4 guidelines regarding to this subject