Innovation and Business Strategy: Why Canada Falls Short

This article compares the development of labour productivity in the Swedish and the Finnish business sectors and the role of the information and communication technology (ICT) sector in this process. The results show that the Finnish productivity level has been converging towards the Swedish level, but that there is still a significant difference. This trend has coincided with the growing importance of the ICT sector, especially since the mid 1990s. Due to higher productivity and employment growth, the Finnish ICT sector has contributed to this convergence. This is explained by the electrical engineering industry. The Nokia effect has been stronger than the Ericsson effect.Innovation, productivity, business strategy, public policy, market structure, Competition, business climate, business ambition

Peer Effects in Medical School

Using data on the universe of students who graduated from U.S. medical schools between 1996 and 1998, we examine whether the abilities and specialty preferences of a medical school class affect a student's academic achievement in medical school and his choice of specialty. We mitigate the selection problem by including school-specific fixed effects, and show that this method yields an upper bound on peer effects for our data. We estimate positive peer effects that disappear when school-specific fixed effects are added to control for the endogeneity of a peer group. We find no evidence that peer effects are stronger for blacks, that peer groups are formed along racial lines, or that students with relatively low ability benefit more from their peers than students with relatively high ability. However, we do find some evidence that peer groups form along gender lines.

Application of the conditioned network concept in high frequency power line carrier

The aim of the research described in this thesis was to investigate the possible use of underground Low Voltage Distribution Networks as a medium for the propagation of high frequency communication and data signals. Although the results and observations presented are based upon work carried out on a typical UK urban underground network, the same principles apply to most European underground Low Voltage Distribution Networks. The work was based around the use of frequencies greater than 1 MHz; these high frequencies provide enough bandwidth for a number of value added services to be offered in addition to the more usual Utility requirements for remote meter reading and load control. The research resulted in the development of an in-line filter element designed to limit the amount of Power Line Carrier noise egress from a distribution network whilst at the same time reducing the amount of high frequency noise entering the network. The effects of the Electricity Distribution Network on high frequency signals are discussed in some detail. All Power Line Carrier systems must be capable of operating in the presence of noise. Network topology and individual network elements have a significant effect on high frequency signals; a number of topologies are described and the effects of changes in characteristic impedance and discontinuities are discussed. The results and observations were largely obtained from a Low Voltage Electricity Distribution Network in Kendal, Cumbria. The limited availability of expensive high frequency test equipment resulted in the need to develop unique testing procedures; these are described in full. Sample results from the tests undertaken in Kendal are presented and discussed. The Conditioned Network concept is outlined and the design rules used to develop the in-line Conditioning Unit highlighted. A mathematical model for the filter element of the Conditioning Unit is developed and compared to empirical results obtained from laboratory experiments

Automation of garment assembly processes

Robotic automation in apparel manufacturing is reviewed and investigated. Gripper design for separation and de-stacking of batch cut fabric components is identified as an important factor in implementing such automation and a study of existing gripper mechanisms is presented. New de-stacking gripper designs and processes are described together with experimental results. Single fabric component handling, alignment and registration techniques are investigated. Some of these techniques are integrated within a demonstrator robotic garment assembly cell automating the common edge binding process. Performance results are reported

Tidal friction in early-type stars

The tidal torque on an early-type star is concentrated near the boundary between the convective core and radiative envelope and a train of gravity waves is excited there. The angular momentum which the torque removes from the fluid is transported outward by the gravity waves, which carry negative angular momentum. Before the surface layers are despun to synchronous rotation, the gravity waves propagate to just below the photosphere where they suffer radiative damping and are partially reflected. It is here that the negative angular momentum is deposited and the primary tidal despinning takes place. The surface layers cannot be spun down below synchronous rotation because as a train of gravity waves approaches a corotation resonance its group velocity and wavelength tend to zero, its amplitude diverges, and it is completely absorbed. Thus, tidal despinning to synchronous rotation proceeds from the outside toward the inside of the star. Our picture provides a neat explanation for the otherwise puzzling discovery by Giuricin, Mardirossian, and Mezzetti that Zahn's theory for tidal evolution in early-type close binaries seems to be compatible with the observed rates of orbit circularization while significantly underestimating the observed rates of spin synchronization

Tides in rotating fluids

We consider the tidal disturbance forced in a differentially rotating fluid by a rigidly rotating external potential. The fluid is assumed to be inviscid, insulated, and self-gravitating, and to have laminar unperturbed and perturbed velocity fields. The external potential may exert a steady torque on the fluid which is of second order in Its strength. However, to this order, we prove that there are no secular changes in the angular momenta of fluid particles, except possibly at corotation where the angular velocity, Ω(r,θ), is equal to the pattern speed of the potential, Ω_p. A corollary of our theorem is that, except at corotation, all of the angular momentum transferred to the fluid by the external potential must be transported away by internal stresses. In the applications of which we are aware, these stresses are associated with waves

High Angular Resolution Stellar Imaging with Occultations from the Cassini Spacecraft II: Kronocyclic Tomography

We present an advance in the use of Cassini observations of stellar occultations by the rings of Saturn for stellar studies. Stewart et al. (2013) demonstrated the potential use of such observations for measuring stellar angular diameters. Here, we use these same observations, and tomographic imaging reconstruction techniques, to produce two dimensional images of complex stellar systems. We detail the determination of the basic observational reference frame. A technique for recovering model-independent brightness profiles for data from each occulting edge is discussed, along with the tomographic combination of these profiles to build an image of the source star. Finally we demonstrate the technique with recovered images of the {\alpha} Centauri binary system and the circumstellar environment of the evolved late-type giant star, Mira.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figures, Accepted by MNRA

Supporting Parents with Psychiatric Disabilities and Promoting Recovery: An International Challenge

Introduction: Parenting is a significant life role for adults with psychiatric disabilities. Not only is success in this role a normal life goal for many, but functioning as well as possible as parents would seem to be intimately related to the recovery process and successful functioning in other major life domains. Research on the prevalence and needs of parents with psychiatric disabilities in two countries, the U.S. and The Netherlands, provides the framework for developing and testing interventions. Essential program components include supports for parents in meeting their children’s needs as well as managing their own. Research Question: What are the effects of “Parenting with Success & Satisfaction?” in terms of success, satisfaction, empowerment & quality of life? Intervening variables of the intensity of support, the contact between carer & parent will be included. The design is a non-equivalent control group design, in which the outcomes for 40 parents participating in the program will be compared with outcomes for 40 parents receiving care as usual in other locations. Recommendations: Provide programs for parents in all kinds of settings; Improve communication about own problems with children; Make a plan for the support of children when psychiatric problems increase; Organize small meeting groups for parents

Analysis of Four Capsid Protein Genes of HSV-1

The initial goal of this work was the cloning and expression of the genes UL18, UL19 and UL38 of HSV-1, These genes encode the three capsid proteins VP23, VP5 (the major capsid protein) and VP19C respectively, which are all present in cored and in coreless intranuclear capsids. Cloning having been achieved, each gene was expressed in a recombinant vaccinia virus; each recombinant producing a protein profile with a unique band of the correct size, as judged by its comigration with the respective protein in preparations of purified capsids. A further recombinant vaccinia virus was constructed, which expresses the HSV-1 assembly protein VP22a, the product of the gene UL26.5. Expression of VP22a by this recombinant was confirmed using a monoclonal antibody (5010) against VP22a. These viruses were used in a study of HSV-1 capsid structure and assembly. One aim of this research was to be able to assemble HSV-1 capsids using capsid genes cloned and expressed in a heterologous system. However, electron microscopy demonstrated that the products of the four capsid genes UL18, UL19, UL26.5 and UL38 are insufficient for the assembly of capsids or capsid-like particles in the vaccinia expression system. Possible reasons for this, and implications for the capsid assembly process, are discussed. VP19C has previously been reported to be a DNA-binding protein. Attempts were made to confirm this using the VP19C expressed from a recombinant vaccinia virus, but VP19C did not exhibit significant DNA-binding activity in this system. The vaccinia virus expressing VP23 was used to identify VP23 as the target antigen for a previously unassigned monoclonal antibody (1060). This antibody was then used to study the properties of the UL18 gene product in HSV-1-infected cells. UL18 mRNA has been reported to be regulated with early-late kinetics in lytic infections. In an attempt to confirm this, the kinetics of synthesis of VP23 were examined. VP23 was detectable by immunoprecipitation from 2 to 3 hours post-infection (personal communication, Dr A.M.Cross). Production of VP23 was not affected by the presence of the DNA synthesis inhibitor phosphonoacetic acid. Thus VP23 is produced early in infection and is not dependent on viral DNA synthesis, in agreement with the designation of this gene as an early-late. To investigate the subcellular distribution of VP5, VP19C, VP23 and VP22a when expressed from the vaccinia vectors, cells infected with the recombinant viruses were separated into cytoplasmic and nuclear fractions. A control experiment using wild-type HSV-1 showed these proteins to separate predominantly with the nuclear fraction. By contrast, in recombinant-vaccinia-infected cells expressing VP5 or VP23, these proteins were almost exclusively cytoplasmic. However, when expressed by a recombinant vaccinia virus, VP19C and VP22a showed intrinsic ability to locate to the nucleus, the site of capsid assembly. The availability of antibodies against VP23 and VP22a allowed further investigation of the subcellular distributions of these proteins by immunofluorescence experiments on infected cells. These experiments again showed that when expressed by the recombinant vaccinia virus, VP23 remains localised in the cytoplasm in contrast to the situation obtaining during infections with wild-type HSV-1, when VP23 localised to the nucleus. It was thought unlikely that this failure of the herpes protein to accumulate in the nucleus was a consequence of the vaccinia vector interfering with the normal transport mechanisms since other herpesvirus proteins expressed from the same vector are known to enter and to accumulate in the nucleus. However, to eliminate this possibility the distribution of VP23 expressed from a plasmid vector was examined. The UL18 coding sequences were placed under the control of the HSV-1 glycoprotein D promoter, and this construct was cotransfected into cells along with plasmids expressing the two HSV-1 immediate early transactivating proteins VmwllO and Vmwl75. When the distribution of VP23 expressed in these cells was examined by fluorescent staining with 1060, it was identical to that in the recombinant vaccinia-infected cells, ie predominantly cytoplasmic. Use of 5010, directed against VP22a in immunofluorescence experiments showed that when expressed from the vaccinia vector, VP22a localises to the nucleus as in wild-type infections, in direct contrast to the cytoplasmic location of VP23. This observation provides further confirmation that the vaccinia vector does not interfere with the processes of transport of the foreign protein. This result has been confirmed by immunoelectron microscopy. A significant finding was that immunofluorescence studies suggest that VP22a is able to affect the subcellular location of VP23. Use of 1060 showed that while VP23 adopted a cytoplasmic location when expressed by a recombinant vaccinia virus, in a dual infection with a VP22a-expressing recombinant VP23 localised predominantly in the nucleus. VP22a is thought to function as a scaffolding protein during HSV capsid assembly, and this result suggests that it may also function in intracellular transportation of another capsid protein