SMEs Inventive Performance and Profitability in the Markets for Technology

This paper studies the inventive performance and profitability of small and medium sized firms (SMEs) that are “technology specialists” compared to the inventive performance and profitability of SMEs that are instead vertically-integrated. In this paper perspective, “technology specialists” are firms that specialize upstream in generating inventions and trade those inventions in disembodied form with other firms, usually through licensing agreements. Instead, vertically-integrated firms are those firms that both generate inventions and commercialize products incorporating those inventions. We argue that technology specialists achieve a higher inventive performance than vertically-integrated firms, since they can accumulate deeper and broader inventive experience, whilst keeping a more flexible organizational structure. These firms display a lower profitability though, due to the imperfections inherent in invention market transactions and the lower bargaining power caused by the lack of commercialization assets. The theoretical framework is tested through a cross-industry investigation on a sample of European SMEs. Implications for the viability of being a technology specialist as a strategy and for the development of markets for technology are discussed

Leukocytapheresis treatment for recurrence Virus C infection in liver transplant recipients

n/

Safety of polymyxin-B-based hemoperfusion in kidney and liver transplant recipients.

Abstract Infection represents one of the primary barriers to successful organ transplantation. Our principal end point was to use a new assay, Entotoxin Activity Assay (EAA), which was developed to rapidly detect endotoxin activity (EA) for an early diagnosis of this complication. We also sought to prove the validity and safety of endotoxin removal using polymyxin-B–based hemoperfusion (PMX-DHP). The criterion for inclusion in the study was suspected infection when a patient experienced at least 2 of the 4 criteria of the systemic inflammatory response syndrome. EAA was performed on 71 patients: 29 liver transplantations and 42 kidney transplantations. Twenty-eight patients (39.5%) with EA >0.60 underwent PMX-DHP treatment to remove endotoxins. Each treatment was performed for 2 hours with a blood flow of 100 mL/min. All of the patients were treated with PMX-DHP until achieving an E

Vibronic resonances facilitate excited state coherence in light harvesting proteins at room temperature

Until recently it was believed that photosynthesis, a fundamental process for life on earth, could be fully understood with semi-classical models. However, puzzling quantum phenomena have been observed in several photosynthetic pigment-protein complexes, prompting questions regarding the nature and role of these effects. Recent attention has focused on discrete vibrational modes that are resonant or quasi-resonant with excitonic energy splittings and strongly coupled to these excitonic states. Here we unambiguously identify excited state coherent superpositions in photosynthetic light-harvesting complexes using a new experimental approach. Decoherence on the timescale of the excited state lifetime allows low energy (56 cm-1) oscillations on the signal intensity to be observed. In conjunction with an appropriate model, these oscillations provide clear and direct experimental evidence that the persistent coherences observed require strong vibronic mixing among excited states

Determination of Cadmium and Lead in Vegetables by Stripping Chronopotentiometry

A method for the determination of cadmium and lead in vegetables by stripping chronopotentiometry, after digestion of the sample with concentrated sulphuric acid and dry-ashing, is described. Metal ions were concentrated as their amalgams on a glassy carbon-working electrode previously coated with a thin mercury film and then stripped by a suitable oxidant. Potential and time data were digitally derived and E was plotted versus dt/dE, thus increasing both the sensitivity of the method and the resolution of the analysis. Quantitative analysis was carried out by the method of standard additions; a good linearity was obtained in the range of examined concentrations, as was shown by the determination coefficients, which were 0.998 (n= 4) for cadmium and 0.993 (n= 4) for lead. Recoveries of 85\u2013100% for cadmium and of 84\u201397% for lead were obtained from a sample spiked at different levels. Accuracy was demonstrated by analysis of a matching reference sample of cabbage. The detection limits were 1.8 ng/g of wet mass for cadmium and 5.1 ng/g of wet mass for lead. The relative standard deviations (mean of nine determinations), evaluated on a real sample, were 6.7 and 6.2%, respectively. Results obtained on 10 different commercial samples of pepper (Capsicum annuum) and egg plant (Solanum melongena) were not significantly different from those obtained by graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrophotometry. The average content was in the range 3.1\u201318.6 ng/g for cadmium and 38.2\u201364.3 ng/g for lead