Boundary spanners enabling knowledge integration for sustainable innovations in university–industry research centres

This book chapter was originally published by De Gruyter in “Universities, entrepreneurial ecosystems, and sustainability” on 06/12/2021.Available online: https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110670219/htmlpublishedVersio

Острые отравления веществами разъедающего действия

ОТРАВЛЕНИ

The need for flexibility in forest harvesting services - a case study on contractors' workflow variations

In many parts of the world, contractors account for the main share of harvesting work. Harvesting is characterized by innate complexity and volatility, and this can affect contractors' workflow and ultimately their profitability. Thus, there is certainly a need for flexibility in harvesting service provision and procedures, but our current knowledge about contractors' workflow variations are limited. This study investigates workflow variations in harvesting services by comparing monthly variations between contractors' workload in terms of harvested volumes and the time spent on operations. The data originates from 77 machines belonging to contractors and their harvesting of 6.6 million m(3) of roundwood in Sweden during a two-year period. The results indicate differences between contractors' workflow variations which can be attributed to the number of machines, machine sizes, and the workload in harvested volume and hours. These findings are relevant for guiding both the customer and contractor in this business relationship, and they could also serve as a basis for further research on the need for flexibility to effectively increase and decrease volume production in harvesting services

Increasing companies' absorptive capacity through participation in collaborative research centres

Norway has developed ambitious goals to become one of the leading environment friendly energy nations. The establishment of Centres for Environment-friendly Energy Research (CEER) scheme is one of the main measures for addressing these goals. The CEER scheme seeks to develop expertise and promote innovation through focus on long-term research in selected areas of environment-friendly energy, in close collaboration between prominent research communities and users like industry and public administrative bodies. The main objective of this paper is to explore and present the potential benefits companies may gain from participation in collaborative research centres like CEER, as well as possible barriers for participation. The framing in this paper is on the development of the absorptive capacity for the industry partners through active participation in the concrete research activities. Based on the empirical material for this paper, collected from one of the eight technological CEERs, we conclude that there are benefits to be gained from companies involving themselves in large-scale research centres. Their potential absorptive capacity is increased by exposure of knowledge and hopefully new positive experience with collaboration over time. However, both this effect, and a potential increase in realized absorptive capacity is very dependent on the active involvement of the company and choosing the right persons to represent the company towards the research centre. By contacting the researchers on a regular, keeping up to date, taking initiative and proposing research projects, combined with some patience, participating industry partners should be well positioned to reap the benefits from their funding

Autonomous Forest Vehicles: Historic, envisioned, and state-of-the-art

The feasibility of using autonomous forest vehicles (which can be regarded as logical developments in the ongoing automation of forest machines), the systems that could be applied in them, their potential advantages and limitations (in the foreseeable future) are considered in this paper. The goals were to analyze: 1) the factors influencing the degree of automation in logging; 2) the technical principles that can be applied to autonomous forest machines, and 3) the feasibility of developing an autonomous path-tracking forest vehicle. A type of vehicle that is believed to have considerable commercial potential is an autonomous forwarder. The degree of automation is influenced by increased productivity, the machine operator as a bottle-neck, cost reduction, and environmental aspects. Technical principles that can be applied to autonomous forest vehicles are satellite navigation, wheel odometry, laser scanner, and radar. A new path-tracking algorithm has been developed to reduce deviations from the desired path by utilizing the driver’s steering commands. The presented system has demonstrated both possibilities and difficulties associated with autonomous forest machines. A field study has shown that it is quite possible for them to learn and track a path previously demonstrated by an operator with an accuracy of 0.1 m on flat ground and also to detect and avoid unexpected obstacles. Although the forest machine safely avoids obstacles, the study shows that further research in the field of obstacle avoidance is needed to optimize performance and ensure safe operation in a real forest environment

Citrate treatment reduces endothelial death and inflammation under hyperglycaemic conditions

Hyperglycaemia and glucose degradation products (GDPs) are closely associated with oxidative stress and inflammation in diabetic patients, a condition that leads to endothelial dysfunction and cardiovascular problems. We evaluated the effect of citrate and gluconate on glucose- and GDP-induced endothelial inflammation by measuring changes in viability, inflammation and function in primary human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs). The extent of apoptosis/necrosis was measured by flow cytometry and visualised with confocal microscopy by staining with annexin V or propidium iodide, respectively. Protein kinase C-βII (PKC-βII) activation was evaluated with Western blotting. Incubation with glucose (30 mM) and GDP (50 µM) significantly increased PKC-βII expression, endothelial cell death and inflammation. The addition of citrate decreased hyperglycaemia-induced apoptosis (p = 0.021), necrosis (p = 0.04) and reduced PKC-βII expression (p = 0.021) down to background levels. Citrate improved endothelial function by reducing the inflammatory markers (p = 0.01) and by decreasing neutrophil diapedesis (p = 0.012). These results suggest that citrate may have therapeutic potential by reducing hyperglycaemia-induced endothelial inflammation and abolishing endothelial dysfunction

Leadership in Swedish Public Organizations: A Research Review in Education and Care

This article is a review of recent Swedish leadership research in two large public-sector areas: education and care. By comparing and contrasting research in these areas, we unveil the specifics and commonalities of research in public-sector leadership. We reviewed research articles from 2018 to 2020 and analyzed theories used, data-gathering methods employed, and topics researched. The results show some fundamental differences between the two areas. Compared to research on education, research on care is to a larger extent non-theoretical and is often focused on change management, quality assurance, and leaders’ roles in employee health. Conversely, studies on education are theory driven and mostly focused on leaders’ roles in learning and shared leadership. We discuss the state of Swedish public leadership research and make suggestions for mutual learning and moving forward in this research field