Open innovation and firm performance in small-sized R&D active companies in the chemical industry:the case of Belgium

This paper relates the practice of open innovation in small R&D active chemical companies to firm performance in terms of employment and financial position. This relationship is examined during a period of economic downturn and applied to the Belgian situation. The Belgian case is interesting since it is characterised by a high economic importance of the chemical industry and a strongly developed national (eco-) innovation system in the sector. According to their different evolution over the last decade, a distinction is made between basic chemicals and pharmaceuticals. In terms of open innovation strategy, a distinction is made between companies innovating completely internally (closed innovators), firms engaged in R&D outsourcing, firms engaged in research cooperation, and firms integrating outsourcing and cooperation in their knowledge sourcing strategy. After controlling for a broad range of R&D characteristics, we found that firms engaged in outsourcing or having an integrated open innovation approach performed better in terms of the evolution of employment during the period 2005-2010. Also, the analysis revealed firms having a formal R&D manager and a long-term research vision more often combine average to strong employment growth with a prosperous financial position.<br

Steiner t-designs for large t

One of the most central and long-standing open questions in combinatorial design theory concerns the existence of Steiner t-designs for large values of t. Although in his classical 1987 paper, L. Teirlinck has shown that non-trivial t-designs exist for all values of t, no non-trivial Steiner t-design with t > 5 has been constructed until now. Understandingly, the case t = 6 has received considerable attention. There has been recent progress concerning the existence of highly symmetric Steiner 6-designs: It is shown in [M. Huber, J. Algebr. Comb. 26 (2007), pp. 453-476] that no non-trivial flag-transitive Steiner 6-design can exist. In this paper, we announce that essentially also no block-transitive Steiner 6-design can exist.Comment: 9 pages; to appear in: Mathematical Methods in Computer Science 2008, ed. by J.Calmet, W.Geiselmann, J.Mueller-Quade, Springer Lecture Notes in Computer Scienc

Current practices for respiratory syncytial virus surveillance across the EU/EEA Member States, 2017.

To access publisher's full text version of this article, please click on the hyperlink in Additional Links field or click on the hyperlink at the top of the page marked DownloadBackgroundRespiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a major contributor to lower respiratory tract infections worldwide and several vaccine candidates are currently in development. Following vaccine introduction, reliable RSV surveillance should enable monitoring of vaccination impact. Data on the RSV disease burden in the European Union and European Economic Area (EU/EEA) are sparse.AimThe aim of this study was to gather knowledge on current practices of national RSV surveillance in the EU/EEA.MethodsNational Coordinators and National Focal Points for Influenza (epidemiologists and virologists) from the EU/EEA countries (n = 31) were invited to participate in an online survey in August and September 2017. The questionnaire covered questions on epidemiological and laboratory aspects of RSV surveillance.ResultsAll EU/EEA countries except Liechtenstein replied to the survey. Eighteen countries reported to have a sentinel surveillance system, 26 countries a non-sentinel surveillance system and three countries to have neither. RSV data collection was mostly done within the context of influenza surveillance. A wide range of diagnostic and characterisation assays was used for the detection of RSV.DiscussionThe majority of EU/EEA countries have some surveillance for RSV in place. The prevailing integration of RSV surveillance into the existing influenza sentinel surveillance system may lead to under-reporting of RSV. The documented variations in existing RSV surveillance systems and their outputs indicate that there is scope for developing guidelines on establishing comparable methods and outcomes for RSV surveillance across the EU/EEA, to ensure the availability of a consistent evidence base for assessing future vaccination programmes

Standard decomposition of expansive ergodically supported dynamics

In this work we introduce the notion of weak quasigroups, that are quasigroup operations defined almost everywhere on some set. Then we prove that the topological entropy and the ergodic period of an invertible expansive ergodically supported dynamical system $(X,T)$ with the shadowing property establishes a sufficient criterion for the existence of quasigroup operations defined almost everywhere outside of universally null sets and for which $T$ is an automorphism. Furthermore, we find a decomposition of the dynamics of $T$ in terms of $T$-invariant weak topological subquasigroups.Comment: 18 pages, the conditions on the entropy in Theorem 3.5 was improved. Some small changes in the text, by adding more explanation

Perfect Secrecy Systems Immune to Spoofing Attacks

We present novel perfect secrecy systems that provide immunity to spoofing attacks under equiprobable source probability distributions. On the theoretical side, relying on an existence result for $t$-designs by Teirlinck, our construction method constructively generates systems that can reach an arbitrary high level of security. On the practical side, we obtain, via cyclic difference families, very efficient constructions of new optimal systems that are onefold secure against spoofing. Moreover, we construct, by means of $t$-designs for large values of $t$, the first near-optimal systems that are 5- and 6-fold secure as well as further systems with a feasible number of keys that are 7-fold secure against spoofing. We apply our results furthermore to a recently extended authentication model, where the opponent has access to a verification oracle. We obtain this way novel perfect secrecy systems with immunity to spoofing in the verification oracle model.Comment: 10 pages (double-column); to appear in "International Journal of Information Security

Wall shear stress as measured in vivo: consequences for the design of the arterial system

Based upon theory, wall shear stress (WSS), an important determinant of endothelial function and gene expression, has been assumed to be constant along the arterial tree and the same in a particular artery across species. In vivo measurements of WSS, however, have shown that these assumptions are far from valid. In this survey we will discuss the assessment of WSS in the arterial system in vivo and present the results obtained in large arteries and arterioles. In vivo WSS can be estimated from wall shear rate, as derived from non-invasively recorded velocity profiles, and whole blood viscosity in large arteries and plasma viscosity in arterioles, avoiding theoretical assumptions. In large arteries velocity profiles can be recorded by means of a specially designed ultrasound system and in arterioles via optical techniques using fluorescent flow velocity tracers. It is shown that in humans mean WSS is substantially higher in the carotid artery (1.1–1.3 Pa) than in the brachial (0.4–0.5 Pa) and femoral (0.3–0.5 Pa) arteries. Also in animals mean WSS varies substantially along the arterial tree. Mean WSS in arterioles varies between about 1.0 and 5.0 Pa in the various studies and is dependent on the site of measurement in these vessels. Across species mean WSS in a particular artery decreases linearly with body mass, e.g., in the infra-renal aorta from 8.8 Pa in mice to 0.5 Pa in humans. The observation that mean WSS is far from constant along the arterial tree implies that Murray’s cube law on flow-diameter relations cannot be applied to the whole arterial system. Because blood flow velocity is not constant along the arterial tree either, a square law also does not hold. The exponent in the power law likely varies along the arterial system, probably from 2 in large arteries near the heart to 3 in arterioles. The in vivo findings also imply that in in vitro studies no average shear stress value can be taken to study effects on endothelial cells derived from different vascular areas or from the same artery in different species. The cells have to be studied under the shear stress conditions they are exposed to in real life

Expression profile of human Fc receptors in mucosal tissue: implications for antibody-dependent cellular effector functions targeting HIV-1 transmission

The majority of new Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)-1 infections are acquired via sexual transmission at mucosal surfaces. Partial efficacy (31.2%) of the Thai RV144 HIV-1 vaccine trial has been correlated with Antibody-dependent Cellular Cytotoxicity (ADCC) mediated by non-neutralizing antibodies targeting the V1V2 region of the HIV-1 envelope. This has led to speculation that ADCC and other antibody-dependent cellular effector functions might provide an important defense against mucosal acquisition of HIV-1 infection. However, the ability of antibody-dependent cellular effector mechanisms to impact on early mucosal transmission events will depend on a variety of parameters including effector cell type, frequency, the class of Fc-Receptor (FcR) expressed, the number of FcR per cell and the glycoslyation pattern of the induced antibodies. In this study, we characterize and compare the frequency and phenotype of IgG (CD16 [FcγRIII], CD32 [FcγRII] and CD64 [FcγRI]) and IgA (CD89 [FcαR]) receptor expression on effector cells within male and female genital mucosal tissue, colorectal tissue and red blood cell-lysed whole blood. The frequency of FcR expression on CD14+ monocytic cells, myeloid dendritic cells and natural killer cells were similar across the three mucosal tissue compartments, but significantly lower when compared to the FcR expression profile of effector cells isolated from whole blood, with many cells negative for all FcRs. Of the three tissues tested, penile tissue had the highest percentage of FcR positive effector cells. Immunofluorescent staining was used to determine the location of CD14+, CD11c+ and CD56+ cells within the three mucosal tissues. We show that the majority of effector cells across the different mucosal locations reside within the subepithelial lamina propria. The potential implication of the observed FcR expression patterns on the effectiveness of FcR-dependent cellular effector functions to impact on the initial events in mucosal transmission and dissemination warrants further mechanistic studies