Anticipating Industry Convergence in the Context of Industry 4.0

© 2018 Portland International Conference on Management of Engineering and Technology, Inc. (PICMET). The merger of the digital and physical world in the context of Industry 4.0 is about to disrupt value chains and markets in almost every industry sector. In this context, the Internet of Things (IoT), enabling linkages and communication between physical and virtual objects, is the technological foundation of implementing Industry 4.0. In such a fast-paced environment, it is vital for companies to react quickly and exploit new business opportunities. One critical example is the interplay between logistics and information and communications technology (ICT) industries, where IoT has the potential to align goods and information flows in an unprecedented manner. The arising new functionalities, services and products show potential to blur the industries' boundaries and give birth to a whole new industry segment. Therefore, the present study strives to anticipate industry convergence between logistics and ICT industries in the realm of IoT. The empirical patent analysis is based on IPC co-classification and assignee structure. The analyses are refined along the different levels of IoT to provide detailed insights for companies where new technological and market competences need to be acquired

RDWIA analysis of 12C(e,e'p) for Q^2 < 2 (GeV/c)^2

We analyze data for 12C(e,e'p) with Q^2 < 2 (GeV/c)^2 using the relativistic distorted-wave impulse approximation (RDWIA) based upon Dirac-Hartree wave functions. The 1p normalization extracted from data for Q^2 > 0.6 (GeV/c)^2 is approximately 0.87, independent of Q^2, which is consistent with the predicted depletion by short-range correlations. The total 1p and 1s strength for E_m < 80 MeV approaches 100% of IPSM, consistent with a continuum contribution for 30 < E_m < 80 MeV of about 12% of IPSM. Similarly, a scale factor of 1.12 brings RDWIA calculations into good agreement with 12C(e,e'p) data for transparency. We also analyzed low Q^2 data from which a recent NDWIA analysis suggested that spectroscopic factors might depend strongly upon the resolution of the probe. We find that momentum distributions for their empirical Woods-Saxon wave functions fit to low Q^2 data for parallel kinematics are too narrow to reproduce data for quasiperpendicular kinematics, especially for larger Q^2, and are partly responsible for reducing fitted normalization factors.Comment: 19 pages, 14 figures, to be submitted to PR

Start-ups as technology life cycle indicator for the early stage of application: An analysis of the battery value chain

© 2018 Elsevier Ltd Insights from battery research and development (R&D) need to be transferred into industrial application to create innovations and thus foster e.g. electro mobility. In terms of battery technology transfer, the early phase of application is particularly challenging due to the close intertwining between R&D and application. Therefore, the present study introduces start-ups as an additional indicator to capture the transition from science to industry within the technology life cycle. The findings show that despite highly dynamic R&D activities, technology transfer is only taking place on a very limited level. Surprisingly, start-ups focus on incremental improvements of existing technologies instead of introducing radical breakthrough-technologies. An analysis of the battery value chain reveals that opportunities for start-ups are rather located downstream in the value chain when integrating cells to battery systems and developing applications relying on innovative battery technologies. The findings contribute to the area of technology life cycle analysis explicitly using start-up companies as additional indicator for the critical transfer step from R&D to application. In a similar vein, technology forecasting literature, which is to date mainly focused on R&D, is expanded by a more application-centred perspective that allows identifying transfer opportunities along the technology value chain

Parametrization of nuclear parton distributions

Optimum nuclear parton distributions are obtained by analyzing available experimental data on electron and muon deep inelastic scattering (DIS). The distributions are given at Q^2=1 GeV^2 with a number of parameters, which are determined by a chi^2 analysis of the data. Valence-quark distributions are relatively well determined at medium x, but they are slightly dependent on the assumed parametrization form particularly at small x. Although antiquark distributions are shadowed at small x, their behavior is not obvious at medium x from the F_2 data. The gluon distributions could not be restricted well by the inclusive DIS data; however, the analysis tends to support the gluon shadowing at small x. We provide analytical expressions and computer subroutines for calculating the nuclear parton distributions, so that other researchers could use them for applications to other high-energy nuclear reactions.Comment: 1+11 pages, LaTeX, amsmath.sty, wrapfig.sty, graphicx.sty, ias.cls, ias.sty, pramana.sty, pmana10.sty, pbib.sty, times.sty, 9 eps figures. Invited talk given at the International Symposium on Nuclear Physics, Mumbai, India, Dec. 18-22, 2000, to be published in proceedings. Complete postscript file is available at http://www-hs.phys.saga-u.ac.jp Email: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

A new framework to assess industry convergence in high technology environments

© 2018 Elsevier Ltd The process of convergence, from science and technology convergence to that of markets as well as entire industries can be witnessed in a range of different high technology environments such as IT and NanoBiotech. Although this phenomenon has been subject of analysis in an increasing number of studies, the notion of industry convergence – the final step of a full convergence process - still lacks a common definition. The missing conceptual definition of what industry convergence really is and how it can be assessed impedes both analyses and monitoring - let alone its anticipation. To address the missing conceptual definition of the final step in convergence, this paper seeks to develop a framework based on novel indicators that enable identifying and monitoring trends of industry convergence in high technology environments. Building on indicators in the domain of collaboration, a framework, which distinguishes different stages and types of industry convergence is developed. Subsequently, the newly developed framework is empirically illustrated in the area of stationary energy storage based on publicly available data. To this end, the full text database Nexis is used to conduct a search in news reports on collaborations in the domain of stationary energy storage. The study contributes to the growing body of convergence literature by providing a novel framework allowing the identification of not only industry convergence as the final step of the convergence process but also the classification of its type. Practical implications include an orientation for companies in converging environments on when and how to close the resulting technology and market competence gaps

Hunting behaviour in domestic cats: an exploratory study of risk and responsibility among cat owners

ArticleThis is the final version. Available from Wiley via the DOI in this record.The potential impact of domestic cats on wildlife is the subject of growing international interest and concern. While feral cats are often the primary focus of research and debate, in many societies a substantial proportion of domestic cats are owned by private individuals. We present a typology that classifies domestic cats in relation to varying degrees of human control over their reproduction, movement and provisioning. Understanding the perceptions and practices of cat owners will be key to identifying and mitigating any negative ecological effects of cat hunting behaviour. 2. To investigate how cat owners perceive (a) their pets’ hunting behaviour, (b) their responsibilities for managing this and (c) the mitigation strategies available, we conducted detailed interviews with a diverse sample of cat owners in the United Kingdom. 3. We identified a spectrum of views on hunting behaviour, from owners who perceived hunting as positive (for pest control, or as healthy cat behaviour) to those who were deeply concerned about its consequences for wild animals, their populations and welfare. However, hunting was widely understood as a normal, ‘natural’ component of cat behaviour, and owners rarely perceived a strong individual responsibility for preventing or reducing it. 4. Those who did wish to manage hunting perceived several barriers to this, including concern that they were unable to control behaviour effectively without compromising cat welfare; doubt about the efficacy and practicality of popular mitigation measures; and unfamiliarity with alternative options. We recommend that (a) initiatives directed at changing cat owners’ behaviour consider the multiple factors and competing priorities that inform their decision-making (particularly cat health and welfare and practicality or cost of interventions); (b) researchers work collaboratively with cat owners and veterinary, cat welfare and conservation organisations to identify effective solutions, and (c) some degree of accountability for managing problematic hunting behaviour should be promoted as a part of ‘responsible pet ownership’ initiatives

On the dependence of the wave function of a bound nucleon on its momentum and the EMC effect

It is widely discussed in the literature that the wave function of the nucleon bound in a nucleus is modified due to the interaction with the surrounding medium. We argue that the modification should strongly depend on the momentum of the nucleon. We study such an effect in the case of the point-like configuration component of the wave function of a nucleon bound in a nucleus A, considering the case of arbitrary final state of the spectator A-1 system. We show that for non relativistic values of the nucleon momentum, the momentum dependence of the nucleon deformation appears to follow from rather general considerations and discuss the implications of our theoretical observation for two different phenomena: i) the search for medium induced modifications of the nucleon radius of a bound nucleon through the measurement of the electromagnetic nucleon form factors via the A(e,e'p)X process, and ii) the A-dependence of the EMC effect; in this latter case we also present a new method of estimating the fraction of the nucleus light-cone momentum carried by the photons and find that in a heavy nuclei protons loose about 2% of their momentum.Comment: 38 pages, 1 figure; changed references and text in Section I (Introduction