Innovation success in an emerging economy: A comparison of R&D-oriented companies in Turkey

Knowledge and innovation capacities are unevenly distributed on a global scale, with national or regional settings playing a crucial role when it comes to the production and usage of knowledge. In particular, emerging economies are less equipped with relevant institutions and resources, meaning that firms residing in such contexts are likewise dealing with lacking innovation capabilities. However, achieving innovation is highly relevant for the economic development of firms and regions. Therefore, we aim to identify key factors for innovation strategies in a differentiated corporate landscape that might affect innovation success. Survey data from the innovative segment of 225 manufacturing firms in Istanbul is used in a two-step methodological approach. We apply dimension reduction through principal component analysis and use the resulting components in logistic regression analysis to estimate their effects on firms’ innovation success. The results reveal not only important findings about factors for the innovation success of firms, but also highly relevant insights about firms’ innovation strategies. The usage of internal and external R&D resources varies with firm type. In addition, we find that external R&D resources determine firms’ internationalization strategies. Hereof, we suggest policy implications for distinct firm types to support diverse innovation strategies and consequently innovation success. © The Authors. Growth and Change published by Wiley Periodicals LLC

Linear Fractional PDE, Uniqueness of Global Solutions

Mathematics Subject Classification: 26A33, 47A60, 30C15.In this paper we treat the question of existence and uniqueness of solutions of linear fractional partial differential equations. Along examples we show that, due to the global definition of fractional derivatives, uniqueness is only sure in case of global initial conditions

Script Knowledge Constrains Ellipses in Fragments - Evidence from Production Data and Language Modeling

We investigate the effect of script-based (Schank and Abelson 1977) extralinguistic context on the omission of words in fragments. Our data elicited with a production task show that predictable words are more often omitted than unpredictable ones, as predicted by the Uniform Information Density (UID) hypothesis (Levy & Jaeger 2007). We take into account effects of linguistic and extralinguistic context on predictability and propose a method for estimating the surprisal of words in presence of ellipsis. Our study extends previous evidence for UID in two ways: First, we show that not only local linguistic context, but also extralinguistic context determines the likelihood of omissions. Second, we find UID effects on the omission of content words

Retrospective evaluation of vector-borne pathogens in cats living in Germany (2012-2020)

Background:Blood-feeding arthropods can transmit parasitic, bacterial, or viral pathogens to domestic animals and wildlife. Vector-borne infections are gaining significance because of increasing travel and import of pets from abroad as well as the changing climate in Europe. The main objective of this study was to assess the percentage of cats with positive test results for selected vector-borne pathogens in Germany and explore any possible association of such results with time spent abroad. Methods: This retrospective study included test results from cats included in the "Feline Travel Profile" established by the LABOKLIN laboratory at the request of veterinarians in Germany between April 2012 and March 2020. This diagnostic panel includes the direct detection of Hepatozoon spp. and Dirofilaria spp. via PCR as well as indirect detection assays (IFAT) for Ehrlichia spp. and Leishmania spp. The panel was expanded to include an IFAT for Rickettsia spp. from July 2015 onwards. Results: A total of 624 cats were tested using the "Feline Travel Profile." Serum for indirect detection assays was available for all 624 cats; EDTA samples for direct detection methods were available from 618 cats. Positive test results were as follows: Ehrlichia spp. IFAT 73 out of 624 (12%), Leishmania spp. IFAT 22 out of 624 (4%), Hepatozoon spp. PCR 53 out of 618 (9%), Dirofilaria spp. PCR 1 out of 618 cats (0.2%), and Rickettsia spp. IFAT 52 out of 467 cats (11%) tested from July 2015 onwards. Three cats had positive test results for more than one pathogen before 2015. After testing for Rickettsia spp. was included in 2015, 19 cats had positive test results for more than one pathogen (Rickettsia spp. were involved in 14 out of these 19 cats). Conclusions: At least one pathogen could be detected in 175 out of 624 cats (28%) via indirect and/or direct detection methods. Four percent had positive test results for more than one pathogen. These data emphasize the importance of considering the above-mentioned vector-borne infections as potential differential diagnoses in clinically symptomatic cats

Is Heroin-Assisted Treatment Effective for Patients with No Previous Maintenance Treatment? Results from a German Randomised Controlled Trial

Background/Aims: Until now, the medical prescription of diamorphine (heroin) has been suggested as suitable for patients who have failed previous maintenance treatments. The aim of this paper is to assess the effects of diamorphine on opioid-dependent patients with no previous maintenance treatment experience (NPME). Methods: The German heroin trial compared diamorphine versus methadone maintenance treatment and included 107 patients with NPME. This paper is a sub-analysis of these patients. Results: When comparing this subsample with the rest of the participants in the study, large baseline differences were found, showing a more severe drug use profile in patients with NPME. However, no differences were found in terms of treatment outcome and treatment retention. In the subsample with NPME, outcome measures on the reduction of illicit drug use were significantly better under diamorphine compared to methadone treatment, while there was no difference in health outcomes. Conclusion: Controlled studies are now necessary to examine whether diamorphine treatment could be considered as one of several options in treating severely opioid-dependent patients, regardless of previous maintenance treatment experience

Can Identity Conditions on Ellipsis be Explained by Processing Principles?

Contribution to Linguistic Evidence 202

The pandemic coping scale – validity and reliability of a brief measure of coping during a pandemic

This study assessed the validity and reliability of the Pandemic Coping Scale (PCS), a new brief measure of coping with pandemic-related stressors. Methods The PCS was administered to N = 2316 German participants during the COVID-19 pandemic. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis was applied among random splits of the sample. Global goodness of fit (χ2, RMSEA, SRMR, CFI, TLI), local goodness of fit (factor loadings, communalities, factor reliability, discriminant validity) and additional test quality criteria (internal consistency, item discrimination and difficulty) were evaluated for a four-factor model vs. a four-factor model combined with a second-order general factor. Convergent and divergent validity were examined by Pearson correlations of the PCS subscales with the Brief-COPE subscales; criterion validity was evaluated by correlations with wellbeing (WHO-5), depressive (PHQ-9) and anxiety symptoms (GAD-2). Results Exploratory factor analysis suggested a four-factor solution (‘Healthy Lifestyle’, ‘Joyful Activities’, ‘Daily Structure’, ‘Prevention Adherence’). Confirmatory factor analysis showed a sufficient global fit for both specified models which did not differ in their fit to the data. Local goodness of fit indices showed moderate to large factor loadings and good factor reliabilities except for the subscale ‘Prevention Adherence’. Internal consistencies were good for the PCS total scale (α = .83), the ‘Healthy Lifestyle’ (α = .79) and the ‘Daily Structure’ (α = .86) subscales, acceptable for ‘Joyful Activities’ (α = .60), and low for ‘Prevention Adherence’ (α = .52). The four subscales evidenced convergent and divergent validity with the Brief-COPE subscales. The subscales ‘Healthy lifestyle’, ‘Joyful activities’ and ‘Daily structure’ showed criterion validity with wellbeing, depressive and anxiety symptoms. Conclusions The PCS is a reliable and valid measure to assess pandemic-specific coping behavior in the domains of ‘Healthy Lifestyle’, ‘Joyful Activities’, and ‘Daily Structure’. The PCS subscale ‘Prevention Adherence’ might be improved by adding items with varying item difficulties

Effects of Psychiatric Comorbidity on Treatment Outcome in Patients Undergoing Diamorphine or Methadone Maintenance Treatment

Background: Comorbid psychiatric disorders among opioid-dependent patients are associated with several negative outcome factors. However, outcomes of maintenance treatment have not been sufficiently established, and no evidence is available with respect to heroin-assisted treatment (HAT). Methods: For patients in the German heroin trial outcome measures were analyzed for HAT versus methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) both for patients with and without a comorbid diagnosis according to CIDI. Results: 47.2% of the sample had at least one comorbid psychiatric diagnosis, mainly neurotic, stress-related or somatoform (F4) or affective (F3) disorders. HAT had a better outcome than MMT concerning improvement of health and reduction of illicit drug use in both comorbid and non-comorbid patients, but weaker effects were found in the comorbid group. Conclusions:The better outcome of HAT also in comorbid patients suggests that psychiatric comorbidity should be an inclusion criterion for HAT. The weaker advantage of HAT may be due to pharmacological or methodological reasons

A systematic review and meta-analysis of psychological interventions for comorbid post-traumatic stress disorder and substance use disorder

Background The psychological treatment of comorbid post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and substance use disorder (SUD) is clinically challenging, and outcomes are often poor. Objective This paper describes a systematic review and meta-analysis which sought to establish the current efficacy for a number of established psychological approaches for adults and adolescents, in comparison to interventions for SUD alone, or other active approaches, following a pre-registered protocol. Method This review followed PRISMA and Cochrane Collaboration guidelines. Data extraction and risk of bias judgements using Cochrane criteria were undertaken by all authors. Primary outcomes were PTSD severity and substance use post-treatment. The quality of findings was assessed using GRADE. Following a comprehensive search, conducted to 13 September 2021, 27 studies were included. Results We found a relatively high level of dropout across studies. In our main comparisons, we found no benefits for present-focused treatment approaches aimed at improving coping skills beyond those for SUD-only interventions. We found modest benefits for trauma-focused intervention plus SUD intervention post-treatment for PTSD (standardized mean difference (SMD) = −0.36, 95% confidence interval (CI) −0.64, −0.08), and at 6–13 months for PTSD (SMD = −0.48, 95% CI −0.81, −0.15) and alcohol use (SMD = −0.23, 95% CI −0.44, −0.02). There were no benefits for cognitive restructuring interventions as a group, but we found a modest effect for integrated cognitive behavioural therapy (ICBT) for PTSD post-treatment (SMD = −0.33, 95% CI −0.62, −0.04). There was evidence of some benefit for trauma-focused intervention over present-focused intervention for PTSD from a single study and for reduction in dropout for incentivized attendance for trauma-focused intervention from another single study. Most findings were of very low quality. Conclusion There is evidence that trauma-focused therapy and ICBT can improve PTSD for some individuals, but many patients do not fully engage with treatment and average treatment effects are modest