Patents and the financial performance of firms - An analysis based on stock market data

The following article systematically analyzes the question of how the results of R&D and its protection - or so to say, the technology base of a firm - can influence its market value and profits. Based on theoretical arguments it is hypothesized that large and highly valuable patent portfolios of firms have significant effects on their competitiveness in the long run. For the empirical testing a panel dataset including 479 firms from 1990 to 2007 based on the DTI-Scoreboard is used, which contains data on R&D expenditures, market capitalization, turnover etc. and structural information like firm-size and industry sector. To this database the relevant information on patenting behavior and financial performance are added, so effects of firm characteristics can be calculated. To assess the value of a firm's patent portfolio, different value measures like the number of received patent citations, opposed patents, number of inventors etc. are being applied. The results suggest that at least at the firm level, especially forward citations and family size positively influence market value. Concerning the Return on Investment, especially oppositions and family size show positive effects. This leads to the conclusion that securing international markets has a positive effect on the value of the firm in the home market. --

Logistik im Bauwesen

Moderne Logistikkonzepte werden auf vielen Baustellen erfolgreich umgesetzt und gewinnen im Bauwesen – wie in anderen Industriezweigen – zunehmend an Bedeutung. Professionelle Logistik bei der Ver- und Entsorgung sowie auf der Baustelle selbst schafft die Voraussetzung für einen reibungslosen Ablauf bei der Leistungserstellung und trägt somit maßgeblich zur Optimierung von Personal-, Material- und Informationsflüssen und damit zur Kostensenkung bei. Weiteres Potenzial zur Verbesserung der Prozesse auf der Baustelle bieten neue Technologien, so zum Beispiel die RFID-Technologie, die darüber hinaus auch eine dauerhafte und lückenlose Dokumentation im Lebenszyklus des Bauwerks ermöglicht.Modern logistics concepts are being implemented successfully on many construction sites, and are gaining in importance for the construction industry as a whole. Professional logistics solutions for supplies and waste disposal, as well as for movements on the building site itself, establish the prerequisites for unhindered performance. They contribute significantly to improving the flows of human resources, materials and information, and thus help to lower costs. New technologies such as RFID, which permits long-term and complete documentation over the whole building life cycle, offer further potential to improve construction processes

3-D-Oberflächenerfassung- und 3-D-Druck-Potentiale für gerichtsverwertbare kriminaltechnische Untersuchungen

Was führt kriminaltechnische Sachverständige zur Konferenz Entwerfen Entwickeln Erleben Es mag ungewöhnlich sein, dass sich hier Kriminaltechniker bzw. kriminaltechnische Sachverständige zu Wort melden. Bedenkt man, dass sich die Kriminaltechnik ja nahezu ausschließlich naturwissenschaftlicher Methoden bedient, so sind allein hierin schon Berührungspunkte vorgegeben. Für uns ist es die Erprobung einer neuen Methode, sich ganz konkret an den Lehrstuhl Konstruktionstechnik/CAD zu wenden. Wir glauben im Übrigen nicht, dass es ungewöhnlich ist, dass die Kriminaltechnik mit universitären Einrichtungen zusammenarbeitet. Immerhin, wenn man in ihre Geschichte schaut, hat sich die Kriminaltechnik aus Zweigen einzelner Naturwissenschaften entwickelt

Funkuhrtechnik und Funkuhrentwicklung

In Deutschland ist die Physikalisch Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) in Braunschweig für die Verbreitung der gesetzlichen Zeit verantwortlich (Zeitgesetz). Für dieses Zeitgesetz wurde die Installation des Zeitsignalund Normalfrequenzsenders DCF77 notwendig. Erste Testaussendungen gab es 1956, offizieller Sendebeginn war der 1.Januar 1959. Seit dem 1. September 1970 werden Normalfrequenz (77,5 kHz Träger) und Zeitmarken gesendet, das heißt definierte Absenkung des Trägers zu Beginn jeder Sekunde = Sekundenmarke und keine Absenkung in der 59. Sekunde = Minutenmarke. Damit war die Übertragung einer kodierten Zeitinformation geschaffen. Die Empfänger waren industrielle Funkuhren mit getrennter Antenne und einem industriellen Gehäuse (19 “Einschub). Der Empfang war allerdings nur mit abgesetzter Antenne und an einem geeigneten Standort möglich. Der Wunsch nach einer „Gebrauchsfunkuhr “ war mit der Forderung verbunden, Antenne, Empfänger und Anzeige komplett in einem Gehäuse unterzubringen. Außerdem mußte diese Uhr an einem beliebigen Ort aufgestellt werden können. Nebenbedingungen waren vollautomatische Zeigereinstellung, möglichst schnelle Positionierung der Zeiger (mehrere Antriebsmotoren erforderlich)und fehlerkorrigierende Maßnahmen. Dies war 1986 der Ausgangspunkt für ein Verbundprojekt des Instituts mit der Uhrenindustrie. Das Ziel war eine vollautomatische Funkuhr (automatische Zeigerdetektion) einschließlich Antenne, die in das handelsübliche Uhrgehäuse passen sollte. Das Projekt wurde erfolgreich abgeschlossen, und es standen ein Prototyp und die entsprechenden integrierten Empfänger- und Auswerteschaltungen zur Verfügung

The main features of issue and circulation of exchange bonds in the Russian Federation

The main features of stock exchange bonds were considered in the article, as well as the difference between stock exchange bonds and classical bonds. Two new types which appeared in the Russian federation in 2015-2016, such as single-day stock exchange bonds, and bonds issued within programs of exchange bonds. As the result, a conclusion was drawn on the future development of stock exchange bonds in Russian financial markets

Learning with Geographic Information (Systems) from the Point of View of Geography Teachers in Germany

Given Germany’s low frequency of GI(S) use in its secondary schools’ geography classrooms, we surveyed 410 teachers on their point of view of main impediments to wider implementation of GI-applications and the chances they see in the usage of GI(S) in the geography classroom. We did this in the framework of a larger cumulative mixed methods study which aims at improving the implementation of GI(S) in the classroom by developing well-founded implementation strategies and concrete measures for implementation. In this paper we present the results from the quantitative part of the study (impediments and chances from the point of view of the teachers) and later offer an overview of similar studies in other countries, followed by some concluding thoughts.Peer Reviewe

GOPET: A tool for automated predictions of Gene Ontology terms

BACKGROUND: Vast progress in sequencing projects has called for annotation on a large scale. A Number of methods have been developed to address this challenging task. These methods, however, either apply to specific subsets, or their predictions are not formalised, or they do not provide precise confidence values for their predictions. DESCRIPTION: We recently established a learning system for automated annotation, trained with a broad variety of different organisms to predict the standardised annotation terms from Gene Ontology (GO). Now, this method has been made available to the public via our web-service GOPET (Gene Ontology term Prediction and Evaluation Tool). It supplies annotation for sequences of any organism. For each predicted term an appropriate confidence value is provided. The basic method had been developed for predicting molecular function GO-terms. It is now expanded to predict biological process terms. This web service is available via CONCLUSION: Our web service gives experimental researchers as well as the bioinformatics community a valuable sequence annotation device. Additionally, GOPET also provides less significant annotation data which may serve as an extended discovery platform for the user

High-quality EuO thin films the easy way via topotactic transformation

Epitaxy is widely employed to create highly oriented crystalline films. A less appreciated, butnonetheless powerful means of creating such films is via topotactic transformation, in which achemical reaction transforms a single crystal of one phase into a single crystal of a differentphase, which inherits its orientation from the original crystal. Topotactic reactions may beapplied to epitactic films to substitute, add or remove ions to yield epitactic films of differentphases. Here we exploit a topotactic reduction reaction to provide a non-ultra-high vacuum(UHV) means of growing highly oriented single crystalline thin films of the easily overoxidizedhalf-metallic semiconductor europium monoxide (EuO) with a perfection rivallingthat of the best films of the same material grown by molecular-beam epitaxy or UHV pulsedlaserdeposition. As the technique only requires high-vacuum deposition equipment, it hasthe potential to drastically improve the accessibility of high-quality single crystalline films ofEuO as well as other difficult-to-synthesize compounds