The productive role of innovation in a large tourism organisation (TUI).

This paper studies the productive role of innovation in organisations. Using the post-structuralist insight that innovation is an open concept that can become performative, we shift the emphasis from analysing innovations themselves to analysing how the concept of innovation affects the organisational practices through which it acquires meaning. Deploying this framework, we studied the development of an innovation unit within TUI, a corporate tour operator. We found that actors interpreted innovation in different ways and that initially the innovation unit was considered a failure. The subsequent dramatisation of this failure resulted in a new version of this innovation unit that strengthened established actors and institutions within the organisation. Our study shows how the use of the concept of innovation in an organisation can both stimulate and hamper its innovativeness. Addressing this paradox requires sensitivity to the concept's productive role and evaluations of innovation that look beyond accomplished results.</p

Surface Characterization of Red Maple Strands After Hot Water Extraction

The conversion of carbohydrates from wood to make biofuels such as ethanol is a topic of widespread interest. A promising approach is the removal of the hemicellulosic wood component by extraction with subsequent conversion to biofuels while continuing to produce forest products. The impact of extraction on wood strands for use in strand-based composites was investigated. One tree of red maple (Acer rubrum L.) was used to create strands 10.2 cm long with a thickness of 0.9 mm. Three hot water extraction procedures at 160°C, corresponding to severity factors (SF) of 2.71, 3.54, and 3.81, were used resulting in an average weight loss of 5.7, 16.9 and 18.1%, respectively. Scanning electron microscopic imaging of selected wood strands showed that pores in the cell wall increased as SF increased. The distribution and size of the cell-wall pore structure showed up to a 22.2% increase. The sessile drop method, using distilled water, diiodomethane, and ethylene glycol, indicated more pronounced liquid wetting and penetration as SF increased. Inverse gas chromatography led to the finding that dispersive surface-free energy and acid-base characteristics increase with SF. The extraction procedures should be kept below a SF of 3.54 to minimize changes in adhesion performance

Investing in Maine Research Infrastructure: Sustainable Forest Bioproducts

The University of Maine, the University of Southern Maine, several baccalaureate institutions in the state, along with other federal, state and local public, private, and non-profit institutions will collaborate to create the Forest Bioproducts Research Institute (FBRI) at the University of Maine. The vision of the FBRI is to advance understanding about the scientific underpinnings, system behavior, and policy implications for the production of forest-based bioproducts that meet societal needs for materials, chemicals, and fuels in an economically and ecologically sustainable manner.The research plans Integrate three themes. They are (1) forest sustainability modeling of life cycle assessment, (2) integrated biopolymer separations and residual solids modifications, and (3) biological and chemical platform conversion technologies.The research capitalizes upon Maine\u27s unique position of having a large natural resource base, existing research capacities in pulp and paper, forestry, and wood products, along with a strong industrial presence. State, national, and global collaborations, including those with Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, will contribute broader benefits to society as a result of this investment in forestry research.The FBRI will serve as the forest-based carbohydrate economy center of excellence for the region, with a primary goal of transitioning developed science and technology to the state\u27s industrial arena. State, national, and global impacts will be realized as a result of the investment in this research. In addition, a cadre of future engineers and scientists in multidisciplinary disciplines as well as policy-makers will result from the expected collaborations. Support is provided through the NSF Experimental Program To Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR)

IMPACT OF FURFURAL ON THE SUGAR ANALYSIS OF PRE-HYDROLYSIS LIQUOR OF KRAFT-BASED DISSOLVING PULP PRODUCTION PROCESS USING THE HPAEC TECHNIQUE

High performance anion-exchange chromatography with pulse ampero-metric detector (HPAEC-PAD) is a reliable method to systematically determine the sugar contents in pulp and paper waste streams, including bleaching and extraction liquors. We used the same method to determine the sugar content of industrially produced pre-hydrolysis liquor (PHL) from a kraft-based dissolving pulp production process. The analysis showed that the traditional method cannot be applied for sugar analysis, and an improvement on the method was required. In fact, the presence of furfural in the PHL sample was the reason for the required modification. It was noted that the removal of furfural via evaporation could improve the reliability of the HPAEC technique for sugar assessments. If the concentration of furfural was higher than 0.045% (wt.) in the PHL, the error introduced in the sugar analysis was profound. Also, the industrially produced PHL contained more furfural than the laboratory produced PHL under the same hydrolysis conditions. Consequently, the concentration of furfural in the PHL should be taken into account for sugar analysis using the HPAEC technique

Corticosterone enhances CSD susceptibility via glucocorticoid receptor activation in familial hemiplegic migraine 1 Cacna1a knock-in mice

Paroxysmal Cerebral Disorder

Landscape evolution of the Apurimac river drainage basin, southern Peru

The northernmost part of the Altiplano in Southern Peru is drained by the river Apurimac and its tributaries. The Altiplano is a region that covers most of the eastern part of the Cordillera Occidental and is bounded in the East by the Cordillera Oriental. The Apurirnac River Drainage Basin (ARDB) extends roughly between 13 °S and l5°S over 50000 km 2. It mainly occupies the northeastern flank of the Cordillera Occidental and a negligible part of the southwestern flank of the Cordillera Oriental. At the latitude of the Abancay deflection, i.e. 13.5 S; 72.7 W, the Apurirnac River abandons the Cordillera Occidental. On its way to the Amazon Basin in the North the Apurimac River drains the Cordillera Oriental and the Sub-Andean Zone (SAZ). The incision by the rivers of the ARDB has created differences in relief of more than 2000 m that contributed to the denudation and exhumation, hence the evolution ofthe landscape. The Altiplano sedimentary basin contains an 8 kilometers thick succession of Cenozoic sediments, which it received from the surrounding highs in the West and the Easl Its structural framework has been formed by the various tectonic events that struck the Andes and the various pulses of magmatic activity that took place during the Cenozoic. In the western part of the Altiplano Miocene volcanics domínate, whereas in the northeastern part, in the Cusco region, clastic deposits do so. In the region of Abancay, a batholite got emplaced during the mid Tertiary, that extends over few 1000 km2