Problems and prospects of non-motorized public transport integration in developing cities

The benefits and costs of the paid category of non-motorized public transport (NMPT) –especially three wheeler cycle rickshaws – have long been a major transport planning problem in many developing cities. Policy measures to restrict or eliminate non-motorized vehicles, especially NMPTs, from urban arterials and other feeder networks have already been implemented in developing cities as diverse as Delhi, Bangkok, Jakarta, Manila, Surabaya, Beijing and Bogotá. Over the last few years, the government of Bangladesh has implemented policies to phase out non-motorized transport, particularly rickshaws, from the major traffic spines of Dhaka City. The acceptability, rationality and implication of such ‘solutions’ are widely argued in Bangladesh, as well as internationally. The argument is severe in Dhaka, the case study of this research, considering social acceptability, economic response, fuel free eco-friendly characteristics and magnitude of role of rickshaw in sustaining the traffic and mobility needs of citizens. Therefore, rather than simply pursuing policies to eliminate NMPT, a better approach may be to integrate motorized and non-motorized vehicles as complementary rather than competitive forces in meeting the comprehensive demand of Dhaka’s transport. With the backdrop and given the international significance of the problem, this paper will delineate a preliminary framework for the future place of the NMPT-rickshaw and explore the problems as well as opportunities for its sustainable co-existence in a mixed mode transport stream that best meets the network performance needs of Dhaka

Shaping the formation of university-industry research collaborations: what type of proximity does really matter?

Research collaborations between universities and industry (U-I) are considered to be one important channel of potential localised knowledge spillovers. These collaborations favour both intended and unintended flows of knowledge and facilitate learning processes between partners from different organisations. Despite the copious literature on localised knowledge spillovers, still little is known about the factors driving the formation of U-I research collaborations and, in particular, about the role that geographical proximity plays in the establishment of such relationships. Using collaborative research grants between universities and business firms awarded by the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), in this paper we disentangle some of the conditions under which different kinds of proximity contribute to the formation of U-I research collaborations, focussing in particular on technological complementarity among the firms participating in such partnerships.university-industry research collaborations, proximity, geography, industrial clustering, technological complementarity

Academic Entrepreneurship: What are the Factors Shaping the Capacity of Academic Researchers to Identify and Exploit Entrepreneurial Opportunities?

This paper aims at improving our understanding of the attributes of academic researchers that influence the capacity to identify and exploit entrepreneurial opportunities. We investigate a number of factors highlighted in the literature as influencing the entrepreneurial activities undertaken by academics. Our results show that identification and exploitation of entrepreneurial opportunities are shaped by different factors. While identification of commercial opportunities is driven by prior entrepreneurial experience and the excellence of the academic work, exploitation of entrepreneurial opportunities is driven by the extent of previous collaboration with industry partners, cognitive integration and prior entrepreneurial experience.Academic entrepreneurship; Opportunity identification; Opportunity exploitation; Spin-offs; Patenting; University-business collaboration

Bio-sample environment manipulation using advanced microscopy techniques

2010/2011Under physiological conditions in the brain, molecules are released with high spatial and temporal resolution. A lot of efforts have been done in the last years in order to develop techniques that mimic this situation. Among them, we mention the use of micropipettes for the ejection of fluids, the use of AFM (Atomic Force Microscopy), microfluidic devices and optical manipulation. The latter approach exploits light to manipulate the samples, e.g. to create transient pores in the cell membrane or to move small objects carrying a stimulus. This Thesis concerns with the development of new techniques for the local delivery of molecules based on optical manipulation technologies, and in particular on optical tweezers. Sub-micrometer particles in a compact trap, such as the single-beam gradient or optical tweezers, can be localized within a small fraction of a wavelength of light or moved over long distances of many centimeters without any mechanical contact. A three-dimensional trap is simply created by focusing a laser beam through a microscope objective with high numerical aperture. We studied three types of vectors for local delivery of molecules, which can be optically manipulated: microbeads, micron-sized liposomes and Quantum dots (Qdots). Silica microbeads can be covalently functionalized on their surface with the protein of interest and placed in contact with the desired part of a cell. In order to validate the technique, we functionalized beads with a secretory molecule, the neurotrophin Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). BDNF is a key regulator of neuronal development and plasticity. We showed that single BDNF-coated microbeads can be extracted with optical tweezers from small reservoirs and positioned with submicrometric precision to specific sites on the dendrites of cultured hippocampal neurons. Localized contact of microbeads functionalized with BDNF induced focal increase of Calcium signaling in the stimulated dendrite, specific activation of the TrkB receptor pathway and influenced the development of growth cones. Remarkably, a single BDNF-coated bead positioned on a dendrite was found to be enough for TrkB phosphorylation, an efficient and long-lasting activation of Calcium signaling in the soma, and c-Fos signaling in the nucleus, comparable to bath stimulation conditions. Moreover, since BDNF is covalently cross-linked to the bead surface we could demonstrate that activation of some of the TrkB receptor pathway does not necessarily require BDNF endocytosis. In the case of liposomes, the molecules of interest were encapsulated within their lumen. Single liposomes were trapped and transported by means of optical tweezers to the site of stimulation on cultured neurons. Finally, the release of liposome content was induced by application of UV-pulses that broke the liposome membrane. In order to test the effect of the UV-induced release, liposomes with a diameter ranging from 1 to 10 μm (fL to pL volumes), were filled with KCl and tested on neuronal cells. Neuronal cultures, loaded with Ca2+ dye, were monitored by imaging intracellular Ca2+. An efficient release from the liposomes was demonstrated by detectable Calcium signals, indicating induced depolarization of the neuronal cells by KCl. Afterwards, this technique was used to address a biological issue, that is the effect of two proteins (Semaphorin 3A and Netrin-1) on growth cones. The growth cone is an intracellular apparatus located at the tip of the neurite of developing neurons. Its motility governs axonal path-finding and the construction of neuronal networks. Growth cones are highly dynamic structures that respond to external stimuli turning towards or away from the chemical gradient. We were able to demonstrate an attractive effect of Netrin-1 on the growth cones of primary hippocampal neurons. On the contrary, Semaphorin 3A showed a repellant behavior. To correlate the high resolution of vector manipulation with high resolution of imaging we used STimulated Emission Depletion (STED) to investigate the intimate organization of two main cytoskeleton components: actin and tubulin filaments. STED microscopy allowed imaging of actin bundles in the filopodia and organized network in lamellipodia with un-precedent resolution, beyond the diffraction barrier. Lastly, we used liposomes to encapsulate Quantum dots. Qdots are bright and photostable nanocrystals. Due to their small size, similar to that of proteins, Qdots may be endocyted along the receptor-mediated endocytosis pathway, when they are functionalized with the appropriate ligand. As case study we considered the BDNF-TrkB endocytotic pathway. We optimized the protocol for the direct binding of BDNF to Qdots and we demonstrated the possibility of encapsulating and releasing them from liposomes. Concluding, two different approaches for local stimulation of neurons, based on optical manipulation of microvectors, were presented and validated in this thesis. Indirect optical manipulation of nanovectors (Qdots) encapsulated in liposomes has been demonstrated as well. The techniques were then successfully applied to address some biological issues, that in turn required the optimization of other imaging tools (super resolution microscopy and Qdots).XXIV Ciclo198

Capitale economico e fair value. Analogie e differenze concettuali nella determinazione e rappresentazione del valore generato dalle aziende

Il presente lavoro si propone di esaminare gli aspetti della determinazione del valore generato dalle aziende, correlati ai presupposti logici propri delle differenti metodologie di valutazione del capitale di impresa, con particolare attenzione al concetto di valore economico ed a quello di fair value. L’indagine di affinità e divergenze esistenti tra questi ultimi, in merito ad impostazioni logiche e significatività dei risultati, ha posto in evidenza gli ostacoli concettuali ad una puntuale traduzione in termini operativi di entrambi, rinvenendo nel comprehensive income una possibile soluzione alla rappresentazione contabile delle differenti forme di determinazione del reddito secondo tali logiche valutative.valore economico, fair value, capitale economico, comprehensive income

Lowering barriers to engage in innovation: evidence from the Spanish innovation survey

The literature on innovation studies has extensively examined the main drivers of innovation activity, while putting less attention on factors that are crucial in order to foster competition dynamics, as well as to attenuate systemic failures to innovation. This paper aims to filling this gap by distinguishing between firms facing deterring barriers to innovation (i.e. those barriers that deter firms from engaging in innovation activities) and firms confronting revealed barriers (i.e. those barriers that are experienced by firms alongside their engagement in innovative activities). Drawing upon the literature on innovation studies, we propose a set of hypotheses on which factors are likely to attenuate deterring and/or revealed barriers to innovation (e.g. firm size, firm age, human capital, etc.). We built a longitudinal dataset derived from four waves of the Spanish Innovation Survey (2004-2007) in order to examine the impact of the proposed factors on three types of obstacles to innovation: cost, knowledge and market barriers. Results reveal that: first, knowledge and market related obstacles play a much stronger role as deterring barriers than cost-related obstacles; second, firm size and human capital available at firms play a significant role in attenuating deterring barriers to innovation, though only the former has a significant impact on alleviating revealed barriers.

What hampers innovation? Evidence from the UK CIS4

barriers to innovation, innovative firms, non-innovators

The spatial profile of university-business research partnerships

IAREG (Intangible Assets and Regional Economic Growth).-- WP1 Working Papers: Knowledge accumulation processes and regional growth.University-industry linkages have long been at the centre of academic and policy attention. In spite of the copious literature on different aspects of such linkages, there is still rather inconclusive evidence on both the specific nature of the interactions between universities and businesses and their regional/spatial dimension. This paper focuses on one particular type of linkage between university and business – joint research partnerships – and addresses two specific issues. Firstly, it investigates the extent to which research quality and geographical proximity bear an influence on the intensity of university-industry collaborations. Secondly, it explores the factors affecting the spatial profile (i.e. proximity versus distance) of university-business partnerships. On the basis of an original database on collaborative research grants awarded by the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) – integrated with other information sources – our findings generally support previous results highlighting the importance of geographical proximity in shaping university-industry collaborations. Yet, they indicate clearly that the spatial configuration of university-industry linkages is far from being a simple and uniform phenomenon, calling for greater caution when trying to apply “onesize-fits-all” and “picking winners” policy strategies.The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement n° 216813.Peer reviewe