Creative clusters and innovation (C.Chapain, P.Cooke, L.De Propris, S.MacNeill, J.Mateos-Garcia, NESTA)

Copyright @ 2012 Intellec

Regional Economic Resilience: A Schumpeterian Perspective

This paper takes up the Schumpeterian argument that innovations drive economic recovery following cyclical phases of recession and deperssion. The peformance of regional innovation systems of two contrasting regions in England is examined in the light of this argument. It is shown that the long-term development of the regions' respective innovation systems contributed significantly to the long-run adaptation and consequential economic resilience of their economies in the face of periodic external economic shocks. It is also argued that regional innovation systems policies can contribute to the adaptation of regional economies and therefore their economic resilience

Sense and Immunity: Context-Dependent Neuro-Immune Interplay

The sensory nervous and immune systems, historically considered autonomous, actually work in concert to promote host defense and tissue homeostasis. These systems interact with each other through a common language of cell surface G protein-coupled receptors and receptor tyrosine kinases as well as cytokines, growth factors, and neuropeptides. While this bidirectional communication is adaptive in many settings, helping protect from danger, it can also become maladaptive and contribute to disease pathophysiology. The fundamental logic of how, where, and when sensory neurons and immune cells contribute to either health or disease remains, however, unclear. Our lab and others’ have begun to explore how this neuro-immune reciprocal dialog contributes to physiological and pathological immune responses and sensory disorders. The cumulative results collected so far indicate that there is an important role for nociceptors (noxious stimulus detecting sensory neurons) in driving immune responses, but that this is highly context dependent. To illustrate this concept, we present our findings in a model of airway inflammation, in which nociceptors seem to have major involvement in type 2 but not type 1 adaptive immunity

Random planar graphs and the London street network

In this paper we analyse the street network of London both in its primary and dual representation. To understand its properties, we consider three idealised models based on a grid, a static random planar graph and a growing random planar graph. Comparing the models and the street network, we find that the streets of London form a self-organising system whose growth is characterised by a strict interaction between the metrical and informational space. In particular, a principle of least effort appears to create a balance between the physical and the mental effort required to navigate the city

Using machine learning to infer reasoning provenance from user interaction log data: based on the data/frame theory of sensemaking

The reconstruction of analysts’ reasoning processes (reasoning provenance) during complex sensemaking tasks can support reflection and decision making. One potential approach to such reconstruction is to automatically infer reasoning from low-level user interaction logs. We explore a novel method for doing this using machine learning. Two user studies were conducted in which participants performed similar intelligence analysis tasks. In one study, participants used a standard web browser and word processor; in the other, they used a system called INVISQUE (Interactive Visual Search and Query Environment). Interaction logs were manually coded for cognitive actions based on captured think-aloud protocol and posttask interviews based on Klein, Phillips, Rall, and Pelusos’s data/frame model of sensemaking as a conceptual framework. This analysis was then used to train an interaction frame mapper, which employed multiple machine learning models to learn relationships between the interaction logs and the codings. Our results show that, for one study at least, classification accuracy was significantly better than chance and compared reasonably to a reported manual provenance reconstruction method. We discuss our results in terms of variations in feature sets from the two studies and what this means for the development of the method for provenance capture and the evaluation of sensemaking systems

Looking backward, looking forward: the city region of the mid-21st century

Emerging as a serious tool of analysis in the United States around 1950, the city region concept was increasingly applied in a European context after 1980. Since 2000, it has evolved further with recognition of the polycentric mega-city region, first recognised in Eastern Asia but now seen as an emerging urban form both in Europe and the United States. The paper speculates on the main changes that may impact on the growth and development of such complex urban regions in the first half of the 21st century, concluding that achieving the goal of polycentric urban development may prove more complex than at first it may seem