Which types of knowledge-intensive business services firms collaborate with universities for innovation?

Drawing on data from an original survey of UK and US publicly traded knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) firms, we investigate what types of KIBS firms collaborate with universities and consider the collaboration important for their innovation. First, we find that science-based KIBS firms (those engaged in a science, technology, and innovation [STI] mode of organizational learning), like science-based manufacturing firms, are active collaborators with universities for innovation. This relationship is further enhanced if these firms also provide highly customized services. Second, in contrast to the existing literature suggesting that firms engaged in a doing, using, and interacting (DUI) mode of organizational learning do not regard collaboration with universities as important for their innovation, we find that KIBS firms engaged in a DUI mode of organizational learning and offering highly customized services are active collaborators with universities for innovation, despite the fact that they may not possess highly formalized scientific knowledge. These findings suggest that KIBS firms co-create knowledge with universities differently than manufacturing firms. Moreover, the findings highlight the wide variety of roles that KIBS firms play in innovation networks with universities

How does working on university-industry collaborative projects affect science and engineering doctorates' careers? Evidence from a UK research-based university

This paper examines the impact of industrial involvement in doctoral projects on the particular nature of the training and careers of doctorates. We draw on an original survey of job histories of doctorates in physical sciences and engineering from a research-based university in the UK. Using multivariate probit analysis and linearised (robust) and resampling (jackknife) variance estimation techniques, we found that projects with industrial involvement are associated with higher degree of socialisation with industry. There is some evidence showing that these projects are also more likely to focus on solving firm-specific technical problems or developing firm-specific specifications/prototypes, rather than exploring high-risk concepts or generating knowledge in the subject areas. Crucially, these projects result in fewer journal publications. Not surprisingly, in line with existing literature, we found that engaging in projects with industrial involvement (in contrast to projects without industrial involvement) confers advantages on careers in the private sector. Nevertheless, there is also a hint that engaging in projects with industrial involvement may have a negative effect on careers in academia or public research organisations. While acknowledging that the modelling results are based on a small sample from a research-based university and that therefore the results need to be treated with caution, we address implications for doctorates, universities and policymakers

Innovation collaboration and appropriability by knowledge-intensive business services firms

We uncover a “paradox of formal appropriability mechanisms” in the case of knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) firms. Despite evidence that KIBS firms do not typically consider formal appropriability mechanisms, such as patents, to be central mechanisms for capturing value from innovation, we show that they are nevertheless important for their innovation collaboration. Drawing on an original survey of publicly-traded UK and US KIBS firms, we find a significant positive association between the importance of innovation collaboration and the importance of formal appropriability mechanisms. We interrogate the evidence for clients, as they are the most important partners for innovation collaboration. We find that the importance of innovation collaboration with clients goes hand-in-hand with the importance of formal appropriability mechanisms, although a negative relation appears when firms assign very high importance to formal appropriability mechanisms. Thus, modest levels of emphasis on formal appropriability mechanisms may prevent conflicts over ownership of jointly developed knowledge assets and knowledge leakages, while also avoiding the possibly negative effects of overly strict controls by legal departments on innovation collaboration. As well as exploring formal appropriability mechanisms, we also investigate the relationship between contractual and strategic appropriability mechanisms and innovation collaboration for KIBS firms

Capturing value from innovation in knowledge-intensive business service firms: the role of competitive strategy

Building on a problem-solving perspective to value creation and capture, and on the business strategy literature, we argue that the actions that knowledge-intensive business service (KIBS) firms take to identify, select and solve client problems will affect their approach to capturing value from innovation. We apply regression analysis to data from an original survey involving a sample of 230 innovations introduced by 150 publicly-traded UK and US KIBS firms. Distinguishing between cost- and differentiation-oriented KIBS firms, we find that cost-oriented firms tend to place more importance on all appropriability mechanisms than do differentiation-oriented firms. Furthermore, the perceived importance of formal appropriability mechanisms, relative to that of all appropriability mechanisms, tends to be higher for cost-oriented than for differentiation-oriented firms. This association is stronger for the case of the introduction of process (rather than product) innovation. These findings contribute to the strategy and service innovation literatures, by showing that KIBS firms’ competitive strategies influence value capture, over and above the role of the innovation-, industry-, and institutional-level factors examined in earlier studies

Bone: Chordoma

Review on Bone: Chordoma, with data on clinics, and the genes involved

Kidney: Nephroblastoma (Wilms tumor)

Review on Kidney: Nephroblastoma (Wilms tumor), with data on clinics, and the genes involved

Distributed deep reinforcement learning for functional split control in energy harvesting virtualized small cells

To meet the growing quest for enhanced network capacity, mobile network operators (MNOs) are deploying dense infrastructures of small cells. This, in turn, increases the power consumption of mobile networks, thus impacting the environment. As a result, we have seen a recent trend of powering mobile networks with harvested ambient energy to achieve both environmental and cost benefits. In this paper, we consider a network of virtualized small cells (vSCs) powered by energy harvesters and equipped with rechargeable batteries, which can opportunistically offload baseband (BB) functions to a grid-connected edge server depending on their energy availability. We formulate the corresponding grid energy and traffic drop rate minimization problem, and propose a distributed deep reinforcement learning (DDRL) solution. Coordination among vSCs is enabled via the exchange of battery state information. The evaluation of the network performance in terms of grid energy consumption and traffic drop rate confirms that enabling coordination among the vSCs via knowledge exchange achieves a performance close to the optimal. Numerical results also confirm that the proposed DDRL solution provides higher network performance, better adaptation to the changing environment, and higher cost savings with respect to a tabular multi-agent reinforcement learning (MRL) solution used as a benchmark

Disordered proteins and network disorder in network descriptions of protein structure, dynamics and function. Hypotheses and a comprehensive review

During the last decade, network approaches became a powerful tool to describe protein structure and dynamics. Here we review the links between disordered proteins and the associated networks, and describe the consequences of local, mesoscopic and global network disorder on changes in protein structure and dynamics. We introduce a new classification of protein networks into ‘cumulus-type’, i.e., those similar to puffy (white) clouds, and ‘stratus-type’, i.e., those similar to flat, dense (dark) low-lying clouds, and relate these network types to protein disorder dynamics and to differences in energy transmission processes. In the first class, there is limited overlap between the modules, which implies higher rigidity of the individual units; there the conformational changes can be described by an ‘energy transfer’ mechanism. In the second class, the topology presents a compact structure with significant overlap between the modules; there the conformational changes can be described by ‘multi-trajectories’; that is, multiple highly populated pathways. We further propose that disordered protein regions evolved to help other protein segments reach ‘rarely visited’ but functionally-related states. We also show the role of disorder in ‘spatial games’ of amino acids; highlight the effects of intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) on cellular networks and list some possible studies linking protein disorder and protein structure networks

Linee guida per la valutazione della resilienza delle foreste Mediterranee ai cambiamenti climatici [Guidelines for assessing the resilience of Mediterranean forests to climate change]

We have defined optimal management models for improving or strengthening the resilience of forest environments: in particular, five best management practices aiming at improving the Mediterranean forests resilience with reference to the desertification risk. The 5 Best ManagementPractices are: BMP1 - Actions favoring mixing of species and hydrogeological stability of forests; BMP2 - Renaturalization of forest plantations; BMP3 - Remedial measures and restoration of degraded forests; BMP4 - Actions aimed at enhancing complex structural forests; BMP5 - Actions favoring connectivity in agro-forestry systems. The best management practices have been then applied adapting them to 16 different intervention types and they have been tested on 10 regional forest categories on an overall surface of 120 hectares. The intervention areas make up a set of testing areas according to the different intervention types carried out. Finally, we have defined the forest resilience Assessment Chart. The Chart has been worked out to improve the sylviculturist\u2019s intervention assessment in order to grant a proper application of the forest resilience intervention practices. This chart includes 10 questions on parameters having an influence on the resilience and on the forest adaptation capacity to climate changes. The parameters are: current and dynamic Forest Category; Specific tree Composition; Vegetation Layers covering; Forest vertical structure; Forest horizontal structure; Dendrometric parameters; Species indicating disturbance; Ground cover; Regeneration; Internal and external steadiness