Making use of the feedback mechanism in a strategic management of a city

Mimo braku obowiązku ustawowego przygotowywania strategii rozwojowych na poziomie lokalnym, większość polskich samorządów opracowała takie dokumenty. Analiza przebiegu cyklu strategicznego w dużych miastach w Polsce pokazuje jednak na istotne słabości kolejnych po planowaniu etapów: od zaprojektowania i uruchomienia systemu wdrażania strategii po jej monitorowanie i finansowanie. Wykorzystanie mechanizmu sprzężenia zwrotnego w zarządzaniu strategicznym wymaga dobrego powiązania systemu monitoringu z zarządzaniem strategicznym. Wśród siedmiu badanych miast potencjał zastosowania tego rodzaju rozwiązania można zidentyfikować jedynie w Poznaniu i Łodzi. Żadne z badanych miast nie prowadziło natomiast ewaluacji swoich strategii, co utrudnia ocenę efektów podejmowanych działań. Upowszechnienie się zarządzania w kontekście miejskim (urban governance) będzie w kolejnych latach przesłanką dla rozwoju systemów zarządzania strategicznego również w polskich miastach.Although it is not legally obligatory in Poland to prepare development strategies at local level, most local governments (local authorities) have developed such documents. However, the analysis of the strategic cycle in big Polish cities shows major weaknesses occurring after the planning stage: they can be noted from the design and work of implementation systems to the monitoring and financing of the strategies. Practical usage of the feedback loop in strategic management makes it necessary to join monitoring and management systems. Among seven cities analysed in the research, there is some potential for such a solution only in Poznan and Lodz. Also, none of the cities have used any evaluation tools for their strategies, which makes it difficult to analyse the effects of strategic actions. The growing popularity of urban governance will in the future be a guideline for the development of strategic management systems in Polish cities too

“Digitalisation” and “Greening” as Components of Technology Upgrading and Sustainable Economic Performance

This paper explores the pace and direction of technological development by using a technology upgrade conceptual and measurement framework. This approach is applied to a sample of 164 economies worldwide between 2002 and 2019. Within the framework of technology upgrading, the paper focuses on digitalisation and “greening” as its two significant structural features. We explore their relationship with different components of technology upgrading and the relationship be-tween technology upgrading components and different indicators of macroeconomic productivity. We have adopted a longitudinal fixed effects regression method with control for unobserved heterogeneity, clustered standard errors, and time dummies. Our results show that the growth of research and development (R&D) capabilities does not translate into aggregate productivity growth. There is a lack of unconditional relationship between aggregate productivity growth, digitalisation and greening. However, there are “latecomer advantages” to basic digitalisation for lower middle- and low-income economies and “latecomer liabilities” in the greening of the economy for upper-middle-income economies. In addition, levels of digitalisation and greening do not correlate, suggesting these two transformation processes are not yet integrated into ‘ICT-assisted greening’. When we control for income levels, the impact of components of tech-nology upgrading on productivity is isolated to specific components and significant only for some income groups. The absence of a significant simultaneous effects of several components of tech-nology upgrading on productivity points to large transformation failures. We conclude that the role of science and technology systems in spurring sustainable development would require a broad scope for science and technology (S&T) policies, their coordination, and integration with non-innovation policies

Arbitrary Phase Vocoders by means of Warping

The Phase Vocoder plays a central role in sound analysis and synthesis, allowing us to represent a sound signal in both time and frequency, similar to a music score – but possibly at much finer time and frequency scales – describing the evolution of sound events. According to the uncertainty principle, time and frequency are not independent variables so that any time-frequency representation is the result of a compromise between time and frequency resolutions, the product of which cannot be smaller than a given constant. Therefore, finer frequency resolution can only be achieved with coarser time resolution and, similarly, finer time resolution results in coarser frequency resolution.While most of the conventional methods for time-frequency representations are based on uniform time and uniform frequency resolutions, perception and physical characteristics of sound signals suggest the need for nonuniform analysis and synthesis. As the results of psycho-acoustic research show, human hearing is naturally organized in nonuniform frequency bands. On the physical side, the sounds of percussive instruments as well as piano in the low register, show partials whose frequencies are not uniformly spaced, as opposed to the uniformly spaced partial frequencies found in harmonic sounds. Moreover, the different characteristics of sound signals at the onset transients with respect to stationary segments suggest the need for nonuniform time resolution. In the effort to exploit the time-frequency resolution compromise at its best, a tight time-frequency suit should be tailored to snuggly fit the sound body.In this paper we overview flexible design methods for phase vocoders with nonuniform resolutions. The methods are based on remapping the time or the frequency axis, or both, by employing suitable functions acting as warping maps, which locally change the characteristics of the time-frequency plane. As a result, the sliding windows may have time dependent duration and/or frequency dependent bandwidth. As an example, in a constant Q frequency band allocation, the ratios of center band frequencies over bandwidth remains constant, so that the frequency bands become wider and wider as center frequency increases, similarly to the frequency distance of 12-tone scale notes or of octaves.While time-frequency allocation can be performed in an arbitrary way, the ability to reconstruct the original signal from Vocoder analysis data is essential in sound processing and transformation applications. Moreover, even the analysis or the production of spectrograms benefits from the perfect reconstruction property if one needs to be confident that no important information is hidden, which serves to completely describe the signal

The association between self-image and defence mechanisms in a group of adolescent patients receiving psychiatric treatment

Aim. The aim of the study was to explore the relationship between various areas of selfimage and defence mechanisms in adolescents. The study included a division into groups according to whether or not they were receiving psychiatric treatment. Methods. Data were obtained from two groups: a clinical group (30 persons), consisting of adolescent patients of the Adolescent Inpatient Ward of the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Clinic and a control group (40 persons), adolescents attending upper secondary school. The Defence Style Questionnaire DSQ-40 and the Offer Self Image Questionnaire were used in the study. Results. Results showed no differences, in the maturity levels of the defence mechanisms, between the two groups. Subjects from the clinical group had a significantly lower self-image of themselves than subjects from the control group.. In both groups, the use of mature defence mechanisms was accompanied by a positive self-image, while the use of less mature defence mechanisms was associated with a lower self-image. Comparison of the groups revealed different relationships between the aspects of self-image and used defence mechanisms, in particular the mechanism of projection. Number of significant correlations was greater in the clinical group. Conclusions. In the context of lower self-image, the study revealed the importance of such defence mechanisms as projection, acting out, somatization or schizoid fantasies. The obtained results seem to confirm a hypothesis that the assessment of the maturity of defence mechanisms in the period of adolescence is less clear and clinically useful

Overview of the existing STI for SDGs roadmapping methodologies

This background paper serves as an Annex to the United Nation’s Guidebook for the Preparation of Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) for SDGs Roadmaps. Its purpose is to provide an overview of the existing methodologies and approaches that can be used to develop the Roadmaps. While the first framework for STI for SDGs Roadmaps has been proposed in the UN Guidebook, multiple United Nations (UN) Agencies and other organisations have developed approaches over the years that can successfully support different steps in the new methodology, depending on the capacity and specific needs of interested countries, subnational territories or international partnerships

Supporting an Innovation Agenda for the Western Balkans - Tools and Methodologies

The Western Balkan region has significantly improved in terms of innovation performance in the last ten years. However, in catching up with other European regions, the focus of innovation efforts should be enhanced. Exports are still far more focused on medium- and low-technology products. Innovative efforts mostly accommodate traditionally strong sectors, which do not necessarily reflect the ideal competitiveness paths for economies in the region. Although some Western Balkan economies record increases in patent activity, patent intensity in the region is still low, while, on the other hand, scientific publication production displays a stable growth trend. While Western Balkan economies are at different stages in the formation of research and innovation (R&I) policy governance systems, national research and innovation policy frameworks are continuously being improved. The enhancement of governance in the area of R&I came as the result of increased capacity building activities in the region, as well as of the real needs emerging as a result of social and economic transformation. On the other hand, R&I systems in the Western Balkan economies need to continue shifting their focus towards businesses to provide better balance between public and private sector orientation. The Joint Research Centre of the European Commission is committed to supporting the shift in innovation policies and improvement of R&I efforts and governance in the Western Balkan economies through a number of tools and activities, allowing policy instruments to be matched with the specific needs of the economy. This approach seeks efficient governance mechanisms for R&I policy by reaching out to the business sector and other important actors of the innovation ecosystem. It determines sustainable development directions for economies and ensures the continuity of policy monitoring and evaluation cycles. This ambitious challenge is translated into four specific lines of activity: (i) the application of the smart specialisation methodology to design and implement innovation strategies; (ii) capacity-building activities for technology transfer, in particular through specialised workshops, tools and instruments specifically designed to assist the academic institutions in the regional economies; (iii) support to transnational collaboration and linkages in the context of EU macro-regional strategies; and (iv) data quality enhancement. The analysis of the development potential of the Western Balkan region in terms of economic, innovative and scientific capabilities in this report is supported with the good practices addressing specific challenges in the region.JRC.B.3-Territorial Developmen