Innovation Systems and Knowledge-Intensive Enterpreneurship: a Country Case Study of Poland

This study surveys the current state of affairs in Poland with regard to the development of knowledge-intensive entrepreneurship (KIE), or new firm creation in industries considered to be science-based or to use research and development (R&D) intensively. We place KIE in Poland in the larger institutional context, outlining the key features of the country’s National Innovation System, and then focus on KIE itself. Our findings are perhaps more optimistic than many previous studies of knowledge-based economy development in Poland. We observe significant progress due to Polish access to the European Union. The frequency with which universities are playing a significant role as partners for firms in the innovation process has increased significantly; moreover, we observe a significant degree of internationalization of innovation-related cooperation. Another optimistic development is that the level of activity of venture capitalists seems to be fairly high in Poland considering the relatively low degree of development of capital markets offering VC investors exit opportunities. Moreover, after almost two decades of decline in the share of R&D spending in GDP, there are signs that this is beginning to rise, and that businesses are beginning to spend more on R&D. While demand-side problems continue to be significant barriers for the development of KIE, due to the relatively low level of education and GDP per capita in the country, the trends here are optimistic, with high rates of economic growth and improvements in the level of education of younger generations. Significant improvement is still needed in the area of intellectual property protection

Exciton, Excimer, Exciplex: Study of Triplet State Harvesting in Organic Molecules for Organic Light-Emitting Diode Applications

Triplet state harvesting is an important issue in the area of organic electronics, including organic light emitting diode (OLED) technology that has already entered the global market. In the aim to achieve efficient light-emitting diodes the photophysical properties of OLED emitters need to be understood in great detail. This work is devoted to triplet state harvesting in OLEDs. In this work a set of triplet-harvesting systems comprising exciton, excimer or exciplex emitters are characterized and used to fabricate prototype devices. The first system is based on metal-free emitters, using acridone or phenothiazine, which show thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) or room-temperature phosphorescence (RTP). The competition between the rate of deactivation pathways affecting the triplet state and the reverse intersystem crossing (RISC) rate determine whether these molecules emit through TADF or RTP. The second system explores the effects of different substitution patterns on the properties of excitonic tetradentate ONNO Pt(II) complexes, and their performance in OLEDs, revealing a complicated host-to-guest energy transfer mechanism in doped films. The third work in this thesis explores the properties of newly synthesized Pt(II) metal complexes that have been found to efficiently form photoluminescent excimers and have strong potential to be used in solution-processed OLED devices. The photophysical characterisation of these complexes doped in film has revealed co-existence of excimer and aggregate emissions. Finally, the last two works in this thesis are focused on small molecule and polymer-based exciplex blends that exhibit efficient TADF emissions and can be used to fabricate solution-processed or vacuum-deposited OLEDs. The photophysics of these exciplex systems is characterised in-depth and undoubtedly demonstrates that local triplet states are not involved in the RISC process in this blends, which is in clear contrast with most exciton small molecule TADF systems. Furthermore, in this work a clear rationale for the observation of emission decaying in power law regimes is obtained for the first time.

Trust in ME: CBB Access Services Collaboration

Colby, Bates and Bowdoin (CBB) College libraries have a thirty-year history of working closely with one another that has created an extraordinary level of mutual trust. In 2010 we completed a 3-year Mellon funded collections grant, and as a result CBB agreed to share a single approval plan that automatically sends a single title to be shared by the three schools. CBB created a formal governance structure to coordinate the many aspects of our increased collaboration which embraces four major areas of our activities, one of which is Access Services. The group consults on and informs policies and procedures that impact all three libraries. Access Services sta have worked to implement standard loan policies for CBB faculty and students and provide a shared delivery service. CBB collections collaboration would not have been able to go forward had these loan policies, quick turnaround practices and e cient delivery not been in place. In the near future, the group will be looking to coordinate lost and missing procedures and evaluate reconciliation measures. Going forward, CBB Access Services anticipates many other issues that will need discussion as we present CBB collections as one. CBB Access Services sta would like to share some of the high (and challenging) points of our collaborative journey