Regional distribution of the knowledge based economy in the eu: towards an oligocentric model?

The emergence of new economic activities is a driving force of economic growth and its geography is clearly controversial. But the Knowledge-Based Economy (K-BE) is something more than new activities, it is also about the ongoing renewal of all economic activities. And this increasing knowledge intensity of every activity could have an effect on the geography of large part of industries. In this paper we aims to contribute to a better understanding of the geography of Knowledge-Based Economy (K-BE), by an empirical examen of its geographic concentration across European regions. To do so we classify economic activities into six sectors according to its knowledge/technology intensity and we analyse its concentration patterns at the EU regional level (nuts 2). The six sectors we set-up are: High, Medium and Low Knowledge Intensive Services and High, Medium and Low Tech Manufacturing. The data has been provided by the REGIO database (Eurostat). At the same time, we also try to capture the regional specialisation patterns. The results regarding concentration show that the higher the knowledge/technology content of the economic activity, the higher its concentration level is. Besides, we found that some services activities (the high knowledge intensive ones), present similar concentration levels than high or medium tech manufacturing. On the other hand, regarding specialisation the most outstanding result is the clear predominance of metropolitan regions in the highest knowledge/technology intensive activities (particularly in the case of services). Altogether, the picture delivered on a whole viewpoint is one where a reinforced oligocentric model remains in Europe, while relativelly reshaping its appearence: southern German regions leading high and medium tech manufacturing and the English Southeast leading high knowledge-intensive services, but sharing all of them its relevance with a peak range of growing state metropolis (particularly capitals) from both northern and southern Europe. Key words: regional concentration,knowledge intensive activities,oligocentric model.

NY-ESO-1-Specific Circulating CD4+ T Cells in Ovarian Cancer Patients Are Prevalently TH1 Type Cells Undetectable in the CD25+FOXP3+Treg Compartment

Spontaneous CD4+ T-cell responses to the tumor-specific antigen NY-ESO-1 (ESO) are frequently found in patients with epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC). If these responses are of effector or/and Treg type, however, has remained unclear. Here, we have used functional approaches together with recently developed MHC class II/ESO tetramers to assess the frequency, phenotype and function of ESO-specific cells in circulating lymphocytes from EOC patients. We found that circulating ESO-specific CD4+ T cells in EOC patients with spontaneous immune responses to the antigen are prevalently TH1 type cells secreting IFN-γ but no IL-17 or IL-10 and are not suppressive. We detected tetramer+ cells ex vivo, at an average frequency of 1∶25000 memory cells, that is, significantly lower than in patients immunized with an ESO vaccine. ESO tetramer+ cells were mostly effector memory cells at advanced stages of differentiation and were not detected in circulating CD25+FOXP3+Treg. Thus, spontaneous CD4+ T-cell responses to ESO in cancer patients are prevalently of TH1 type and not Treg. Their relatively low frequency and advanced differentiation stage, however, may limit their efficacy, that may be boosted by immunogenic ESO vaccines

Designing a policy package for the promotion of servicising: A case study of vineyard crop protection in Galicia (Spain)

<p>The servicising approach in vineyard protection is considered a valid alternative to achieve decoupling between the economic and environmental performance of viticulture. In this paper, a policy package is designed to promote the uptake of a servicised model of vineyard protection in an area of smallholding viticulture. In doing so, a specific methodology based on a step by step protocol has been followed that aims to come up with a package that is effective, implementable and socially as well as politically acceptable. The paper concludes on the importance of combining several policy instruments in a policy package to realise the political objective. The proposed viable policy package includes incentives that support the companies’ shift towards offering crop protection solutions, further development of IPM solutions and instruments that encourage farmers to reduce the use of pesticides and collectively hire crop protection services.</p