32,996 research outputs found
Promoting innovation in developing countries: a conceptual framework
The author provides a conceptual framework for approaching the promotion of technological innovation and its diffusion in developing countries. Innovation climates in developing countries are, by nature, problematic, characterized by poor business and governance conditions, low educational levels, and mediocre infrastructure. This raises particular challenges for the promotion of innovation. The latter should be understood as the diffusion of technologies-and related practices-which are new to a given context (not in absolute terms). What matters first is to provide the necessary package of support-technical, financial, commercial, legal, and so on-with flexible, autonomous agencies adapting their support and operations to the different types of concerned enterprises. Facilitating and responding to the emergence of grass-root needs at the local level is also essential. Support to entrepreneurs and local communities should be primarily provided in matching grant forms to facilitate the mobilization of local resources and ownership. It is of primary importance to pay the greatest attention to country specificities, not only in terms of development level, size, and specialization, but also in terms of administrative and cultural traditions. At the global level, major issues need also to be considered and dealt with by appropriate incentives and regulations: the role of foreign direct investment in developing countries'technological development, conditions of technologies'patenting and licensing, the North-South research asymmetry, and brain drain trends.Innovation,Environmental Economics&Policies,Agricultural Research,Poverty Assessment,Health Monitoring&Evaluation
Level curvatures, spectral statistics and scaling for interacting particles
The mobility of two interacting particles in a random potential is studied,
using the sensitivity of their levels to a change of boundary conditions. The
delocalization in Hilbert space induced by the interaction of the two particle
Fock states is shown to decrease the mobility in metals and to increase it in
insulators. In contrast to the single particle case, the spectral rigidity is
not directly related to the level curvature. Therefore, another curvature of
topological origin is introduced, which defines the energy scale below which
the spectrum has the universal Wigner-Dyson rigidity.Comment: 4 pages, RevTe
Excimer laser treatment of ZE41 magnesium alloy for corrosion resistance and microhardness improvement
We would like to acknowledge the financial support of the ââConseil regional de PACAââ and Protection des Metaux dâArenc). The authors are grateful to PMAâs engineers Ms. E. Castellan, Ms. A. Gonthier and Mr. F. Miretti for their help and assistance with the salt-spray testsA laser surface melting treatment (LSMT) was performed on a ZE41 Mg-alloy using an excimer KrF laser. The laser-melted layer depth depends on the laser scan speed. The morphology and the microstructure of the laser-melted surface were characterized, thanks to the scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The melted Mg-alloy presented a homogenous distribution of the alloying elements in the magnesium matrix. The laser surface melting treatment increased the microhardness of the ZE41 Mg-alloy and improved its corrosion resistance
Friction behavior of laser cladding magnesium alloy against AISI 52100 steel
The use of magnesium alloys in engineering applications is becoming increasingly important as a relatively low density allows savings in energy consumption and therefore reduction in air pollution. An associated reduction in inertia makes these alloys potential candidates for friction components, but they suffer from poor wear resistance. Laser surface alloying with appropriate powder mixture is an innovative technique to improve surface properties of metallic alloys. In this study, the effect of laser surface alloying using Al12%Si powder on wear resistance of a magnesium alloy ZE41 is investigated. Hardness and wear resistance of the alloy are significantly enhanced after treatment
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