The pits and falls of graphical presentation

Graphics are powerful tools to communicate research results and to gain information from data. However, researchers should be careful when deciding which data to plot and the type of graphic to use, as well as other details. The consequence of bad decisions in these features varies from making research results unclear to distortions of these results, through the creation of “chartjunk” with useless information. This paper is not another tutorial about “good graphics” and “bad graphics”. Instead, it presents guidelines for graphic presentation of research results and some uncommon, but useful examples to communicate basic and complex data types, especially multivariate model results, which are commonly presented only by tables. By the end, there are no answers here, just ideas meant to inspire others on how to create their own graphics.     

Design and environmental technologies: Does ‘green-matching’ actually help?

This paper investigates whether a green kind of design helps firms increase their capabilities for inventing in the environmental domain and whether it does so more than ‘standard’ design. It also investigates whether the effect of ‘green-matching’ between new design and technologies is conditional on firms’ innovative capabilities, as reflected by their R&D expenditure. We address these research questions with respect to the world's top R&D investors, looking at their intellectual property rights at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and proposing an original textual identification of green designs and trademarks. We find that green design increases environmental inventions by top R&D investors, and to a greater extent than non-environmental ones. Standard design also stimulates environmental inventions, but to a lesser extent than green design. The ‘green-matching’ actually helps, but internal innovative capabilities are required to make it effective: a green-tech ‘prize’ emerges from green design, but only once a minimum threshold of R&D expenditure has been reached.     

Schools in the shadow of terrorism: Psychosocial adjustment and interest in interventions following terror attacks

Following terrorist events, teachers and nonteaching school personnel are important in helping children recover, yet little is known about their willingness to assist with this. We surveyed 399 employees from a Washington, D.C.‐area school district following terror attacks (September 11, 2001, attacks; sniper shootings) about their exposure, adjustment, interest, and involvement in psychosocial interventions. Between 10% and 27% experienced one or more symptoms of posttraumatic stress (depending on category of symptom) in the month prior to the survey. Regression analyses revealed that peritraumatic distress, behavior change, and posttraumatic growth predicted interest in information on psychosocial interventions. Feeling prepared, adaptively managing work responsibilities, and perceiving an increase in student problems were related to intervening with students. Implications for school preparedness are discussed. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The effect of torsional shoe sole stiffness on knee moment and gross efficiency in cycling

Altering torsional stiffness of cycling shoe soles may be a novel approach to reducing knee joint moments and overuse injuries during cycling. We set out to determine if the magnitude of three-dimensional knee moments were different between cycling shoe soles with different torsional stiffnesses. Eight trained male cyclists cycled at 90% lactate threshold power output in one of two cycling shoe conditions in a randomized crossover design. The shoe sole was considered torsionally flexible (FLEX) compared to a relatively stiffer (STIFF) sole. Gross efficiency (GE) and knee joint moments were quantified. No significant effect of shoe condition was seen in GE (21.4 ± 1.1% and 20.9 ± 1.6% for FLEX and STIFF, respectively, P = 0.12), nor in three-dimensional knee moments. 4 of the 8 subjects had reduced knee moments in at least 2 of the 3 moment directions. These “responders” were significantly shorter (1.73 ± 0.02 m vs 1.81 ± 0.04 m, P = 0.017) and had a higher relative maximal aerobic power (MAP) (4.6 ± 0.3 W?kg-1 vs 3.9 ± 0.3 W?kg-1, P = 0.024) compared to non-responders. These results suggest that certain shoe characteristics may influence certain individuals differently because these participants belong to different “functional groups”; certain individuals may respond positively to FLEX, while others may not. Further studies should test this proposed hypothesis.     

The influence of isometric preload on power expressed during bench press in strength-trained men

The purpose of this study was to compare the power expressed during the bench press exercise in resistance-trained men following different pre-activation conditions. Twenty-two trained men (age 24.1?±?1.7 years, height 178.6?±?6.1?cm, body mass 81.1?±?10.6?kg) completed a maximal effort bench press (1-RM) test (100.0?kg?±?8.1?kg). In a subsequent assessment, each participant performed concentric bench press movements with loads of 20%, 30%, 40% and 50% of their 1-RM preceded by either a concentric contraction (CC), a low isometric preload (LIP; 70% 1-RM) or a high isometric preload (HIP; 100% 1-RM) conditions. All movements were performed in a Smith machine with a settable quick-release device. Participants performed all three conditions in randomized fashion. Results indicated that power outputs during the bench press exercise following HIP were significantly (p?<?0.05) greater than CC at 20% 1-RM (+9%), 30% 1-RM (+16%) and 40% 1-RM (+14%), and LIP at 20% 1-RM (+4%), 30% 1-RM (+20%) and 40% 1-RM (+15%). No differences were found between conditions at 50% 1-RM. Area under the force–power curve with HIP was greater (p?<?0.05) than with CC and LIP. In conclusion, results of this study indicate that the use of a HIP (100% 1-RM) in trained participants results in significantly greater power output during the concentric phase of a multi-joint exercise when compared to standard concentric movement.     

Brave old world: Accounting for ‘high-tech’ knowledge in ‘low-tech’ industries

‘Lower-tech’ sectors are still commonly regarded as unusual suspects in the modern process of innovation and economic change. In this paper we try to understand better how organisations specialising in traditional businesses have been transformed by a period of paradigm-shift such as the one that characterised the final decades of the twentieth century. We focus on a population of nearly 500 of the world's largest innovative companies to assess the extent to which companies belonging to ‘old-economy’ sectors have been developing cutting-edge knowledge about clusters of new technologies such as ICT, new materials and biotechnology. We find that ‘non-high-tech’ corporations transformed their patent portfolios in a non-trivial way. Companies in mature trades contributed significantly to the development of technologies that are at the core of the so-called Third Industrial Revolution.     

Knowledge-intensive consumer services. Understanding KICS in the innovative global health-care sector

This paper explores a case of knowledge-intensive consumer services (KICS). Services have become less neglected in the economics of technical change and innovation studies in general; nevertheless, the advance of this agenda has been uneven. A significant emphasis has been on knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS). Despite their direct impact on social needs and individual desires, innovation in consumer-oriented services continues to be relatively under-theorized and under-researched. This paper brings into focus the sources and patterns of innovation in those innovative services that target human satisfaction and well-being as a final goal. We show evidence from a little-explored health industry, oral care. We address Malo Clinic, a company specialized in the most complex patient situations and a rare instance of an internationalized firm in the health services business. On the basis of a 20-year thread of corporate history, we find that a wide array of qualitative (interviews, newspaper coverage, marketing material) and quantitative evidence (papers, patents, trademarks) illuminates some of the features that may characterize a particular class of dynamic activities tending to consumers’ needs, expectations and quality of life. We argue that these key characteristics may be on course to become more general as the learning economy spreads to fully embrace the realm of the service sphere. One conclusion is that both the technological and non-technological capabilities underpinning more types of innovation are increasingly becoming coupled in consumer-relevant services.     

Chemical analyses of ancient glass findings excavated in the Venetian lagoon

Although Venice is regarded as being one of the most important centres of glass manufacture and trade in Western Europe, little is known about the origins of the Venetian glassmaking. Some archaeologists suggest there is a continuity in the history of glass making, in its transplantation from the Roman centres of the mainland (Altino and Aquileia), first to some islands of the lagoon, and later to the town. Some others, instead, think that there was no continuity at all and that the art of glassmaking was imported in Venice from the Islamic glass factories of the Middle East. Of great help in answering this and other technological questions is the information about the composition of ancient glass from well-dated excavations that allows to conclude on the early technology, sources of raw materials and long-distance trade. Some significant glass findings, including fragments of pots used for glass melting, were found on the island of Torcello and, more recently, in two emergency excavations in the historic centre of Venice. In this paper, the chemical composition of a large set of glass findings (and related materials) from the Venetian lagoon dating from the 7th to the 13th centuries is determined by X-ray microanalysis in order to throw new light on the glassmaking technology in the early centuries of the Venetian tradition. The results show that in this period there occurred a gradual transition from the Roman technique (a two-ingredient formulation with silica-lime sand and natron as a fluxer), towards the use of silica sand and soda plant ash. There is evidence, therefore, for a production continuity with the Roman period (melting pots and glass scraps with a natron-based composition), yet restricted to transparent blown items. No evidence was found for a local production of glass tesserae for the mosaics of the church of St. Maria Assunta in Torcello.     

Trademarks as an indicator of innovation and industrial change

As innovation becomes an ever more central issue for the development of firms and world economies, so the need for improved assessments of innovative performance grows more urgent. This paper suggests that trademark analysis can contribute in capturing relevant aspects of innovation phenomena and the process of industrial change. We propose trademarks as a complementary indicator in the portfolio of available empirical tools of innovation studies and industrial dynamics. Our empirical exploration is based on a study of community trade marks (CTM), an intellectual property right granted in the European Union, and draws on recent research on trademarking trends in Portugal. Quantitative as well as qualitative data, including survey data from a representative sample of Portuguese manufacturing and services firms, are used to identify the advantages and limitations of this indicator.