An SOS for the Yangtze cetacean:No trace of the Baiji is spotted in a recent survey

Not a single river dolphin or Baiji (Lipotes vexillifer) was sighted during a 38-day desperate search along the Yangtze River, reports grievingly by a recently concluded scientific expedition. Although it was still too early to announce     

New technology-based firms in Germany: a survey of the recent evidence

The importance and contribution of new technology-based firms (NTBFs) to long-term economic development is at the centre of a controversial debate. This paper provides an overview of the current status of research on various issues concerning NTBFs in Germany. The issues covered include the incidence of start-up firms in Germany's technology-intensive sectors and their regional clustering. The review also shows that NTBFs play an important role with regard to the transfer, adoption and diffusion of technology. The public support and policy initiatives for NTBFs in Germany are also discussed.     

Foreign technology in the Spanish economy: An analysis of the recent evolution

The discussion about the future role to be played by countries like Spain in the new international division of labor has a crucial point in the availability of technological inputs in such a way that allows us to deal with the accumulation process better than we did in the past. In the 1960s and even the 1950s, the very important growth of the Spanish economy depended very much on the massive importation of foreign technology, as we show in the first part of the work. The deficiencies of the inner innovation system made access to the foreign technology a vicious circle ruling any movement towards more complex stages of industrialization.Several important events took place throughout the 1970s (the international crisis, the political change in Spain, etc.) and this is why we are trying to find signs of change in the conditions of the innovation process. Even though the available data is not as good as the question requires, analysis of the recent information allows us to reach the conclusion that the general framework still remains the same. The R&D effort continues to be very poor and the importation of foreign technology dominates the industrial production even during a very dramatic stagnation of the economic activity.     

Behind the recent surge of Chinese patenting: An institutional view

This paper examines a number of forces that have possibly contributed to the explosive growth of Chinese patenting over the past decade. After a review of previous hypotheses and conventional wisdom, this study proposes an additional explanation and argues that patent subsidy programs implemented by each provincial region have played an important role in the growth of Chinese patenting. This institutional change, taking place at the province-level, has induced an increase in patent propensity among not only firms, universities, and research institutes, but also individuals. Empirical evidence based on publicly available data provides solid support for this argument. It was also found that a larger fraction of applications are granted patent rights since the implementation of such programs, suggesting that reduction in patent application quality may not be a serious concern, unless the criteria used for patent examination have been lowered.     

没有标准答案教学的一席之地——政治课教学的一点体会

提高政治课教育教学的质量,提倡没有＂标准答案＂的教学是一种有益探索。改变教师＂一言堂＂、教师＂照本宣科＂的教学模式,让学生不再把政治课学习当成一种负担,而是一种探索人生的乐趣,一种认识社会的途径,一种帮助自己成长的良师益友。没有＂标准答案＂的教学比之＂金科玉律＂式的机械灌输,更能调动学生强烈的好奇心,引导学生探究事物的强烈兴趣,最大限度地激发学生想象力、创造力,让政治课教学中所得到的丰富的、长久的、终身受益的东西融合在他们的生命之中。     

No inventor is an island: Social connectedness and the geography of knowledge flows in the US

Do informal social ties connecting inventors across distant places promote knowledge flows between them? To measure informal ties, we use a new and direct index of social connectedness of regions based on aggregate Facebook friendships. We use a well-established identification strategy that relies on matching inventor citations with citations from examiners. Moreover, we isolate the specific effect of informal connections, above and beyond formal professional ties (co-inventor networks) and geographic proximity. We identify a significant and robust effect of informal ties on patent citations. Further, we find that the effect of geographic proximity on knowledge flows is entirely explained by informal social ties and professional networks. We also show that the effect of informal social ties on knowledge flows is greater for new entrepreneurs or ‘garage inventors’, for older or ‘forgotten’ patents, and for flows across distant technology fields. It has also become increasingly important over the last two decades.     

基于供应链的技术创新协同动因研究

总结企业参与基于供应链的技术创新协同的四个动因:技术创新本身发展的要求、降低不确定性和风险、发挥资源和能力的互补效应、供应链专业化和一体化的推动,并对上述动因进行了相应解释.     

再论长江三角洲可持续发展战略

长江三角洲包括江苏省 8个市、浙江省 6个市及上海市 ,面积 10万平方公里 ,占全国陆地面积的1% ,是我国经济最发达地区之一 ,在全国地位十分重要。 1996— 1997年 ,中国科学院曾组织江、浙、沪的 30多位院士和专家对长江三角洲进行考察 ,提出了许多重要建议 ,供有关规划部门参考。考察报告已于 1999年底出版。但那次考察由于时间关系对某些问题未作详细论述 ,兹根据最近研究 ,补充如下。1　全球变化与长江三角洲可持续发展全球变化和可持续发展是世界科学研究的热点 ,两者有密切的相互关系。 1990年以来 ,国际上全球变化研究已从纯基础理论…     

长三角地区制造业创新能力省际比较研究

本文基于层次分析法构建了由创新投入能力、创新产出能力和创新支撑能力三方面组成的区域制造业创新能力评价体系,并以此对上海,江苏,浙江的制造业创新能力进行了综合评价.研究表明上海制造业的创新能力发展速度要慢于江苏和浙江.一些优势已经被江苏和浙江取代.江苏由于产业结构较好,其制造业创新能力已经领先上海和浙江.浙江制造业的创新能力发展速度很快,在一些指标上已经处于领先地位.文章最后针对上海、江苏、浙江的不同情况分别给出了一些建议和对策.     

Verification policies in Croatian medical biochemistry laboratories: a survey of the practice

IntroductionThe aim of this study was to screen practices used in verification procedures for methods/analysers among medical biochemistry laboratories (MBLs) in Croatia. We hypothesized that these procedures differ widely from laboratory to laboratory and wanted to gather specific data on steps used in the verification workflow.Materials and methodsIn order to obtain data, an online survey was conducted. The survey, divided in two sections, contained 29 questions and statements addressing general characteristics and specific steps of the verification workflow of each individual MBL. The survey was disseminated among managers of all MBLs in Croatia.ResultsA total of 108/196 (55%) laboratories participated in the survey. Forty nine MBLs were excluded from the second part of the survey: 14 have not implemented verification procedures, and 35 MBLs due to the absence of answers. The most relevant results of the second part of the survey showed that: 18/59 (0.31) of the responding MBLs have difficulties when defining acceptance criteria, 27/59 (0.46) used the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute protocol for precision estimation; the majority of MBLs used a median of 20 samples for method/analyser comparisons and estimated bias using internal quality control samples; reference intervals provided by external sources are mainly adopted; 60% of MBLs do not include linearity verification in their protocol and do not use the national document for the estimation of measurement uncertainty.ConclusionsHeterogeneous verification protocols are routinely utilized across Croatian MBLs which clearly confirms that a national document might help in the harmonization of verification procedures.