Modelling the joint impact of R&D and ICT on productivity: A frontier analysis approach

This study explores the channels through which technological investments affect productivity performance of industrialized economies. Using a Stochastic Frontier Model (SFM) we estimate the productivity effects of R&D and ICT for a large sample of OECD industries between 1973 and 2007, identifying four channels of transmission: input accumulation, technological change, technical efficiency and spillovers. Our results show that ICT has been particularly effective in reducing production inefficiency and in generating inter-industry spillovers, while R&D has raised the rate of technical change and favoured knowledge spillovers within sectors. We also quantify the contribution of technological investments to output and total factor productivity growth documenting that R&D and ICT accounted for almost 95% of productivity growth in the OECD area.     

Context and quantitative dimension of social conventional transgressions: Is it more serious at home or at school?

The aim of this experiment was to know whether the same transgressions were judged of different seriousness depending on their context of occurrence, and whether subjects’ judgements varied according to age. Sixty subjects participated in the experiment, 20 4-year-olds, 20 8-year-olds, and 20 adults. Four cases of transgression of social conventional rules were examined. Each transgression occurred in four contexts. Subjects compared the contexts of each transgression in pairs in all combinations. For each age group, data were analyzed by means of Kruskal’s scaling in order to rank the contexts of each transgression, and by means of correspondence analysis to relate transgressions and contexts with each other. Results show that children of both ages are quite consistent in their ranking of contexts. They differ from adults who, instead, consider transgressions to be more context-specific. Results are discussed for their theoretical value and in relation to the concept of context.     

Action Research,History and the Images of Science

God dwells among the details, not in realm of pure generality. (Could, 1989)     

The value of neurosurgical and intraoperative magnetic resonance imaging and diffusion tensor imaging tractography in clinically integrated neuroanatomy modules: A cross‐sectional study

Neuroanatomy is considered to be one of the most difficult anatomical subjects for students. To provide motivation and improve learning outcomes in this area, clinical cases and neurosurgical images from diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) tractographies produced using an intraoperative magnetic resonance imaging apparatus (MRI/DTI) were presented and discussed during integrated second‐year neuroanatomy, neuroradiology, and neurosurgery lectures over the 2008–2011 period. Anonymous questionnaires, evaluated according to the Likert scale, demonstrated that students appreciated this teaching procedure. Academic performance (examination grades for neuroanatomy) of the students who attended all integrated lectures of neuroanatomy, was slightly though significantly higher compared to that of students who attended these lectures only occasionally or not at all (P=0.04). Significantly better results were obtained during the national progress test (focusing on morphology) by students who attended the MRI/DTI‐assisted lectures, compared to those who did so only in part or not at all, compared to the average student participating in the national test. These results were obtained by students attending the second, third and, in particular, the fourth year (P≤0.0001) courses during the three academic years mentioned earlier. This integrated neuroanatomy model can positively direct students in the direction of their future professional careers without any extra expense to the university. In conclusion, interactive learning tools, such as lectures integrated with intraoperative MRI/DTI images, motivate students to study and enhance their neuroanatomy education. Anat Sci Educ 6: 294–306. © 2013 American Association of Anatomists.