Natural language processing to identify the creation and impact of new technologies in patent text: Code,data, and new measures

We develop natural language processing techniques to identify the creation and impact of new technologies in the population of U.S. patents. We validate the new techniques and their improvement over traditional metrics based on patent classification and citations in two case-control studies. First, we collect patents linked to awards such as the Nobel prize and the National Inventor Hall of Fame. These patents likely cover radically new technologies with a major impact on technological progress and patenting. Second, we identify patents granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office but simultaneously rejected by both the European and Japanese patent office. Such patents arguably lack novelty or cover small incremental advances over prior art and should have little impact on technological progress. We provide open access to code, data, and new measures for all utility patents granted by the USPTO up to May 2018 (see https://zenodo.org/record/3515985, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.3515985).     

Providing knowledge recommendations: an approach for informal electronic mentoring

The use of Web 2.0 technologies for knowledge management is invading the corporate sphere. The Web 2.0 is the most adopted knowledge transfer tool within knowledge intensive firms and is starting to be used for mentoring. This paper presents IM-TAG, a Web 2.0 tool, based on semantic technologies, for informal mentoring. The tool offers recommendations of mentoring contents built upon personal competencies of the mentee, combined with content and opinion tagging. To validate the tool, a case study comparing recommendations from the IM-TAG and a group of experts was conducted. Results show that the accuracy of IM-TAG's recommendations is notable and satisfactory. The main conclusions of this research may be valuable to organizations immersed in mentoring programs.     

Web knowledge sharing and its effect on innovation: an empirical investigation in SMEs

This paper extends previous studies on knowledge management by analysing factors affecting Web Knowledge Sharing (WKS) in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). In addition, the impact of WKS on organizational innovation and the moderating effect of IT skills on this relation are analysed. Grounded in the technology-organization-environment (TOE) theory and the resource-based view (RBV), this paper develops an integrative research model, which analyses these relations using structural equation modelling on a data set of 535 Spanish SMEs. Results suggest that technological and organizational factors – IT expertise and commitment-based human resources practices – positively influence WKS, while the contrary is found for environmental factors (customer power). In addition, results show that WKS contributes positively to organizational innovation, though support for the moderating effect of IT skills in this relation is not found. The main conclusions of this research can be valuable to SMEs that use or intend to use Internet technologies for knowledge management.     

The effect of playing formation on high-intensity running and technical profiles in English FA Premier League soccer matches

The aim of this study was to examine the effect of playing formation on high-intensity running and technical performance during elite soccer matches. Twenty English FA Premier League games were analysed using a multiple-camera computerized tracking system (n = 153 players). Overall ball possession did not differ (P < 0.05) between 4-4-2, 4-3-3 and 4-5-1 formations (50%, s = 7 vs. 49%, s = 8 vs. 44%, s = 6). No differences were observed in high-intensity running between 4-4-2, 4-3-3 and 4-5-1 formations. Compared with 4-4-2 and 4-3-3 formations, players in a 4-5-1 formation performed less very high-intensity running when their team was in possession (312 m, s = 196 vs. 433 m, s = 261 vs. 410 m, s = 270; P 5 0.05) but more when their team was not in possession (547 m, s = 217 vs. 461 m, s = 156 vs. 459 m, s = 169; P < 0.05). Attackers in a 4-3-3 performed ~30% more (P < 0.05) high-intensity running than attackers in 4-4-2 and 4-5-1 formations. However, the fraction of successful passes was highest in a 4-4-2 (P < 0.05) compared with 4-3-3 and 4-5-1 formations. The results suggest that playing formation does not influence the overall activity profiles of players, except for attackers, but impacts on very high-intensity running activity with and without ball possession and some technical elements of performance.     

Asymmetry of red blood cell motions in a microchannel with a diverging and converging bifurcation

In microcirculation, red blood cells (RBCs) flowing through bifurcations may deform considerably due to combination of different phenomena that happen at the micro-scale level, such as: attraction effect, high shear, and extensional stress, all of which may influence the rheological properties and flow behavior of blood. Thus, it is important to investigate in detail the behavior of blood flow occurring at both bifurcations and confluences. In the present paper, by using a micro-PTV system, we investigated the variations of velocity profiles of two working fluids flowing through diverging and converging bifurcations, human red blood cells suspended in dextran 40 with about 14% of hematocrit level (14 Hct) and pure water seeded with fluorescent trace particles. All the measurements were performed in the center plane of rectangular microchannels using a constant flow rate of about 3.0 × 10⁻¹² m³/s. Moreover, the experimental data was compared with numerical results obtained for Newtonian incompressible fluid. The behavior of RBCs was asymmetric at the divergent and convergent side of the geometry, whereas the velocities of tracer particles suspended in pure water were symmetric and well described by numerical simulation. The formation of a red cell-depleted zone immediately downstream of the apex of the converging bifurcation was observed and its effect on velocity profiles of RBCs flow has been investigated. Conversely, a cell-depleted region was not formed around the apex of the diverging bifurcation and as a result the adhesion of RBCs to the wall surface was enhanced in this region.     

Impact sports and bone fractures among adolescents

The objective of the present study was to investigate the effects of different sports on stress fractures among adolescents during a 9-month follow-up period. The sample was composed of 184 adolescents divided into three groups (impact sports [n = 102]; swimming [n = 35]; non-sports [n = 47]). The occurrence of stress fracture was reported by participants and coaches. As potential confounders we considered age, sex, resistance training, body composition variables and age at peak of height velocity. There were 13 adolescents who reported fractures during the 9-month period. Bone mineral density values were higher in adolescents engaged in impact sports (P-value = 0.002). Independently of confounders, the risk of stress fracture was lower in adolescents engaged in impact sports than in non-active adolescents (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.23 [95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.05 to 0.98]), while swimming practice was not associated to lower risk of fracture (HR = 0.49 [95% CI = 0.09 to 2.55]). In conclusion, the findings from this study indicate the importance of sports participation among adolescents in the reduction of stress fracture risk, especially with impact sports. More importantly, these results could be relevant for recognising adolescents in danger of not reaching their potential for peak bone mass and later an increased risk of fractures.     

Validity of a portable force platform for assessing biomechanical parameters in three different tasks

The aim of this study was to determine the precision and accuracy of the vertical and anterior–posterior force components of the portable PASCO PS-2142 force plate. Impulse, peak force, and time to peak force were assessed and compared to a gold standard force plate in three different tasks: vertical jump, forward jump, and sprint start. Two healthy male participants performed ten trials for each task, resulting in 60 trials. Data analyses revealed good precision and accuracy for the vertical component of the portable force plate, with relative bias and root mean square (RMS) error values nearly the same in all tasks for the impulse, time to peak force, and peak force parameters. Precision and accuracy of the anterior–posterior component were lower for the impulse and time to peak force, with relative bias and RMS error values nearly the same between tasks. Despite the lower precision and accuracy of the anterior–posterior component of the portable force plate, these errors were systematic, reflecting a good repeatability of the measure. In addition, all variables presented good agreement between the portable and gold standard platforms. Our results provide a good perspective for using the aforementioned portable force plate in sports and clinical biomechanics.     

Book reviews

Psychology of the Junior High‐School Pupil. By L. A. Peckstein (University of Cincinnati) and A. Laura McGregor (Rochester, N. Y., Public Schools). Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1924. Pp. xxii + 280. Price, $2.

Modern Methods in Teaching. By H. B. Wilson, George C. Kyte, and H. G. Lull. New York: Silver, Burdett & Co., 1924. Pp. vi + 286. Price, $1.64.

Elementary School Costs in the State of New York. By R. O. Stoops. A report reviewed and presented by the Educational Finance Inquiry Commission under the auspices of the American Council on Education, Washington, D. C. New York: Macmillan Co., 1924.

The Cost and Support of Secondary Schools in the State of New York. By Charles W. Hunt. A report reviewed and presented by the Educational Finance Inquiry Commission under the auspices of the American Council on Education, Washington, D. C. New York: Macmillan Co., 1924.

Interesting Neighbors. By Oliver P. Jenkins. Philadelphia: P. Blakiston's Sons & Co., 1922. Pp. xi + 248.

The Humanizing of Knowledge. By J. H. Robinson. New York: George H. Doran Company, 1923. Pp. ix + 117. Price, $1.50.

Education of Gifted Children. By Lula M. Stedman (University of California, Southern Branch). Yonkers‐on‐Hudson: World Book Co., 1924. Pp. viii+ 192. Price, $1.80.     

“It’s not them,it’s me”: competing discourses in one aspiring teacher’s talk

In this paper, we deploy M.M. Bakhtin’s notions about how language works to understand aspiring teachers’ struggles about the intersecting roles race, class, gender, language background, and sexual orientation play in students’ school lives and learning. Through life-history interviews and document analysis, we investigated the authoritative and internally persuasive discourses one aspiring teacher brought with her and took from a 15-week long course on a predominantly White Midwestern public university campus. Ideas she encountered in the course and its required tutoring component challenged her thinking about how various facets of people’s lives (such as those we list above) and the contexts in which they live, work and are schooled, affect how they are perceived, what they know, and can do.