The economic impact of technological and organizational innovations. A firm-level analysis

By using firm-level data provided by the last round of the (Italian) Community Innovation Survey (CIS4) this paper explores (in a manufacturing-services comparative framework) the relationship between technological and non-technological innovations and their impact on firms’ performances. The empirical evidence presented shows that including the organizational dimension of innovation provides a much more comprehensive picture of the variegated universe of innovation in both macro-sectors. Four distinct innovation modes have been identified on the basis of the ways firms combine technological and non-technological innovations. These different modes of innovation are present and relevant in both manufacturing and service sectors and have been found to have a differentiated impact on firms’ performances. Strategies characterized by the joint introduction of product, process and organizational innovations have been found to give to both manufacturing and service firms a clear competitive advantage vis à vis both non-innovating firms and firms with a narrow approach to innovation. A few significant differences between services and manufacturing firms in the relevance and economic impact of different types of innovation strategies have also been found.     

Youth perceptions of violence against women through a sexist chant in the football stadium: an exploratory analysis

Gender-based violence and violence against women (VAW) refers to any violation of fundamental rights. However, some forms of VAW are viewed as unproblematic, acceptable and deserved. Taking into account that sexist chants in football stadiums reinforce VAW, the purpose of the study is to determine how a group of adolescents can normalize or challenge an example of sexist chants. Semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted and the participants were asked to discuss to what extent the actions could be considered as gender-based violence. Most of the youth were highly unconscious of the sexist nature of the video and only a few recognized it as gender-based violence. Such awareness is essential in order to recognize the discrimination and prejudices, but especially, characteristic of VAW in football stadiums. Therefore, the implementation of a new pedagogy in order to reduce VAW in and outside the school is absolutely mandatory.     

An advanced church heating system favourable to artworks: A contribution to European standardisation

The European project Friendly-Heating (FH): comfortable to people and compatible with conservation of artworks preserved in churches addressed the problems caused by the continuous or intermittent heating of historic churches, which disturbs the microclimatic conditions to which the building and the artworks preserved inside have acclimatised. As thermal comfort and the preservation of artworks often conflict with each other, a balance between the two needs is necessary. The proposed heating strategy is to provide a small amount of heat directly to people in the pew area while leaving the conditions in the church, as a whole, undisturbed. This novel heating system is based on some low-temperature radiant emitters mounted in a pew to provide a desirable distribution of heat to the feet, legs and hands of people occupying it. Due to little heat dispersion, this novel system not only significantly reduces the risk of mechanical stress in wooden artworks and panel or canvas paintings, fresco soiling and cyclic dissolution-recrystallization of soluble salts in the masonry, but is energy-efficient. The detailed environmental monitoring was conducted in the church of Santa Maria Maddalena in Rocca Pietore, Italy over a 3-year period to verify the performance of the novel heating system in comparison to the warm-air system that was active earlier in the church. The methodology and results of this comprehensive and multidisciplinary study were included in three draft standards of the European Committee for Standardisation intended for use in the study and control of environments of cultural heritage objects.     

Science in Quarantine: Academic Physics in Spain (1750–1900)

The incorporation of Physics as a subject matter in secondary school and universities was a long and controversial process. First, because of religious tensions; later, due to political tensions that, in some way, also had to do with religious belief. In 1857 the Faculties of Sciences were created in Spain. From that time onward the problems for the teaching of physics diminished considerably. At the same time, the first steps were taken toward the development of research in the physical sciences.     

Differences in field dependence-independence cognitive style as a function of socioeconomic status,sex, and cognitive competence

This study analyzes the field dependence-independence (FDI) cognitive style—ascertained and measured by means of the Children's Embedded Figures Test (CEFT) — as a function of socioeconomic status, sex, and cognitive competence — measured on the McCarthy Scales—in 7-year-old children. The tests were administered to 117 subjects, of whom 79 were of low socioeconomic status (50 girls and 29 boys) and 38 were of upper-middle socioeconomic status (20 girls and 18 boys). All subjects were in their second year of primary education. Subjects of upper-middle socioeconomic status achieved significantly higher scores than did subjects of low socioeconomic status on the five McCarthy Scales and on the FDI variable. The sex variable produced differences only in the FDI variable, where boys scored higher than girls. Perceptual ability explains 22.84% of the FDI variance; verbal ability is excluded from the regression equation that analyzes such dependence. Finally, the interpretation of FDI as a stylistic or cognitive variable is discussed.     

Focusing of visual attention at rest and during physical exercise in soccer players

In this study, we investigated the focus of visual attention in expert soccer players together with the effects of acute bouts of physical exercise on performance. In two discriminative reaction time experiments, which were performed both at rest and under submaximal physical workload, visual attention was cued by means of spatial cues of different size followed by compound stimuli with local and global target features. Soccer players were slower than non-athletes in reacting to local compared with global targets, but were faster in switching from local to global attending. Thus, soccer players appear to be less skilled in local attending, but better able than non-athletes to rapidly "zoom out" the focus of attention. Non-athletes generally showed faster performance under physical load, as expected according to the hypothesis of exercise-induced increases in arousal and/or activation and in resource allocation. In contrast, soccer players showed a more differentiated pattern of exercise-induced facilitation that selectively affects specific components of the attentional performance and is interpreted by referring to the role played by individual expertise and cognitive effort.     

Delayed preconditioning-mimetic actions of exercise or nitroglycerin do not affect haemodynamics and exercise performance in trained or sedentary individuals

Nitroglycerin induces the so-called second window of protection (SWOP), which alleviates myocardial damage and stunning after ischaemia/reperfusion. To determine whether myocardial performance during exercise is improved in the second window of protection, we studied the haemodynamic responses of 12 trained and 11 sedentary individuals during a sequence of maximal tests on a cycle ergometer. A baseline test (basal test) was followed by a second effort performed during the second window of protection (exercise-SWOP test). Haemodynamics was also evaluated after pharmacologically induced SWOP 48 h after transdermal administration of 10 mg of nitroglycerin (pharmacologically induced SWOP test). The exercise-SWOP and pharmacologically induced SWOP tests were separated by a 1-week washout period. Endothelial-dependent vasodilatation after nitroglycerin pre-treatment was also assessed in five sedentary individuals to determine whether nitrate donors could affect vascular function. We found that nitroglycerin pre-treatment did not induce any improvement in haemodynamics in either trained or sedentary individuals, since maximum values of workload, heart rate, stroke volume, cardiac output, myocardial contractility, and double product were similar between the exercise-SWOP and pharmacologically induced SWOP tests in both groups. Furthermore, nitroglycerin pre-treatment did not alter flow-mediated dilation during pharmacologically induced SWOP. Although nitroglycerin pre-treatment alleviates post-ischaemic myocardial stunning, our results suggest that it does not affect the myocardial performance of healthy individuals during exercise performed in the second window of protection, independently of the training status of the individuals. Moreover, nitroglycerin pre-treatment does not ameliorate endothelial function.