This paper has three objectives: (1) to survey the relevant literature addressing the (apparent) paradox of Research & Development investments carried out within Small and Medium Enterprises; (2) to provide focused summaries of the articles in this special issue; (3) to draw some general conclusions in terms of policy implications.
This paper applies Data Envelopment Analysis [DEA] methodology to the evaluation of regional innovation system performance based on information provided by the European Innovation Scoreboard [EIS] for 2002 and 2003. We find that those European regions ranked in the EIS as showing better performance in high-technology areas, are ranked somewhat differently according to DEA. The results of our study show that the higher the technological level of a region, the greater is the need for system coordination. Where this is lacking there is a loss of performance efficiency compared to other similar regions. Policy making in relation to Regional Innovation Systems (RIS) has in the past depended on systemic analysis. Here, we propose a methodology that combines quantitative and qualitative analyses to enrich the knowledge base for future policy decision making
BackgroundIrreversible electroporation (IRE) is a tissue ablation method, which relies on the phenomenon of electroporation. When cells are exposed to a sufficiently electric field, the plasma membrane is disrupted and cells undergo an apoptotic or necrotic cell death. Although heating effects are known IRE is considered as non-thermal ablation technique and is currently applied to treat tumors in locations where thermal ablation techniques are contraindicated.Materials and methods.The manufacturer of the only commercially available pulse generator for IRE recommends a voltage-to-distance ratio of 1500 to 1700 V/cm for treating tumors in the liver. However, major blood vessels can influence the electric field distribution. We present a method for treatment planning of IRE which takes the influence of blood vessels on the electric field into account; this is illustrated on a treatment of 48-year-old patient with a metastasis near the remaining hepatic vein after a right side hemi-hepatectomy.ResultsOutput of the numerical treatment planning method shows that a 19.9 cm3 irreversible electroporation lesion was generated and the whole tumor was covered with at least 900 V/cm. This compares well with the volume of the hypodense lesion seen in contrast enhanced CT images taken after the IRE treatment. A significant temperature raise occurs near the electrodes. However, the hepatic vein remains open after the treatment without evidence of tumor recurrence after 6 months.ConclusionsTreatment planning using accurate computer models was recognized as important for electrochemotherapy and irreversible electroporation. An important finding of this study was, that the surface of the electrodes heat up significantly. Therefore the clinical user should generally avoid placing the electrodes less than 4 mm away from risk structures when following recommendations of the manufacturer.
Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. www.econstor.eu The main objective of this study is to investigate the impact of corporate R&D activities on firms' performance, measured by labour productivity. To this end, the stochastic frontier technique is applied, basing the analysis on a unique unbalanced longitudinal dataset consisting of 532 top European R&D investors over the period [2000][2001][2002][2003][2004][2005]. R&D stocks are considered as pivotal input in order to control for their particular contribution to firm-level efficiency. Conceptually, the study quantifies the technical inefficiency of a given company and tests empirically whether R&D activities could explain the distance from the efficient boundary of the production possibility set, i.e. the production frontier. From a policy perspective, the results of this study suggest that -if the aim is to leverage companies' productivity -emphasis should be put on supporting corporate R&D in high-tech sectors and, to some extent, in medium-tech sectors. By contrast, supporting corporate R&D in the lowtech sector turns out to have a minor effect. Instead, encouraging investment in fixed assets appears vital for the productivity of low-tech industries. However, with regard to firms' technical efficiency, R&D matters for all industries (unlike capital intensity). Hence, the allocation of support for corporate R&D seems to be as important as its overall increase and an 'erga omnes' approach across all sectors appears inappropriate. Terms of use: Documents in D I S C U S S I O N P A P E R S E R I E S JEL Classification:L2, O3
BACKGROUND: Thyroid carcinomas represent the most frequent endocrine malignancies. Recent studies were able to distinguish malignant from benign nodules of the thyroid gland with diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI). Although this differentiation is undoubtedly helpful, presurgical discrimination between well-differentiated and undifferentiated carcinomas would be crucial to define the optimal treatment algorithm. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate if readout-segmented multishot echo planar DWI is able to differentiate between differentiated and undifferentiated subtypes of thyroid carcinomas. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Fourteen patients with different types of thyroid carcinomas who received preoperative DWI were included in our study. In all lesions, apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC)min, ADCmean, ADCmax, and D were estimated on the basis of region of interest measurements after coregistration with T1-weighted, postcontrast images. All tumors were resected and analyzed histopathologically. Ki-67 index, p53 synthesis, cellularity, and total and average nucleic areas were estimated using ImageJ version 1.48. RESULTS: Analysis of variance revealed a statistically significant difference in ADCmean values between differentiated and undifferentiated thyroid carcinomas (P = .022). Spearman Rho calculation identified significant correlations between ADCmax and cell count (r = 0.541, P = .046) as well as between ADCmax and total nuclei area (r = 0.605, P = .022). CONCLUSION: DWI can distinguish between differentiated and undifferentiated thyroid carcinomas.
Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte.
address economic and policy questions related to industrial research and innovation and their contribution to European competitiveness. Mainly aimed at policy analysts and the academic community, these are scientific papers (relevant to and highlighting possible policy implications) and proper scientific publications which are typically issued when submitted to peer-reviewed scientific journals. The working papers are useful for communicating preliminary research findings to a wide audience to promote discussion and feedback.
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