Indigenous and foreign innovation efforts and drivers of technological upgrading:evidence from China

This paper explores the role of indigenous and foreign innovation efforts in technological upgrading in developing countries, taking into account sectoral specificities in technical change. Using a Chinese firm-level panel dataset covering 2001–05, the paper decomposes productivity growth into technical change and efficiency improvement and examines the impact of indigenous and foreign innovation efforts on these changes. Indigenous firms are found to be the leading force on the technological frontier in the low- and medium-technology industries, while foreign-invested firms enjoy a clear lead in the high-technology sector. Collective indigenous R&D activities at the industry level are found to be the major driver of technology upgrading of indigenous firms that push out the technology frontier. While foreign investment appears to contribute to static industry capabilities, R&D activities of foreign-invested firms have exerted a significant negative effect on the technical change of local firms over the sample period.

A prototype bone screw design for osteoporotic bone

Poster. Introduction: One in five menand one half of women over the age of 50 will experience a bone fracture, whichis frequently accompanied by poor bone health. This combination of poor bonehealth and fracture is a two edge sword, because not only does poor bone healthmake fractures more likely, it also reduces the efficacy of standard fracturetreatments. Currently available surgical fixation devices that were originallydeveloped for healthy bone, such as pins, plates and bone screws, are often noteffective for patients with osteoporosis, resulting in unsatisfactory outcomesor longer and more painful recovery times. One major issue is the design ofbone screws, which can loosen or pull-out from osteoporotic bone. Osteopenicscrews with larger outer thread diameters have been developed to try andaddress this problem. The larger diameter screws have been shown to be 60–70 %stronger in lab tests of individual screws but the larger diameter screwscannot be used with the standard spacing in fixation plates without the risk ofcausing fractures between the screws. In addition, many fractures occur nearjoints where there is not room to increase the spacing between screws.Therefore, new bone screws are needed for treatment of fractures in osteoporoticbone. Materials and Methods: Afterdeveloping a novel bone screw design, we fabricated screws using rapidprototyping methods. Screws were inserted into 10 pcf density sawbones polyurethanefoam as a model for osteoporotic bone. Pull-out tests were conducted using theprototype bone screw design and the standard screw design for comparison inaccordance with ASTM 543-13. Results and Discussion: Ourprototype screws have the same outer diameter as standard bone screws, but haveoptimised threads. For pull-out tests in 10 psf density sawbones poly-urethanefoam, the prototype screw design was 60 % stronger than the standard bone screwdesign (p<0.01). Conclusion: Our novel bonescrew design provides significant improvement in standard tests with syntheticbone material. Additional tests are needed to determine if the bone screwswould be suitable for human trials.

Foreign and domestic investment:regional development or crowding out?

This paper tests, at the regional and industry level, the extent to which domestic investment is stimulated or crowded out by inward foreign direct investment. The paper develops a model of domestic investment, based on standard models drawn from macroeconomics and industrial economics. The paper then goes on to show that, at a general level, the 'development' or agglomeration hypothesis is confirmed that domestic investment is indeed stimulated by inward investment. However, there is also evidence that, in certain regions, inward investment has crowded out domestic investment. The implications of this from the perspective of regional policy are briefly discussed.

Getting the most out of multidisciplinary teams: a multi-sample study of team innovation in health care

Driven by the assumption that multidisciplinarity contributes positively to team outcomes teams are often deliberately staffed such that they comprise multiple disciplines. However, the diversity literature suggests that multidisciplinarity may not always benefit a team. This study departs from the notion of a linear, positive effect of multidisciplinarity and tests its contingency on the quality of team processes. It was assumed that multidisciplinarity only contributes to team outcomes if the quality of team processes is high. This hypothesis was tested in two independent samples of health care workers (N = 66 and N = 95 teams), using team innovation as the outcome variable. Results support the hypothesis for the quality of innovation, rather than the number of innovations introduced by the teams.

Use of complementary and alternative medicine and self-tests by coronary heart disease patients

Background: Coronary heart disease patients have to learn to manage their condition to maximise quality of life and prevent recurrence or deterioration. They may develop their own informal methods of self-management in addition to the advice they receive as part of formal cardiac rehabilitation programmes. This study aimed to explore the use of complementary and alternative medicines and therapies (CAM), self-test kits and attitudes towards health of UK patients one year after referral to cardiac rehabilitation. Method: Questionnaire given to 463 patients attending an assessment clinic for 12 month follow up in four West Midlands hospitals. Results: 91.1% completed a questionnaire. 29.1% of patients used CAM and/or self-test kits for self-management but few (8.9%) used both methods. CAM was more often used for treating other illnesses than for CHD management. Self-test kit use (77.2%,) was more common than CAM (31.7%,) with BP monitors being the most prevalent (80.0%). Patients obtained self-test kits from a wide range of sources, for the most part (89.5%) purchased entirely on their own initiative. Predictors of self-management were post revascularisation status and higher scores on 'holism', 'rejection of authority' and 'individual responsibility'. Predictors of self-test kit use were higher `holism' and 'individual responsibility' scores. Conclusion: Patients are independently using new technologies to monitor their cardiovascular health, a role formerly carried out only by healthcare practitioners. Post-rehabilitation patients reported using CAM for self-management less frequently than they reported using self-test kits. Reports of CAM use were less frequent than in previous surveys of similar patient groups. Automatic assumptions cannot be made by clinicians about which CHD patients are most likely to self-manage. In order to increase trust and compliance it is important for doctors to encourage all CHD patients to disclose their self-management practices and to continue to address this in follow up consultations.

Statnote 6: post-hoc ANOVA tests

If data are analysed using ANOVA, and a significant F value obtained, a more detailed analysis of the differences between the treatment means will be required. The best option is to plan specific comparisons among the treatment means before the experiment is carried out and test them using ‘contrasts’. In some circumstances, post-hoc tests may be necessary and experimenters should think carefully which of the many tests available should be used. Different tests can lead to different conclusions and careful consideration as to the appropriate test should be given in each circumstance.

The predictive ability of clinical tests for contact lens induced dry eye

Approximately half of current contact lens wearers suffer from dryness and discomfort, particularly towards the end of the day. Contact lens practitioners have a number of dry eye tests available to help them to predict which of their patients may be at risk of contact lens drop out and advise them accordingly. This thesis set out to rationalize them to see if any are of more diagnostic significance than others. This doctorate has found: (1) The Keratograph, a device which permits an automated, examiner independent technique for measuring non invasive tear break up time (NITBUT) measured NITBUT consistently shorter than measurements recorded with the Tearscope. When measuring central corneal curvature the spherical equivalent power of the cornea was measured as being significantly flatter than with a validated automated keratometer. (2) Non-invasive and invasive tear break-up times significantly correlated to each other, but not the other tear metrics. Symptomology, assessed using the OSDI questionnaire, correlated more with those tests indicating possible damage to the ocular surface (including LWE, LIPCOF and conjunctival staining) than with tests of either tear volume or stability. Cluster analysis showed some statistically significant groups of patients with different sign and symptom profiles. The largest cluster demonstrated poor tear quality with both non-invasive and invasive tests, low tear volume and more symptoms. (3) Care should be taken in fitting patients new to contact lenses if they have a NITBUT less than 10s or an OSDI comfort rating greater than 4.2 as they are more likely to drop-out within the first 6 months. Cluster analysis was not found to be beneficial in predicting which patients will succeed with lenses and which will not. A combination of the OSDI questionnaire and a NITBUT measurement was most useful both in diagnosing dry eye and in predicting contact lens drop out.