Fiber bragg gratings:advances in fabrication process and tools

Successful commercialization of a technology such as Fiber Bragg Gratings requires the ability to manufacture devices repeatably, quickly and at low cost. Although the first report of photorefractive gratings was in 1978 it was not until 1993, when phase mask fabrication was demonstrated, that this became feasible. More recently, draw tower fabrication on a production level and grating writing through the polymer jacket have been realized; both important developments since they preserve the intrinsic strength of the fiber. Potentially the most significant recent development has been femtosecond laser inscription of gratings. Although not yet a commercial technology, it provides the means of writing multiple gratings in the optical core providing directional sensing capability in a single fiber. Femtosecond processing can also be used to machine the fiber to produce micronscale slots and holes enhancing the interaction between the light in the core and the surrounding medium. © 2011 Bentham Science Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

US Screening and Evaluation System of Inventions Utilized in Hungary

The commercialization of inventions is very complex and challenging therefore it requires the collaboration of several actors in an economy. Even when an invention possesses significant added value, its successful commercialization could only be executed in a stable macroeconomic and innovation environment and also if proper innovation management expertise is provided. ValDeal Innovations Zrt. was established to foster the commercialization of Hungarian, high business potential inventions by providing its business expertise. The company used an – already in various markets and countries probed – US innovation management method consisting of the tasks of technology evaluation as well as the commercialization of inventions. There were major changes necessary while probing the US method residing in the different macroeconomic circumstances and the attitudes for innovation in Hungary. The article details the above mentioned issues together with the conclusions the members of ValDeal have drawn during the innovation management process.

Avaliação térmica e desempenho do processo de secagem de misturas de graviola e leite em secador de leito de jorro

The soursop (A. muricata) is a fruit rich in minerals especially the potassium content. The commercialization of soursop in natura and processed has increased greatly in recent years. Drying fruit pulp in order to obtain the powdered pulp has been studied, seeking alternatives to ensure the quality of dehydrated products at a low cost of production. The high concentration of sugars reducing present in fruits causes problems of agglomeration and retention during fruit pulp drying in spouted bed dryers. On the other hand in relation to drying of milk and fruit pulp with added milk in spouted bed, promising results are reported in the literature. Based on these results was studied in this work drying of the pulp soursop with added milk in spouted bed with inert particles. The tests were based on a 24 factorial design were evaluated for the effects of milk concentration (30 to 50% m/m), drying air temperature (70 to 90 °C), intermittency time (10 to 14 min), and ratio of air velocity in relation to the minimum spout (1.2 to 1.5) on the rate of production, of powder moisture, yield, rate of drying and thermal efficiency of the process. There were physical and chemical analysis of mixtures, of powders and of mixtures reconstituted by rehydration powders. Were adjusted statistical models of first order to data the rate of production, yield and thermal efficiency, that were statistically significant and predictive. An efficiency greater than 40% under the conditions of 50% milk mixture, at 70 ° C the drying air temperature and 1.5 for the ratio between the air velocity and the minimum spout has been reached. The intermittency time showed no significant effect on the analyzed variables. The final product had moisture in the range of 4.18% to 9.99% and water activity between 0.274 to 0.375. The mixtures reconstituted by rehydration powders maintained the same characteristics of natural blends.

Biometria de frutos e sementes, crescimento e produção de mudas de Campomanesia adamantium Blume e Campomanesia pubescens O. Berg

Campomanesia adamantium and Campomanesia pubescens are morphologically similar, occur in the same regions of the Cerrado, are difficult to differentiate and exhibit naturally slow growth and development. The objectives of this study were to analyze fruit and seed biometric data, emergence capacity and seedling growth characteristics. Fruit from both species was collected and used to measure biometric data of the fruit and seeds and to set up two emergence and two seedling growth experiments. C. adamantium fruit is round and has wider, pale yellow seeds while C. pubescens fruit is ellipsoidal to pyriform with yellow gold seeds. C. adamantium’s greater fresh fruit mass and biometric variability favors selection of promising material for commercialization. Seed drying reduced the speed and rate of seedling emergence of C. adamantium, but had no effect on C. pubescens. Leaf number, height, shoot dry weight and the ratio of shoot dry weight to root dry weight were greater in C. adamantium than in the slower growing C. pubescens. Increases in substrate volume favor seedling development. Slow-release fertilizer application at 1g per 115 cm3 substrate increased leaf formation, plant height and shoot dry weight of seedlings of both species and lateral budding in C. adamantium. Until 120 days after transplant, lateral budding was not observed in C. pubescens seedlings. For all traits evaluated in this experiment, C. adamantium seedling growth was greater than that of C. pubescens.

Institutions, Innovation, and Grassroots Change: Alternatives to Transnational Governance in the Global South

Transnational governance has been advanced as a viable option for regulating commodities produced in emerging economies—where incapable or unwilling states may undersupply institutions requisite for overseeing supply chains consistent with the quality, safety, environmental, or social standards demanded by the global marketplace. Producers from these jurisdictions, otherwise left with few venues for securing market access and price premiums, ostensibly benefit from whatever pathways transnational actors offer to minimize barriers to entry—including voluntary certification for compliance with a panoply of public and private rules, such as those promulgated by NGOs like the Fair Trade Federation or multinational retailers like Wal-Mart. Yet, such transnational “sustainability” governance may neither be effective nor desirable. Regulatory schemes, like third-party certification, often privilege the interests of primary architects and beneficiaries—private business associations, governments, NGOs, and consumers in the global North—over regulatory targets—producers in the global South. Rather than engaging with the international marketplace via imported and externally-driven schemes, some producer groups are instead challenging existing rules and innovating homegrown institutions. These alternatives to commercialization adopt some institutional characteristics of their transnational counterparts yet deliver benefits in a manner more aligned with the needs of producers. Drawing on original empirical cases from Nicaragua and Mexico, this dissertation examines the role of domestic institutional alternatives to transnational governance in enhancing market access, environmental quality and rural livelihoods within producer communities. Unlike the more technocratic and expert-driven approaches characteristic of mainstream governance efforts, these local regulatory institutions build upon the social capital, indigenous identity, “ancestral” knowledge, and human assets of producer communities as new sources of power and legitimacy in governing agricultural commodities.

A Market Study of Organic and Fair Trade Coffee in Bolivia

The purpose of this research is to study the commercialization of Fairtrade and Organic coffee in the Bolivia. Fairtrade and Organic coffee are alternative trade systems designed to promote the equitable and environmentally sustainable production of coffee. However, these alternative trading systems often fail to meet these goals. The producers and environment these systems are intended to protect remain marginalized. These failures are due to a number of local institutions. In order to better understand these institutions, this research conducted interviews of various stakeholders including producers, cooperative leaders, organic/Fair Trade certifiers, government agencies and private buyers. All these stakeholders influence the success of the alternative trade systems. By better understanding how these stakeholders impact the commercialization of coffee in Bolivia; new policies can be develop to improve the outcomes of alternative trade, to benefit both producers and the environment. This is especially critical in Bolivia because of the environmentally sensitive area in which coffee is grown, the potentially damaging impact of coca on the region and, the devastating economic impact to farmers.

From science gateways to commercial solutions

The European CloudSME project that incorporated 24 European SMEs, besides five academic partners, has finished its funded phase in March 2016. This presentation will provide a summary of the results of the project, and will analyze the challenges and differences when developing “SME Gateways”, when compared to “Science Gateways”. CloudSME started in 2013 with the aim to develop a cloud-based simulation platform for manufacturing and engineering SMEs. The project was based around industry use-cases, five of which were incorporated in the project from the start, and seven additional ones that were added as an outcome of an open call in January 2015. CloudSME utilized science gateway related technologies, such as the commercial CloudBroker Platform and the WS-PGRADE/gUSE Gateway Framework that were developed in the preceding SCI-BUS project. As most important outcome, the project successfully implemented 12 industry quality demonstrators that showcase how SMEs in the manufacturing and engineering sector can utilize cloud-based simulation services. Some of these solutions are already market-ready and currently being rolled out by the software vendor companies. Some others require further fine-tuning and the implementation of commercial interfaces before being put into the market. The CloudSME use-cases came from a very wide application spectrum. The project implemented, for example, an open marketplace for micro-breweries to optimize their production and distribution processes, an insole design validation service to be used by podiatrists and shoe manufacturers, a generic stock management solution for manufacturing SMEs, and also several “classical” high-performance computing case-studies, such as fluid dynamics simulations for model helicopter design, and dual-fuel internal combustion engine simulation. As the project generated significant impact and interest in the manufacturing sector, 10 CloudSME stakeholders established a follow-up company called CloudSME UG for the future commercialization of the results. Besides the success stories, this talk would also like to highlight the difficulties when transferring the outcomes of an academic research project to real commercial applications. The different mindset and approach of academic and industry partners presented a real challenge for the CloudSME project, with some interesting and valuable lessons learnt. The academic way of supporting SMEs did not always work well with the rather different working practices and culture of many participants. Also, the quality of support regarding operational solutions required by the SMEs is well beyond the typical support services academic institutions are prepared for. Finally, a clear lack of trust in academic solutions when compared to commercial solutions was also imminent. The talk will highlight some of these challenges underpinned by the implementation of the CloudSME use-cases.

Commodification of health care systems: The Catalan case

Commodification of the public healthcare system has been a growing process in recent decades, especially in universal healthcare systems and in high-income countries like Spain.  There are substantial differences in the healthcare systems of each autonomous region of Spain, among which Catalonia is characterized by having a mixed healthcare system with complex partnerships and interactions between the public and private healthcare sectors.  Using a narrative review approach, this article addresses various aspects of the Catalan healthcare system, characterizing the privatization and commodification of health processes in Catalonia from a historical perspective with particular attention to recent legislative changes and austerity measures.  The article approximates, the eventual effects that commodification and austerity measures will have on the health of the population and on the structure, accessibility, effectiveness, equity and quality of healthcare services.

Looking for Determinants of Ontological Security in the Spain of the Crisis

The concept of ontological security has a remarkable echo in the current sociology to describe emotional status of men of late modernity. However, the concept created by Giddens in the eighties has been little used in empirical research covering various sources of risk or uncertainty. In this paper, a scale for ontological security is proposed. To do this, we start from the results of a research focused on the relationship between risk, uncertainty and vulnerability in the context of the economic crisis in Spain. These results were produced through nine focus groups and a telephone survey with standardized questionnaire applied to a national sample of 2,408 individuals over 18 years. This work is divided into three main sections. In the fi rst, a scale has been built from the results of the application of different items present in the questionnaire used. The second part explores the relationships of the scale obtained with the variables further approximate the emotional dimensions of individuals. The third part observes the variables that contribute to changes in the scale: These variables show the structural feature of the ontological security.

La estructuración del espacio urbano y productivo de Gadir durante la fase urbana clásica: Cambios y perduraciones

La reafirmación del modelo político-administrativo ciudadano tras la fase arcaica colonial abre una nueva etapa de prosperidad en la antigua fundación tiria. El esplendor de Gadir en el s. V a.C. se refleja en los textos clásicos y en los hallazgos arqueológicos y, sin embargo, nuestros conocimientos sobre el desarrollo histórico de la ciudad de época púnica son muy limitados. El horizonte arcaico comienza a esclarecerse tras los hallazgos del Teatro Cómico que han sacado a la luz los restos de la fundación tiria y, sin embargo, la ciudad posterior continúa siendo una gran incógnita. ¿A qué lugar se traslada la población una vez que se abandona el asentamiento primitivo? ¿Quiénes son los individuos enterrados en los excepcionales sarcófagos antropoides? ¿Qué relación jerárquica existe entre el asentamiento insular y los situados en tierra firme? ¿Qué papel jugó la industria y comercialización de las salazones? Los interrogantes planteados son múltiples y no hacen más que evidenciar la incapacidad del paradigma tradicional para explicar el desarrollo histórico de la Gadir postcolonial y la necesidad de buscar nuevos modelos interpretativos.

A simply effective double-coating cathode with MnO2 nanosheets/graphene as functionalized interlayer for high performance lithium-sulfur batteries

Herein, we report a facile and effective adsorption strategy to improve the performance of Lithium-Sulfur (Li-S) batteries. MnO₂ nanosheets grown on the surface of highly conductive graphene resulted in a coupled composite bilayer electrode when coated onto a sulfur cathode. In this way, a high initial specific capacity of 1395 mA h g^-1 at a rate of 0.5C, a coulombic efficiency approaching 100% and steady cyclic efficiency with a fade rate of 0.3% per cycle from 10 to 100 cycles has been achieved. This hybrid electrode not only shows enhanced electrochemical performance but can also be easily controlled and scaled thereby aiding future commercialization of high-performance Li-S batteries.

Essential scientific mapping of the value chain of thermochemical converted second-generation bio-fuels

As the largest contributor to renewable energy, biomass (especially lignocellulosic biomass) has significant potential to address atmospheric emission and energy shortage issues. The bio-fuels derived from lignocellulosic biomass are popularly referred to as second-generation bio-fuels. To date, several thermochemical conversion pathways for the production of second-generation bio-fuels have shown commercial promise; however, most of these remain at various pre-commercial stages. In view of their imminent commercialization, it is important to conduct a profound and comprehensive comparison of these production techniques. Accordingly, the scope of this review is to fill this essential knowledge gap by mapping the entire value chain of second-generation bio-fuels, from technical, economic, and environmental perspectives. This value chain covers i) the thermochemical technologies used to convert solid biomass feedstock into easier-to-handle intermediates, such as bio-oil, syngas, methanol, and Fischer-Tropsch fuel; and ii) the upgrading technologies used to convert intermediates into end products, including diesel, gasoline, renewable jet fuels, hydrogen, char, olefins, and oxygenated compounds. This review also provides an economic and commercial assessment of these technologies, with the aim of identifying the most adaptable technology for the production of bio-fuels, fuel additives, and bio-chemicals. A detailed mapping of the carbon footprints of the various thermochemical routes to second-generation bio-fuels is also carried out. The review concludes by identifying key challenges and future trends for second-generation petroleum substitute bio-fuels.

Supportrars åsikt om samhällsansvar : En studie om supportrars attityd till samhällsansvar utöver kärnverksamheten

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) är i grunden ett företagsbegrepp som på senare år allt mer börjat prägla idrottsvärlden. CSR är ett samlingsbegrepp på aktiviteter som utförs för att främja samhället. Anledningarna till att idrottsföreningar väljer att engagera sig i frågor som berör samhället är många men, inom Sverige har den idrottsliga kommersialiseringen och professionaliseringen bidragit till att elitidrottsföreningar arbetar med CSR-frågor utöver kärnverksamheten. Elitidrottsföreningar skapar stort medialt intresse och supportrar är en av elitidrottsföreningarnas primära intressenter som bidrar till framgång. Alla supportrar har inte samma engagemang eller åsikter i frågor rörande föreningen. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka svenska elitidrottsföreningars supportrars attityd till CSR-arbete utöver kärnverksamheten samt jämföra om attityden skiljer sig mellan supportrar baserat på supporteridentifikation. För att uppnå syftet gjordes en kvantitativ enkätundersökning av supportrar till Hammarby Fotboll. Av totalt 96 respondenter identifierades 44 med lägre och 52 med högre supporteridentifikation. Resultatet visade att attityden mellan respondentgrupperna skiljde sig på det sätt att den högre identifikationsgruppen lutade åt en negativ attityd samtidigt som den lägre identifikationsgruppen var neutral med en marginell negativ lutning. Studien landade i att skillnaderna var marginella och att båda grupperna tolkas neutrala vilket ger slutsatsen att CSR utöver kärnverksamheten har ringa betydelse för supportrar oavsett identifikation.

Parques tecnologicos - propondo um modelo conceitual para regioes urbanas - o parque tecnologico de Sao Paulo

Tese (Doutoramento)