Fiber flows in global paper and pulp industry. A panel data approach.

The purpose of this thesis is to study factors that explain the bilateral fiber trade flows. This is done by analyzing bilateral trade flows during 1990-2006. It will be studied also, whether there are differences between fiber types. This thesis uses a gravity model approach to study the trade flows. Gravity model is mostly used to study the aggregate data between trading countries. In this thesis the gravity model is applied to single fibers. This model is then applied to panel data set. Results from the regression show clearly that there are benefits in studying different fibers in separate. The effects differ considerably from each other. Furthermore, this thesis speaks for the existence of Linder’s effect in certain fiber types.

Building legitimacy by criticising the pharmaceutical industry: a qualitative study among prescribers and local opinion leaders.

PRINCIPLES: The literature has described opinion leaders not only as marketing tools of the pharmaceutical industry, but also as educators promoting good clinical practice. This qualitative study addresses the distinction between the opinion-leader-as-marketing-tool and the opinion-leader-as-educator, as it is revealed in the discourses of physicians and experts, focusing on the prescription of antidepressants. We explore the relational dynamic between physicians, opinion leaders and the pharmaceutical industry in an area of French-speaking Switzerland. METHODS: Qualitative content analysis of 24 semistructured interviews with physicians and local experts in psychopharmacology, complemented by direct observation of educational events led by the experts, which were all sponsored by various pharmaceutical companies. RESULTS: Both physicians and experts were critical of the pharmaceutical industry and its use of opinion leaders. Local experts, in contrast, were perceived by the physicians as critical of the industry and, therefore, as a legitimate source of information. Local experts did not consider themselves opinion leaders and argued that they remained intellectually independent from the industry. Field observations confirmed that local experts criticised the industry at continuing medical education events. CONCLUSIONS: Local experts were vocal critics of the industry, which nevertheless sponsor their continuing education. This critical attitude enhanced their credibility in the eyes of the prescribing physicians. We discuss how the experts, despite their critical attitude, might still be beneficial to the industry's interests.

Growth Strategies in Pulp and Paper Industry: An Empirical Investigation on Profitability Effects

This study investigates whether there are differences in profitability of PPI companies based on the growth strategy they have chosen to follow. It is examined whether those companies following organic growth strategy are more profitable than those companies following acquisitive growth strategy. It is also investigated are ones larger than the others, or are ones growing faster than the others. Also, the factors affecting the profitability of acquisitive companies are further examined. The results showed that there actually are differences between the two groups. Organically grown companies were found to be more profitable, smaller and growing slower than acquisitive companies. When it comes to examining only acquisitive companies there could be found factors that better or worsen the profitability of companies. For example targets that the company has bought in developing markets were making them more profitable.

Clustering and international competitiveness of information technology industry in the Saint Petersburg area

The main objective of this study is to assess the potential of the information technology industry in the Saint Petersburg area to become one of the new key industries in the Russian economy. To achieve this objective, the study analyzes especially the international competitiveness of the industry and the conditions for clustering. Russia is currently heavily dependent on its natural resources, which are the main source of its recent economic growth. In order to achieve good long-term economic performance, Russia needs diversification in its well-performing industries in addition to the ones operating in the field of natural resources. The Russian government has acknowledged this and started special initiatives to promote such other industries as information technology and nanotechnology. An interesting industry that is basically less than 20 years old and fast growing in Russia, is information technology. Information technology activities and markets are mainly concentrated in Russia’s two biggest cities, Moscow and Saint Petersburg, and areas around them. The information technology industry in the Saint Petersburg area, although smaller than Moscow, is especially dynamic and is gaining increasing foreign company presence. However, the industry is not yet internationally competitive as it lacks substantial and sustainable competitive advantages. The industry is also merely a potential global information technology cluster, as it lacks the competitive edge and a wide supplier and manufacturing base and other related parts of the whole information technology value system. Alone, the industry will not become a key industry in Russia, but it will, on the other hand, have an important supporting role for the development of other industries. The information technology market in the Saint Petersburg area is already large and if more tightly integrated to Moscow, they will together form a huge and still growing market sufficient for most companies operating in Russia currently and in the future. Therefore, the potential of information technology inside Russia is immense.

Beyond pure public and pure private management models: Mixed firms in the European Airport Industry

The use of private funding and management enjoys an increasing trend in airports. The literature has not paid enough attention to the mixed management models in this industry, although many European airports take the form of mixed firms or Institutional PPP, where ownership is shared between public and private sectors. We examine the determinants of the degree of private participation in the European airport sector. Drawing on a sample of the 100 largest European airports we estimate a multivariate equation in order to determine the role of airport characteristics, fiscal variables and political factors on the extent of private involvement. Our results confirm the alignment between public and private interests in PPPs. Fiscal constraints and market attractiveness promote private participation. Integrated governance models and the share of network carriers prevent the presence of private ownership, while the degree of private participation appears to be pragmatic rather than ideological.

Recovery Risk and Labor Costs in Public-Private Partnerships : Contractual Choice in the US Water industry

We use an ordered logistic model to empirically examine the factors that explain varying degrees of private involvement in the U.S. water sector through public-private partnerships. Our estimates suggest that a variety of factors help explain greater private participation in this sector. We find that the risk to private participants regarding cost recovery is an important driver of private participation. The relative cost of labor is also a key factor in determining the degree of private involvement in the contract choice. When public wages are high relative to private wages, private participation is viewed as a source of cost savings. We thus find two main drivers of greater private involvement: one encouraging private participation by reducing risk, and another encouraging government to seek out private participation in lowering costs.

Regulatable and modulable background expression control in prokaryotic synthetic circuits by auxiliary repressor binding sites.

Expression control in synthetic genetic circuitry, for example, for construction of sensitive biosensors, is hampered by the lack of DNA parts that maintain ultralow background yet achieve high output upon signal integration by the cells. Here, we demonstrate how placement of auxiliary transcription factor binding sites within a regulatable promoter context can yield an important gain in signal-to-noise output ratios from prokaryotic biosensor circuits. As a proof of principle, we use the arsenite-responsive ArsR repressor protein from Escherichia coli and its cognate operator. Additional ArsR operators placed downstream of its target promoter can act as a transcription roadblock in a distance-dependent manner and reduce background expression of downstream-placed reporter genes. We show that the transcription roadblock functions both in cognate and heterologous promoter contexts. Secondary ArsR operators placed upstream of their promoter can also improve signal-to-noise output while maintaining effector dependency. Importantly, background control can be released through the addition of micromolar concentrations of arsenite. The ArsR-operator system thus provides a flexible system for additional gene expression control, which, given the extreme sensitivity to micrograms per liter effector concentrations, could be applicable in more general contexts.

Cue-dependent circuits for illusory contours in humans.

NlmCategory="UNASSIGNED">Objects' borders are readily perceived despite absent contrast gradients, e.g. due to poor lighting or occlusion. In humans, a visual evoked potential (VEP) correlate of illusory contour (IC) sensitivity, the "IC effect", has been identified with an onset at ~90ms and generators within bilateral lateral occipital cortices (LOC). The IC effect is observed across a wide range of stimulus parameters, though until now it always involved high-contrast achromatic stimuli. Whether IC perception and its brain mechanisms differ as a function of the type of stimulus cue remains unknown. Resolving such will provide insights on whether there is a unique or multiple solutions to how the brain binds together spatially fractionated information into a cohesive perception. Here, participants discriminated IC from no-contour (NC) control stimuli that were either comprised of low-contrast achromatic stimuli or instead isoluminant chromatic contrast stimuli (presumably biasing processing to the magnocellular and parvocellular pathways, respectively) on separate blocks of trials. Behavioural analyses revealed that ICs were readily perceived independently of the stimulus cue-i.e. when defined by either chromatic or luminance contrast. VEPs were analysed within an electrical neuroimaging framework and revealed a generally similar timing of IC effects across both stimulus contrasts (i.e. at ~90ms). Additionally, an overall phase shift of the VEP on the order of ~30ms was consistently observed in response to chromatic vs. luminance contrast independently of the presence/absence of ICs. Critically, topographic differences in the IC effect were observed over the ~110-160ms period; different configurations of intracranial sources contributed to IC sensitivity as a function of stimulus contrast. Distributed source estimations localized these differences to LOC as well as V1/V2. The present data expand current models by demonstrating the existence of multiple, cue-dependent circuits in the brain for generating perceptions of illusory contours.

Governance mode vs. governance fit: Performance implications of make-or-ally choices for product innovation in the worldwide aircraft industry, 1942-2000

We examine the impact of governance mode and governance fit on performance in make-or-ally decisions. We argue that while horizontal collaboration and autonomous governance have direct and countervailing performance implications, the alignment of make-or-ally choices with the focal firm's resource endowment and the activity's resource requirements leads to better performance. Data on the aircraft industry show that relative to aircraft developed autonomously, collaborative aircraft exhibit greater sales but require longer time-to-market. However, governance fit increases unit sales and reduces time-to-market. We contribute to the alliance and economic organization literatures. (Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.)

Innovation and horizontal mergers in a vertically related industry

This paper analyzes the effects of horizontal mergers on innovation and consumer welfare in a vertically related industry context, in which downstream firms compete for customers with a differentiated final good and can undertake R&D activities to reduce their unit costs. Upstream and downstream horizontal mergers can take place. The results suggest that competition authorities aiming to promote innovation and consumer welfare should treat upstream and downstream mergers differently, since horizontal mergers between upstream firms are detrimental to innovation and consumer welfare. By contrast, policy makers should evaluate the market characteristics under downstream integration. We show that downstream horizontal mergers can be both innovation and consumer welfare enhancing in the short run, when the markets are sufficiently small. Keywords: Horizontal Mergers. Innovation. Vertical Relations. JEL Classification Numbers: L22, L41, O32

Cooperation in R&D, firm size and type of partnership: Evidence for the Spanish automotive industry

This paper aims to analyse cooperation in R&D in the automobile industry in Spain. It first examines to what extent firms cooperate with external actors in the field of technological innovation, and if so, with what type of cooperation partner, paying special attention to the differentiation according to the size of the firms. Second, it aims to study how the firm’s size may affect not only the decision of cooperating but also with which type of partner, while controlling for other determinants that have been considered in the literature as main drivers of collaborative activities in R&D. We use data provided by the Technological Innovation Panel in the 2006-2008 period for firms in the automotive sector. We estimate a bivariate probit model that takes into account the two types of cooperation mostly present in the automotive industry, vertical and institutional, explicitly considering the interdependencies that may arise in the simultaneous choice of both.

Deposition and characterization of lines printed through laser-induced forward transfer

The possibility of printing two-dimensional micropatterns of biomolecule solutions is of great interest in many fields of research in biomedicine, from cell-growth and development studies to the investigation of the mechanisms of communication between cells. Although laser-induced forward transfer (LIFT) has been extensively used to print micrometric droplets of biological solutions, the fabrication of complex patterns depends on the feasibility of the technique to print micron-sized lines of aqueous solutions. In this study we investigate such a possibility through the analysis of the influence of droplet spacing of a water and glycerol solution on the morphology of the features printed by LIFT. We prove that it is indeed possible to print long and uniform continuous lines by controlling the overlap between adjacent droplets. We show how, depending on droplet spacing, several printed morphologies are generated, and we offer, in addition, a simple explanation of the observed behavior based on the jetting dynamics characteristic of the LIFT of liquids.

Tissue-specific regulatory circuits reveal variable modular perturbations across complex diseases.

Mapping perturbed molecular circuits that underlie complex diseases remains a great challenge. We developed a comprehensive resource of 394 cell type- and tissue-specific gene regulatory networks for human, each specifying the genome-wide connectivity among transcription factors, enhancers, promoters and genes. Integration with 37 genome-wide association studies (GWASs) showed that disease-associated genetic variants-including variants that do not reach genome-wide significance-often perturb regulatory modules that are highly specific to disease-relevant cell types or tissues. Our resource opens the door to systematic analysis of regulatory programs across hundreds of human cell types and tissues (http://regulatorycircuits.org).