Is a schools’ performance related to technical change? – A study on the relationship between innovations and secondary school productivity

This paper examines the relation between innovations and productivity in Dutch secondary schools. Innovation clusters are directly included in the production model. In order to correct for differences between schools, we add school type, region and year controls. The results indicate that process innovations, teacher professionalization innovations and education chain innovations are positively related to productivity, whereas new courses innovations and pedagogic innovations are negatively related to productivity. The results also show that innovations are directly related to productivity, but also through student performance. The positive results of teacher professionalization, education chain and process innovations are similar to what is found elsewhere in the literature.     

The impact of innovation-related perception on consumer acceptance of food innovations – Development of an integrated framework of the consumer acceptance process

Innovations are an important part of the further advancement of societies in general as well as of companies in particular. Individuals can benefit from the advantages of innovations, while companies can maintain or increase their market share and profitability. However, especially in the food sector, scientific or technological innovations often encounter mistrust and rejecting reactions from consumers, resulting in decreasing acceptance of those innovations. Therefore, this paper aims to gain a deeper comprehension of consumer acceptance of innovative food products as well as to identify antecedent factors of innovation-related perception. For the empirical investigation of our conceptualized model, an online survey was conducted in Germany (n = 617) and the collected data were analyzed through structural equation modeling. The results confirmed a high predictive power of the multi-dimensional model of consumer acceptance. Our first major finding indicates that relative advantage, naturalness, novelty, and discomfort are the most important driving factors of the innovation-related perception of food products. Further important findings show that innovation-related perception has a strong positive and highly significant impact on customer perceived value, respectively a strong negative and highly significant impact on the customer perceived risk. In summary, innovation-related perception, customer perceived value, as well as customer perceived risk, are all important variables related to the acceptance of an innovative food product. The food sector can benefit from the insights provided by this study to communicate and market their products accordingly to the results to reduce mistrust and increase acceptance of food innovations on the consumer side.     

Automating agent-based modeling: Data-driven generation and application of innovation diffusion models

Simulation modeling is useful to understand the mechanisms of the diffusion of innovations, which can be used for forecasting the future of innovations. This study aims to make the identification of such mechanisms less costly in time and labor. We present an approach that automates the generation of diffusion models by: (1) preprocessing of empirical data on the diffusion of a specific innovation, taken out by the user; (2) testing variations of agent-based models for their capability of explaining the data; (3) assessing interventions for their potential to influence the spreading of the innovation. We present a working software implementation of this procedure and apply it to the diffusion of water-saving showerheads. The presented procedure successfully generated simulation models that explained diffusion data. This progresses agent-based modeling methodologically by enabling detailed modeling at relative simplicity for users. This widens the circle of persons that can use simulation to shape innovation.     

海外项目党建工作的思考与对策

对新形势下石油化工企业海外项目党建工作的特点和存在问题进行分析,从扩展新外延、注入新内涵出发,阐述了党建工作在海外项目实施中的重要性和必要性,提出了具有针对性和实效性的“六个创新”工作思路和具体措施。     

高校的CAD教学应从三维开始

分析了目前国内外大学的CAD课程的基本情况，提出了国内高校的CAD教学应从三维开始的观点。     

Effects on Flavour of Innovations in Brewery Equipment and Processing: A Review

Although the requirements for valid flavour assessment are well known, brewers fail to insist on their application. Of several hundred papers consulted, only two or three measure up. There is adequate sensory evidence for the following effects of innovations in brewing. (1) It is possible to produce a malt that combines low colour with high antioxidant effect. (2) In full-scale brewing, elaborate techniques to exclude oxygen during mashing, milling and lautering are harmless though hardly worth any extra cost. (3) Deep fermenters and/or pressure fermentation produce less estery flavour. (4) The improved foam obtained via nitrogenation comes at the cost of a certain loss of flavour. (5) If dissolved oxygen levels can be kept low enough, pasteurization is possible without any flavour damage. The paper reports probable flavour effects of a number of other innovations, but the evidence for those is incomplete because of inadequate sensory testing and reporting.     

Recursive Prediction and Likelihood Evaluation for Periodic ARMA Models

This paper explores recursive prediction and likelihood evaluation techniques for periodic autoregressive moving-average (PARMA) time series models. The innovations algorithm is used to develop a simple recursive scheme for computing one-step-ahead predictors and their mean squared errors. The asymptotic form of this recursion is explored. The prediction results are then used to develop an efficient (and exact) PARMA likelihood evaluation algorithm for Gaussian series. We then show how a multivariate autoregressive moving average (ARMA) likelihood can be evaluated by writing the multivariate ARMA model in PARMA form. Explicit calculations for PARMA(1, 1) models and periodic autoregressions are included.     

The importance of instrumental,symbolic, and environmental attributes for the adoption of smart energy systems

The conceptual model on motivations to adopt sustainable innovations (Noppers et al., 2014) proved to be successful in explaining proxies of the adoption of sustainable innovations: positive evaluations of the utility (instrumental attributes), environmental impact (environmental attributes), and specifically the extent to which the innovation says something about a person (symbolic attributes) increased interest in and intention to adopt sustainable innovations. In this paper, we examined to what extent the evaluations of these three attributes can also explain the actual adoption of smart energy systems that facilitate sustainable energy use. Results showed that adopters of smart energy systems (who agreed to participate in a project in which these systems were tested) evaluated the symbolic attributes of these systems more positively than non-adopters (who did not participate in this project), while both groups did not differ in their evaluation of the instrumental and environmental attributes of smart energy systems. A logistic regression analysis indicated that only evaluations of the symbolic attributes explained actual adoption of smart energy systems. Policy could stress and enhance the symbolic attributes of sustainable innovations to encourage adoption.     

Diffusion of Engineering Education Innovations: A Survey of Awareness and Adoption Rates in U.S. Engineering Departments

Background Despite decades of effort focused on improvement of engineering education, many recent advances have not resulted in systemic change. Diffusion of innovations theory is used to better understand this phenomenon. Purpose (Hypothesis ) Research questions include: How widespread is awareness and adoption of established engineering education innovations? Are there differences by discipline or institutional type? How do engineering department chairs find out about engineering education innovations? What factors do engineering department chairs cite as important in adoption decisions? Design /Method U.S. engineering department chairs were surveyed regarding their awareness and department use of seven engineering education innovations. One hundred ninety‐seven usable responses are presented primarily as categorical data with Chi square tests where relevant. Results Overall, the awareness rate was 82 percent, while the adoption rate was 47 percent. Eighty‐two percent of engineering departments employ student‐active pedagogies (the highest). Mechanical and civil engineering had the highest rates, in part due to many design‐related innovations in the survey. Few differences by institution type were evident. In the past, word of mouth and presentations were far more effective than publications in alerting department chairs to the innovations. Department chairs cited financial resources, faculty time and attitudes, and student satisfaction and learning as major considerations in adoption decisions. Conclusions The importance of disciplinary networks was evident during survey administration and in the results. Specific recommendations are offered to employ these networks and the engineering professional societies for future engineering education improvement efforts.     

我国学位结构失衡浅析

要素更替和结构调整是系统优化的可能途径 ,我国学位结构在学位等级、学位类型、学位点分布以及学位数量比例等四个方面存在不同程度的失衡 ,要充分发挥我国学位制度的功能 ,需要增设学位等级、发展专业学位、调整学位点布局和保持教育政策的延续性。