Guidance levels in the Nordic countries: a preliminary report for selected interventional procedures

The Nordic radiation protection authorities have already published recommended guidance levels for patient doses for six conventional radiological examinations. Over the past two years a similar protocol has been in progress for three interventional procedures. Measurements have been performed in 22 different hospitals in the Nordic countries on patients in the weight range 40-100 kg. The selected procedures are percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA), percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA) and endoscopic retrograde cholangio- and pancreatio-graphy (ERCP). A total of 281 PTCA procedures, 304 PTA procedures and 147 ERCP procedures are included in the study. The results from this survey are presented as a first attempt to set guidance levels.     

Misjudgments and shortcomings in the measurement of scientific activities in less developed countries

The bibliographic database widely used for measurement of scientific production either for developed or developing countries isScience Citation Index. So then, in the case of LDCs only their negligible contribution to the mainstream of science is evaluated. Eight LDCs productivity as obtained fromSCI is compared to that from some international specialized or multidisciplinary databases, most of which give more information than SCI for each country. In the case of Cuba,Biosis and CA supply 17 and 15 times respectively more information than the SCI in the same period. The use of Cuban local database and its comparison with international ones is also discussed.Paper presented at the International Conference on Science Indicators for Developing Countries, Paris, 15–19 October, 1990     

Patenting activities by developing countries: The case of Malaysia

This study examines the patenting activities in Malaysia with regards to applied for and granted patents in the Malaysian and US patent systems. The evidence shows that the patenting trend is increasing, particularly due to foreign firms’ participation in the Malaysian economy. As such, any shock to the economic activities of foreign firms will deter patenting trends. This also indicates that the current local indigenous innovative capabilities are still weak and require better policy intervention to accelerate the inventive capabilities of Malaysia.     

Scientific publication activities of 32 countries. — Zipf-Pareto distribution

The paper examines the qualitative as well as quantitative indicators for the assessment of the scientific publication activities of 32 countries, with special attention to the Zipf-Pareto distribution of those indicators. Also discussed is the linear relationship between the number of first authors of scientific papers in a given country and the number of papers it produced. Based on these discussions, a comprehensive indicator combining the merits of quantitative and qualitative indicators is suggested. The ranking of the 32 countries by this indicator is found to follow also Zipf-Pareto distribution.     

北欧独立生活设计

通过对北欧的政治、宗教、社会保障制度、经济、文化等的分析,了解了北欧独立生活设计的背景.同时,详细介绍了北欧独立生活设计典范:瑞典人机工程组和丹麦助听器,以期予民族设计以借鉴.     

Specialization and size of scientific activities: A bibliometric analysis of advanced countries

The relationship between the size of national scientific activities of advanced countries and the degree of specialization by fields of science is examined using bibliometric indicators of the number of papers and of paper citations. A negative relation between the amount of scientific activity and the degree of scientific specialization has emerged, with Japan and, to a lesser extent Italy, showing a specialization degree higher than expected. Countries with established scientific traditions (such as the US, the UK, the Netherlands, and Switzerland) have a lower than expected specialization degree, suggesting a more diversified range of research activities. Over time, however, most countries have reduced their scientific specialization, a pattern which is in contrast with recent research on patents and technological specialization.Rotating first authorship. This paper is part of a research on the Scientific and Technological Specialization of advanced countries jointly financed by the Commission of European Communities, D.G. XII, Science, Research and Development, Service Research Evaluation, and the Italian National Research Council. We are grateful to PatriziaPrincipessa and RobertoSimonetti for research assistance.     

Bistatic lidar measurements of clouds in the Nordic Arctic region

Cloud studies were carried out with a polarimetric bistatic lidar setup at the Arctic Lidar Observatory for Middle Atmosphere Research in Andenes (69 degrees N, 16 degrees E), Norway. Measurements were performed at altitudes between 1.5 and 10.5 km, corresponding to scattering angles between 130 degrees and 170 degrees. The geometry, not restricted to the parallel or perpendicular laser polarization directions, gave a well-defined scattering angle, which together with polarization characterization, was used to investigate the scattering particles. The principles of the technique and the first results are presented together with an evaluation of the capabilities.     

Research collaboration at Nordic universities

Scientific collaboration has become a major issue in science policy. The need to survey and follow up such collaboration calls for statistical indicators sensitive enough to reveal the structure and change of collaborative networks. Bibliometric analysis of co-authored scientific articles is one promising approach. This study presents data generated from a comprehensive analysis of some 20,000 articles produced by 22 Nordic universities (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden) in 1993. The results show that scientific collaboration plays a key role for all universities, and that they collaborate with external institutions in just about the same extent. The inter-Nordic university network comprises about ten percent of all institutional collaborations. However, the amount of collaboration varies across fields, physics and medicine having a high degree of collaboration. The inter-Nordic network is of equal importance as the national network in physics and geosciences. Especially, when one looks at international collaboration outside the Nordic arena, the number of overlapping partners is quite low. This suggests that research specialization is the major force governing international contacts.     

Regional cooperation in RWM in the AO countries

Regional cooperation in radioactive waste management (RWM) in the Asian and Oceanic countries has been successfully developing for more than 20 y. At present, the Asian and Oceanic countries recognise that there are several projects under the regional cooperation, such as the Forum for Nuclear Cooperation in Asia (FNCA), the Asian Nuclear Safety Network (ANSN) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) regional projects. The FNCA on Radiation Safety and RWM is an effective mechanism for enhancing socio-economic development through active regional partnership in the peaceful and safe utilisation of nuclear technology. The ANSN Topical Group on RWM is established for exchanging, pooling, and sharing knowledge in the field of nuclear safety. For IAEA regional cooperation on RWM, such as IAEA-regional project RAS/3/009 Strengthening Infrastructure of RWM can provide and support Asian and Oceanic countries for national work plan, fellowships and scientific visits as well as expert services.     

Environmental issues of importance in the nordic countries

The Nordic countries have long been considered forward thinking in respect of modern problems in society. They also are countries with environmental problems, particularly related to forestry and forestry based industries — including packaging production. This paper reports on the current situation.     

The Norwegian banks in the Nordic consortia: a case of international strategic alliances in banking

Despite the scholarly interest in joint ventures and strategicalliances, the consortium bank movement represents and under-researchedphase in postwar banking history. From 1964 to the early 1980s,many of the largest banks in the world, including the Nordicbanks, entered into international strategic alliances. Almostall of these alliances are now defunct and thus we are lookingat the growth and demise of an organizational form. We followthe Norwegian banks in the Nordic consortia and find that domesticrivals do not cooperate but international rivals do. Legal prohibitionsin the Nordic countries on entry by foreign banks underpinnedthe cooperation. The cooperation broke down when, as a resultof deregulation, the Nordic banks could establish operationsin each other's domestic markets and when domestic mergers disruptedexisting international alliances.     

Co-development and composite clusters--the secular strength of Nordic telecommunications

During the 1980s and 1990s Finland and Sweden were on the internationalfrontier in telecommunications, pioneering the first-generationcellular system and leading in the development of the secondgeneration. This strength in telecommunications has developedunder various regulatory regimes in a complex industrial history,going back to the nineteenth century. To account for this Fenno-Swedishtelecom trajectory, the article starts out with Porter's modelof industrial competitiveness and theories of public procurement,and then focus the attention and analysis in two directions:(i) the historical role of advanced, research-intensive usersand competitive public–private development pairs; and(ii) the emergence and significance of a composite binationalclusters and their local agglomerations in the accelerated industrygrowth in the 1990s.     

建筑施工企业质量管理体系认证活动人员的能力再评价

在GB/T19011和CNAS-CC01等文件的基础上,CNAS发布了《工程建设施工企业质量管理体系认证机构认可方案》等规范文件。这些文件,对从事建筑施工领域质量管理体系认证人员能力提出了再评价的需求。人员能力再评价,是建筑施工领域质量管理体系认证工作成功的最关键制约因素之一,应认真对待。一、人员分类、业务范围分类及能力准则     

International scientific collaboration in Arab countries

Through internationally coauthored scientific articles in the Science Citation Index data base, we analyse international collaboration of some Arab countries in science. Our findings show that international collaboration of these countries is concentrated on engineering & technology and fundamental & applied biology. Collaboration is often established through doctoral studies and the links thus created continue. Cultural and historical traditions play an important role in collaboration. We compare the SCI data base with a local survey of chemists in Morocco and discuss some of the limits of bibliometric methods.Paper presented at the International Conference on Science Indicators for Developing Countries, Paris, 15–19 October, 1990.     

The Impact Factor in non-English-speaking countries

The representativeness of the ISI-Thomson Impact Factor rankings and the existing relationship between countries?? national languages and the diffusion of scientific publications is analyzed. We discuss literature on the Impact Factor related to language use, publication strategies for authors and editors from non-English-speaking countries, the effects of the inclusion of a new journal in the ISI-Thomson databases and the scientific policies articulated in some non-English-speaking countries. The adoption of the Impact Factor as the valuation criterion for scientific activities has favoured the consolidation of English language journals in the diffusion of scientific knowledge. The vernacular languages only conserve part of their importance in certain disciplines, such as Clinical Medicine or Social Sciences and Humanities. The Impact Factor, invented over 50?years ago now, could be a limitation for non-English authors and scientific journals, and does not consider some widely used practices among the scientific community concerning the development of Internet as a means for the diffusion of knowledge.