I'll Find it Where I Can: Exploring the Role of Resource and Financial Constraints in Search Behaviour among Innovators

The search for new knowledge is often driven by problems that firms face in their innovative activities. Although a considerable effort has been made to explore the search for innovation, little attention has been placed on the concept of problemistic search. Indeed, there are only few studies that examine how the challenges that firms face in their innovation processes shape the nature and direction of their search activities. Using the Finnish Innovation Survey, this study explores the impact of different types of problems on the use of internal and external knowledge sources. The results show that firms under resource constraints tend to use external sources of knowledge in their search activities rather than internal ones. However, those firms who are constrained by finance tend to search both internally and externally. The paper explores the implications of these results for theory and future empirical research.     

Preparation of Mono‐, Di‐ and Hemicalcium Ferrite Phases via Melt for Reduction Kinetics Investigations

Iron ore concentrates that are used in the iron production are usually agglomerated into sinter or pellets in order to improve their properties in the blast furnace. The main minerals in the magnetite base sinters are hematite, magnetite and Si and Al containing calcium ferrites of which the latter can exist as either monocalcium ferrite, dicalcium ferrite or hemicalcium ferrite depending on the conditions and on the material's iron/calcium‐ratio. In order to study the reduction behaviour of the sinter in the iron production, samples of monocalcium ferrite, dicalcium ferrite and hemicalcium ferrite were prepared by melting different proportions of pure calcium and iron oxides. After melting the samples were cast and cooled. Samples of hemicalcium ferrite were also heated at a certain temperature before the actual reduction experiments in order to ensure the wanted phase composition of the samples. The mineral compositions of the samples were verified using scanning electron microscopy (SEM‐EDS) as well as X‐ray diffraction (XRD). The verification showed that it was possible to produce the samples of calcium ferrites via melting. The conditions needed to reduce the calcium ferrites were estimated with thermodynamic calculations.     

Depressed fibromyalgia patients are equipped with an emphatic competence dependent self-esteem

Employing a recently developed questionnaire we studied the self-esteem structure of 61 female fibromyalgia (FM) patients by comparing them with i) 40 healthy psychology students and ii) 37 patients suffering from rheumatoid arthritis. Depressed FM patients (n=36) had a high need to gain self-esteem through competence and others' approval combined with a low basic sense of self-esteem. In this regard they differed significantly from the healthy controls who had a more equal amount of the two types of self-esteem. These patients had also a more demanding and "hard-driving" self-esteem structure than either control group and exhibited a lower self-assertiveness and less emotional candour than the healthy controls. The non-depressed FM patients did not display this self-esteem pattern. In conclusion, FM patients are probably not a homogeneous group. Furthermore, we suggest that an emphatic competence-dependent self-esteem is one vulnerability factor which, in proper genetic and environmental conditions, increases susceptibility to fibromyalgia and depression.     

Proteolysis and fusion of low density lipoprotein particles independently strengthen their binding to exocytosed mast cell granules

Contact between low density lipoproteins (LDL) and exocytosed mast cell granules, the "granule remnants," leads to binding of LDL to the granule remnants via ionic interactions between the apolipoprotein B-100 (apoB-100) component of LDL and the heparin proteoglycan component of the granule remnants. Upon incubation at 37 degrees C, the heparin proteoglycan-bound apoB-100 is progressively proteolyzed by remnant chymase and carboxypeptidase A, which are also bound to the heparin proteoglycans. Thereupon, the LDL particles fuse, and their binding to the granule remnants strengthens, as defined by the decreased ability of NaCl to release LDL from the remnants. We now have examined separately the effects of proteolysis and fusion on LDL binding. Proteolysis without fusion was induced by lowering the incubation temperature to 15 degrees C, and proteolysis-independent fusion was induced by treating granule remnant-bound LDL with sphingomyelinase in the presence of protease inhibitors. It was found that degradation of the heparin proteoglycan-bound apoB-100, even without accompanying particle fusion, increased the strength of LDL binding to the granule remnants, suggesting exposure of buried heparin binding regions of apoB-100. When such proteolyzed LDL particles were allowed to fuse, the strength of their binding to the granule remnants increased still further, probably because of an increase in the number of apoB-100 fragments in the enlarged particles. Proteolysis-independent fusion, induced by sphingomyelinase treatment of granule remnant-bound LDL, also increased the strength of binding. The results show that proteolytic degradation and fusion, the two modifications of granule remnant-bound LDL subsequent to action by chymase and carboxypeptidase A of the granule remnants, represent two separate mechanisms by which LDL particles become tightly bound to the heparin proteoglycans of exocytosed mast cell granules. Since the formation of an atheroma, the hallmark of atherosclerosis, is characterized by accumulation in the proteoglycan matrix of the arterial intima of extracellular lipid droplets resembling the fused LDL particles on the granule remnant surfaces, the modifications of LDL described in this study may provide a clue to the actual processes by which the lipid droplets are anchored to the arterial intima.     

Monolithic vertical-cavity laser/p-i-n photodiode transceiver arrayfor optical interconnects

The design, fabrication, and characterization of a 16-element monolithic 850-nm vertical-cavity laser/p-type-intrinsic-n-type (VCL/p-i-n) photodiode transceiver array for optical interconnects are described. The packaged VCL/p-i-n array exhibits excellent array uniformity over a large temperature range. Packaged VCLs display up to 1 mW of single-mode power and a relative intensity noise below -120 dB/Hz for all currents above threshold at a measuring bandwidth of 2 GHz. The p-i-n photodiodes exhibit a responsivity of 0.535 A/W and a -3-dB bandwidth of 2.3 GHz. A microlens array integrated into the packaged VCL/p-i-n device decreases the VCL beam divergence six to seven times. Polarization control with a mean rejection ratio of 22 dB across the VCL array is achieved with the use of oval aperture VCLs     

The effects of state guarantees of municipal bonds

This paper analyzes the allocational and distributional effects of state municipal bond guarantee programs and evaluates public guarantees given that private programs also exist. The state programs as constituted will lead to misallocation of resources and questionable cross subsudies among municipalities. The only economic rationale for state subsidies is that the local public infrastructure generates positive externalities which are beneficial to the rest of the state. Even if the allocative and distributional deficiencies of the state programs were corrected, it is questionable whether state programs are desirable given that private programs also exist.The authors would like to acknowledge the contributions of Fred Blank, Ralph d'Arge, Peter Formuzis, Charles McLure, Jack Mutti, Robert Shelton, and Allen Vander Meulen.     

Identification of Rate,Extent, and Mechanisms of Hot Metal Resulfurization with CaO-SiO2-Na2O Slag Systems

Metallurgical and Materials Transactions B - The resulfurization of hot metal has not been comprehensively studied in literature. This study presents an experimental and mathematical modeling study...     

Data-Driven Mathematical Modeling of the Effect of Particle Size Distribution on the Transitory Reaction Kinetics of Hot Metal Desulfurization

Metallurgical and Materials Transactions B - The aim of this work was to develop a prediction model for hot metal desulfurization. More specifically, the study aimed at finding a set of explanatory...