211 research outputs found
R&D service firms: The hidden engine of the high-tech economy?
No full textR&D service firms are highly innovative knowledge-intensive businesses. They constitute an important component of the knowledge economy, but one that is often in the shadow of the role normally attributed to universities and other public research organisations in the growth of high tech clusters and, more broadly, innovation systems. In this paper we present evidence from an in-depth analysis of the strategy, practice and impact of a sample of R&D service providers long active in the Cambridge area, the leading science and technology cluster in the UK. Based on an extensive programme of interviews with companies' CEOs and managers, we analyse: the main features of the R&D contract and the way in which this allows firms to de-risk the uncertain process of early technology development and to meet customer's needs; the services' typical organisational features and development stages; the variety of observed growth paths. We provide evidence of the significant direct and indirect contribution to innovation of these service firms and conclude by discussing the implications of this original model of technology development in relation to the early-stage financing and university-led growth debates. © 2013 Elsevier B.V
Overcoming the Innovation Barrier: A Search-Selection Model of Breakthrough Innovation in Large Firms
No full textIn this chapter we explore mechanisms through which established firms can harness these fundamental enablers through adopting selection regimes that counteract the tendency to stifle or eliminate radical novelty. We begin by providing an overview of the main factors that cause established firms to oppose breakthrough innovation projects. We then conceptualize the generation of breakthrough innovation as a two stage search-selection process. The first stage, search, is aimed at increasing the likelihood of coming across new opportunities by prompting experimentation. The second stage, selection, is aimed at sifting out and supporting the implementation of the most valuable opportunities. Focusing on the selection phase, we propose three types of regime that established firms can adopt to overcome innovation barriers: (1) individual driven, (2) lead user driven and (3) application domain driven. Examples from BAE Systems, Rolls-Royce and ARM are used to illustrate the effectiveness of these selection regime
Environmentally induced transgenerational changes in seed longevity: Maternal and genetic influence
No full textBackground and Aims: Seed longevity, a fundamental plant trait for ex situ conservation and persistence in the soil of many species, varies across populations and generations that experience different climates. This study investigates the extent to which differences in seed longevity are due to genetic differences and/or modified by adaptive responses to environmental changes. Methods: Seeds of two wild populations of Silene vulgaris from alpine (wA) and lowland (wL) locations and seeds originating from their cultivation in a lowland common garden for two generations (cA1, cL1, cA2 and cL2) were exposed to controlled ageing at 45 °C, 60 % relative humidity and regularly sampled for germination and relative mRNA quantification (SvHSP17.4 and SvNRPD12). Key Results: The parental plant growth environment affected the longevity of seeds with high plasticity. Seeds of wL were significantly longer lived than those of wA. However, when alpine plants were grown in the common garden, longevity doubled for the first generation of seeds produced (cA1). Conversely, longevity was similar in all lowland seed lots and did not increase in the second generation of seeds produced from alpine plants grown in the common garden (cA2). Analysis of parental effects on mRNA seed provisioning indicated that the accumulation of gene transcripts involved in tolerance to heat stress was highest in wL, cL1 and cL2, followed by cA1, cA2 and wA. Conclusions: Seed longevity has a genetic basis, but may show strong adaptive responses, which are associated with differential accumulation of mRNA via parental effects. Adaptive adjustments of seed longevity due to transgenerational plasticity may play a fundamental role in the survival and persistence of the species in the face of future environmental challenges. The results suggest that regeneration location may have important implications for the conservation of alpine plants held in seed banks. © 2014 The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Annals of Botany Company. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: [email protected]
Palaeoclimatology of the late Palaeocene to middle Eocene: geochemical records of stable and transient climate states
No full textThe late Palaeocene to late Eocene period of Earth's history is characterised by remarkable change. Temperate ice free poles at the beginning of this period gradually cooled until permanent ice formed on Antarctica around 33.5 million years before present (Ma) and sea ice formed in the Arctic. The intervening time was not stable and data, despite relatively low resolution, appear to show that the Eocene climate was dynamic. This period was the most recent time when atmospheric pCO2 concentrations were as high as predicted by models simulating the effects of anthropogenic fossil fuel burning on Earths' climate. The ability to understand the mechanisms of climate change in the Eocene will help to understand potential climate impacts in the future. This thesis examines 3 contrasting periods of climate change. Geochemical data indicate that a 3.5 million year period of high biogenic silica deposition during the Eocene was climatically relatively stable in the Arctic basin with only infrequent communication to the world's oceans outside. This period is correlated with high organic burial in the basin and global siliceous rich deposits which acted to gradually draw down pCO2. This period of `quiet' climate compares to two periods of warming where significant carbon isotope perturbations may indicate the forcing of the Earth's climate into an alternative quasi-stable state. The Palaeocene { Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) represents a significant input of exogenic carbon into the atmosphere over the course of several thousand years and significant warming of the Earth. Records of bulk carbonate isotopes from a section in NE Italy show several other Delta13C perturbations both before and after the PETM event, albeit a quarter to a half of the magnitude of the PETM, and having durations of only 40 { 60 thousand years (kyr). These events are thought to be the result of a re-arrangement of the internal carbon cycle of the Earth - atmosphere and may represent orbitally forced changes in deep water ocean ventilation similar to controls seen on modern day glacial { interglacial cycles. These rapid changes in the carbon cycle are shown to be inverse at the middle Eocene Climatic Optimum (MECO), where gradual warming over 400 kyr is ended abruptly by significant cooling. From the first marginal marine section of this event rapid organic carbon burial occurs over 50 { 100 kyr and is associated with previously unrecorded low oxygen bottom water conditions and high organic burial. We hypothesize that if this burial was extended over significant shelf areas then this could rapidly have returned the middle Eocene to the general cooling trend of the Eocene
The ‘pure’ relationship, sham marriages and immigration control
No full textThis is the author pre-print version. The final version is available from Hart Publishing via the link in this record.This chapter investigates the circumstances in which a marriage involving a non- EEA migrant spouse is designated a sham marriage so that residence rights are refused. It analyses the problems of understanding and defining a sham marriage and argues that controls over sham marriages often regulate a much wider range of marriages than those entered for the sole purpose of obtaining residence rights
R v Hall and the changing perceptions of the crime of bigamy
No full textThis is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Cambridge University Press via the DOI in this record.In 1845, the conviction of Thomas Hall for bigamy was reported as an example of the unequal way in which the law operated, with great play being made of the steps that Hall could have taken to free himself from his first wife by a divorce, were it not for the cost involved. Since then, virtually every account of nineteenth-century bigamy or divorce has included some version of the judge's apparently ‘brilliantly sarcastic’ speech. But what the judge was reported as saying at the time differs in a number of crucial particulars from what later commentators have reported him as saying. Later accounts have played up the misconduct of the first wife, inflated the cost of obtaining a divorce, and exaggerated the poverty and lowly status of Hall, while playing down the sentence he received and ignoring his deception of his second wife. This paper traces the evolution of the account over time, and identifies the timing of the various changes that were made. It illustrates how history is used – by politicians, reformers, and scholars – to support both a particular view of the past and to bolster claims as to how the law should change for the future
Legal Rationality and Family Property
No full textThis author version was accepted for publication by Hart Publishing and has been submitted in line with the publisher's self archiving.Family law, in so far as it is trying to regulate disputes relating to money and property on relationship breakdown, has its work cut out. For it is trying to deal in a rational way with issues between people who are in an emotionally charged relationship situation and where most might predict that rationality is unlikely to prevail (Beck and Beck-Gernsheim, 1995). Whilst some, such as John Dewar, see the answer as conceding to what he terms ‘the normal chaos of family law’ which nonetheless works on a practical level due to the pragmatic solutions of professionals operating within a discretionary legal framework (Dewar, 1998), others have argued that this is not the optimal way forward for family law in general (Henaghan, 2008) and the regulation of new family forms in particular (Barlow et al, 2005). This chapter will therefore consider whether family law can avoid the trap of a ‘rationality mistake’ – whereby legislators overestimate the law’s ability to steer behaviour in a particular direction (Barlow and Duncan, 2000; Barlow et al, 2005) – yet still develop a coherent theory of family law to apply in this field (Eekelaar, 2006; Henaghan, 2008). It has been argued convincingly by critical theorists that family law ‘needs to be socially located’ (see eg Freeman, 1985: 153–54). Given shifting attitudes and more complex married and unmarried families resulting from changed parenting, partnering, and repartnering patterns and behaviours, this presents a real challenge. In rising to this, it will be argued by drawing on empirical research that it is now time to take stock of both the emotional and economic foundations and commitment on which modern couple relationships are built in order to consider how family law should weigh the competing values of promoting personal financial autonomy yet providing legal protection for the economically weaker partner on
relationship breakdown. Arguably this has already been done in the cohabitation context by the Law Commission in its consideration of proposals for the reform of cohabitation law (Law Commission, 2007). But has the right balance been struck here? Is the current legal hierarchy still fit for purpose or are we drawing the regulatory lines in the wrong places? These are the questions this chapter aims to pursue. In so doing, it will draw on empirical research to examine whether family law in this area can find a way to cope with its chaotic raw material, avoid the legal rationality mistake yet become sufficiently coherent to provide satisfactory outcomes for those it serves
Responses of the Emiliania huxleyi Proteome to Ocean Acidification
No full textOcean acidification due to rising atmospheric CO2 is expected to affect the physiology of important calcifying marine organisms, but the nature and magnitude of change is yet to be established. In coccolithophores, different species and strains display varying calcification responses to ocean acidification, but the underlying biochemical properties remain unknown. We employed an approach combining tandem mass-spectrometry with isobaric tagging (iTRAQ) and multiple database searching to identify proteins that were differentially expressed in cells of the marine coccolithophore species Emiliania huxleyi (strain NZEH) between two CO2 conditions: 395 (~current day) and ~1340 p.p.m.v. CO2. Cells exposed to the higher CO2 condition contained more cellular particulate inorganic carbon (CaCO3) and particulate organic nitrogen and carbon than those maintained in present-day conditions. These results are linked with the observation that cells grew slower under elevated CO2, indicating cell cycle disruption. Under high CO2 conditions, coccospheres were larger and cells possessed bigger coccoliths that did not show any signs of malformation compared to those from cells grown under present-day CO2 levels. No differences in calcification rate, particulate organic carbon production or cellular organic carbon: nitrogen ratios were observed. Results were not related to nutrient limitation or acclimation status of cells. At least 46 homologous protein groups from a variety of functional processes were quantified in these experiments, of which four (histones H2A, H3, H4 and a chloroplastic 30S ribosomal protein S7) showed down-regulation in all replicates exposed to high CO2, perhaps reflecting the decrease in growth rate. We present evidence of cellular stress responses but proteins associated with many key metabolic processes remained unaltered. Our results therefore suggest that this E. huxleyi strain possesses some acclimation mechanisms to tolerate future CO2 scenarios, although the observed decline in growth rate may be an overriding factor affecting the success of this ecotype in future oceans
Two Combustor Engine for Military Applications
No full textThe key requirements for military aircraft are high survivability and mission
success rate: the former will “exponentially” increase the latter. The survivability
of the aircraft depends crucially on its performance and energy signatures, to
which its propulsion system contributes significantly. Therefore this imposes
demands upon future propulsion systems for a better aerothermodynamics
performance with a lower energy signature.
However, the performances
achievable with conventional engine cycles
may be reaching their limits.
Therefore, the author was motivated to investigate the potential of the two combustor
engine for military fighter
applications; with respect to its
aerothermodynamics performance and infrared signature.
An extensive literature survey was conducted to identify the uptodate
research for the two combustor
engine. Based on the collected information,
systematic approaches were formatted with proven analytical methodologies for
conducting the present study. A proven conventional engine (i.e. F100PW229
engine, based on “open publication”),
for powering military fighter aircraft, was
selected for benchmarking purposes in order to identify the prospect of the two combustor
engine. With an engine performance-simulation
program of high
fidelity and a detail engine model, the accuracy of the predictions of the engines’
performances are greatly improved. The key contribution is the establishment on
the influences of the two combustor
engine on the performances of the selected
fighter aircraft, in particular the transient behaviour, steady state
flight
characteristics (e.g. flight envelope)
and infrared signatures. This research relates
the performance of the two combustor
engine to that of the aircraft, which was not
found in any uptodate
publication. The availability of this research will allow
engine and aircraft studies to include two combustor
solution in a more secure
way than it was possible.
In this investigation, the main analytical tool employed is a Cranfield
University inhouse
developed engine performance-simulation
program,
TURBOMATCH. The author has implemented various subprograms
to interface
with TURBOMATCH in order to conduct specific simulations, e.g. transient behaviour
predictions. All the analyses have been undertaken using data from the
published literature
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