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The floristic region of Adjara represents “Hotpoint” of Caucasian which is distinguished with the uniqueness of its Current activities in the field of vehicle electrification offer a great potential for contributing to climate change mitigation by reducing anthropogenic CO2 emissions. Beyond the environmental strain, there is an economic one, too. It is therefore crucial for the European automotive industry to exploit not only the environmental benefits, but also the business opportunities which come from the transition from conventional fuel powered to electrified vehicles. To capture these opportunities, electric vehicles must deliver better performance at a lower price, overcoming the constraints that are currently limiting their mass-market uptake. This paper presents the approach of the research and innovation action H2020 project QUIET to meet these stringent requirements by developing an improved and energy efficient electric vehicle with increased driving range under real world driving conditions. This is achieved by exploiting the synergies of a technology portfolio in the areas of: user centric design with enhanced passenger comfort and safety, lightweight materials with enhanced thermal insulation properties, and optimised vehicle energy management. Doi: 10.28991/HIJ-2021-02-01-07 Full Text: PDF

With the discovery of the Pre-Salt reserves, exploration of oil and gas is being strongly extended in Brazil, contributing to the recent increase of the demand for drilling capabilities. This paper discusses the impact of this oil discovery by assessing the relationship among the growth of proven reserves, the financial position of firms, and patent applications in the Brazilian upstream oil and gas industry. We provide empirical evidence indicating that firms with a lower financial performance prior to the pre-salt discovery were more aggressive in increasing the number of patent filings addressing technologies of the upstream oil and gas domain.

In today’s highly competitive business environment, firms can ill afford the consequences of overlooking opportunities for innovation. An organization seeking to increase its existing knowledge base, in most cases, aims to identify and pursue useful knowledge available outside its borders. However, for companies interested in engaging in collaborative arrangements for innovations, systematic approaches for knowledge transfer may become a major challenge. In our research we focus on the diffusion of innovative knowledge that occurs during a joint knowledge development process. We present an empirical study spanning the period 2004 to 2018 which aims to explore the impact inter-organizational collaboration in the form of joint patenting has on the distance between partners’ technological bases. In addition, this paper looks into the change in technological distance when joint patenting occurs between different-country and same-country partners. The empirical results of the study suggest that engagement in joint patenting positively influences the technological proximity between partners and indicates a transmission and utilization of knowledge outside of firms’ existing knowledge base. Our findings contribute to knowledge related to innovation under inter?organizational collaboration and provides a basis for further theory development and testing.

While innovation contests and intermediaries are widely used in large companies to source knowledge from the outside, it is not clear how contests could be utilized to break the barriers that SMEs face in pursuing Open Innovation. In this paper, we shed light on the topic by analysing ten innovation contests that have been successfully run in three European countries with the specific aim to create innovation opportunities between SMEs and higher education institutions, research centres, other companies, or end users. The analysis resulted in the identification of common elements that played a crucial role in these innovation contests, but were overlooked in previous research. Moreover, we collected early evidence supporting the case for innovation contests as tools to support Open Innovation policies for SMEs. On that basis, we propose a new framework that can be used by innovation intermediaries to design innovation contests specifically aiming at supporting Open Innovation in SMEs.

In this paper we present the development and preliminary validation of a wearable system which is combined with an algorithm interfacing the MYO gesture armband with a Sphero BB-8 robotic device. The MYO armband is a wearable device which measures real-time EMG signals of the end user’s forearm muscles as the user is executing a set of upper limb gestures. These gestures are interpreted and transmitted to a computing hardware via a Bluetooth Low Energy IEEE 802.15.1 wireless protocol. The algorithm analyzes and sorts the data and sends a set of commands to the Sphero robotic device while performing navigation movements. After designing and integrating the software and hardware architecture, we have validated the system with two sets of trials involving a series of commands performed in multiple iterations. The consequent reactions of the robots, due to these commands, were recorded and the performance of the system was analyzed in a confusion matrix to obtain an average accuracy of the system outcome vs. the expected and desired actions. Results show that our integrated system can satisfactorily interface with the system in an intuitive way with an accuracy rating of 85.7 % and 92.9 % for the two tests, respectively. Doi: 10.28991/HIJ-2020-01-04-05 Full Text: PDF

The aim of the article is to alert to the fact that architecture must comprehend Nature and bring it back again to the daily life of Man, increasing his physical and psychological comfort. The "Green" in Architectural Rehabilitation can have several meanings and approximations. In this article we address "Green" as Color and Attitude. This paper has been developed through deepening the hypothesis of the color green in living coatings. The creation of an ecological skin in architecture accentuates the dilution of the presence of interventions in heritage contexts with an attitude of knowing how to add, involving Nature. These allow creating solutions that avoid the formalisms of architectural language, being of special relevance their application in the Architectural Rehabilitation of the Heritage. Examples of green roofs and green facades are presented and it is shown that rainwater management improves the sustainability of the historic place. Complementary, as a Green Attitude, it is essential to use renewable energy in buildings to achieve NZEB – Nearly Zero Energy Building. As a case study we have selected the Rehabilitation of the Cathedral of Portalegre in Portugal. Doi: 10.28991/HIJ-2020-01-04-04 Full Text: PDF

The designing process of a new product includes various stages, one of which is the evaluation of an idea thought prototype manufacturing. The use of additive manufacturing consists the most efficient and effective way for prototype manufacturing. In order to maximize the benefits from the use of additive manufacturing, we should choose the suitable printing parameters. A vital parameter for defining the quantity of raw material used and the model solidity is the inner wall thickness. Depending on the selected technique of additive manufacturing, the thickness of the inner wall may differ. In this study we initially print furniture models with different wall thicknesses using the Inject Binder technique and then we check their durability and resilience by compression tests. Evaluating the study results indicate the hollow printed specimens have high durability during compression tests and can be used to evaluate a design idea. Using the facts derived from lab tests we perform Topology Optimization studies under different circumstances to evaluate the method and come up with the optimal design solution. Initially, the Topology Optimization study concern only the table surface and not the whole model. The following studies were performed for the whole model, different constraints and load cases defined. Then, the optimized models are redesigned in order to improve their durability. The performed studies show that Topology Optimization is a powerful tool, which is able to support the designers/ engineers to take the right decision during the design process. Doi: 10.28991/HIJ-2020-01-04-03 Full Text: PDF

The term "Deep Tech" is prevalent in industry but ill-defined. In this extended letter, we define Deep Tech (technology that is difficult to develop today, with the potential to become a pervasive and easy-to-implement basic need in the future) and consider its role in evolving businesses. We suggest how organizations can position themselves to take advantage of a coming wave of innovation, with emphasis placed on Creative Destruction's role (cannibalizing product lines) in creating sustaining enterprises. Understanding the diffusion of technical innovation from hard-to-implement exciter to commodity basic need will encourage leaders to rethink their current offerings to play in a future-thinking space setting these companies apart from the competition. We provide examples drawn from successful organizations.

Distributed ledger technologies are emerging as important tools that can positively impact almost all major industries and activities in our society. They are increasingly used in various supply (value) chain applications including financial, governance, regulations, health, logistics, and other industrial sectors. In this letter, we are presenting various ongoing work related to different distributed ledger technologies and their applications in postal sector. In particular, we will highlight some of the innovations in the inclusive financial services for the underbanked and unbanked populations using distributed ledger technologies.

Over the recent years, the importance of innovation in academic R&D projects has increased. Nevertheless, innovation facilitation in the academic field has rarely been researched. Currently, innovation support focuses on the industrial context. In our study we aim to address this research gap and examine the facilitation of innovation in the academic and the industrial context. In our abductive empirical case study, we investigate the role, skills, mindset and instruments of innovation facilitators by interviewing 25 individuals from nine organizations. We discovered different behaviors and perspectives in dealing with innovation work, depending on the context of the either academic or industry-driven projects. Academic innovation projects focus on feasibility, whereas industry-driven projects focus on viability. In both contexts, the facilitators usually intend to include the user perspective (desirability). With our results we contribute to the facilitation literature and show that innovation projects and their facilitation depend on their specific context and the mentality of the facilitators. With these results, we strive to improve academic and industry-driven projects with advice for innovation practitioners and facilitators on helpful tools and important perspectives to fully exploit the innovation potential.

Recently, the DSSs application is strongly increasing in the agricultural sector due to continuous climate changes and the need to conduct more productive and sustainable agriculture. In this paper, we describe the prototype agricultural DSS LANDS developed for monitoring the main crop productions in Sardinia. The DSS collects, organizes, integrates, and analyses several types of data with different mathematical models. In particular, a case study on forecasting potato late blight is presented. We employed the Negative Prognosis model and Fry model to forecast the period in which it is opportune to carry out fungicide treatments useful against the appearance of the pathogen. The experiments allowed to outline the best criteria for local conditions as well as the evaluation showed the effectiveness of the approach in a concrete case study.

In this paper, a simple but effective trailing edge flap system was proposed. This preliminary concept uses a more practical and stable actuation system which consists of a motor-driven worm gear drive and flexible torsion bar. The flexible torsion bar is designed to be easily twisted while keeping bending rigidity as a sup-port and the worm gear drive not only provides a high torque to overcome aero-dynamic forces on the flap area and the torsional rigidity of the support bar, but also acts as a brake to avoid instability due to the high torsional flexibility of sup-port bar. A preliminary level design study was performed to show the applicability of the new trailing edge flap system for wind turbine rotor blade or helicopter blade.

This paper examines the practice of open innovation by Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) in the food industry. We adopted a multiple case study approach and conducted in-depth semi-structured interviews with four food SMEs in the Flanders region of Belgium. The results of the analysis show that food SMEs practice open innovation mostly through inbound open innovation activities rather than outbound, mainly due to lack of sufficient resources. Food SMEs typically lack sufficient financial capital, technology, and human capital. Within inbound open innovation activities, collaboration with organizations is found to be a key element for food SMEs’ internal development and innovation of new products.

In this article, we explore and interpret organizational identity transformation associated with open innovation strategy of the largest telecommunication company in Italy, Telecom Italia (TIM). When TIM established eight joint laboratories within five major Italian universities to benefit from opening its business model, it transferred some of the R&D employees to the new laboratories to work with the university scientists. This organizational transformation created underexplored conditions for R&D employees engaged in the open innovation activities of the firm. Our interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA) answers the question of “How do R&D employees experience organizational identity change in the process of open innovation?”. We based our analysis on interpreting lived experiences of 14 employees. Studying the phenomena of organizational identity change during the process of open innovation implementation suggests the following: (1) The process of open innovation through mobility of skilled R&D employees triggers organizational identity ambiguity and change, (2) Organizational identity ambiguity phase in the process of open innovation can be shortened by the support of parent company and managerial skills highlighting sensemaking mechanisms, (3) Constructing a shared organizational identity with university members involved in this process is an undeniable element of OI success for this strategy. We contribute to the literature by establishing linkages among organizational identity and open innovation and by building on recent works on the role of individuals within open innovation ecosystem. Our qualitative analysis draws on a conceptual framework for open innovation and organizational identity transformation.

Successful aging at work is an important topic which is pertinent to everyone who works to make a living because getting older is unavoidable. The objective of this paper is to draw on Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model to explore successful aging in the field of entrepreneurship. A conceptual approach was used to examine the successful aging in the field of entrepreneurship. Building on JD-R model, older workers who pursue entrepreneurship may have improved mental and physical health and obtain successful aging at work. The current study developed a theoretical foundation to explore successful aging in the field of entrepreneurship and offered suggestions for future research.

Within the field of Digital Humanities, a great effort has been made to digitize documents and collections in order to build catalogs and exhibitions on the Web. In this paper, we present WeME, a Web application for building a knowledge base, which can be used to describe digital documents. WeME can be used by different categories of users: archivists/librarians and scholars. WeME extracts information from some well-known Linked Data nodes, i.e. DBpedia and GeoNames, as well as traditional Web sources, i.e. VIAF. As a use case of WeME, we describe the knowledge base related to the Christopher Clavius’s corre spondence. Clavius was a mathematician and an astronomer of the XVI Century. He wrote more than 300 letters, most of which are owned by the Historical Archives of the Pontifical Gregorian University (APUG) in Rome. The built knowledge base contains 139 links to DBpedia, 83 links to GeoNames and 129 links to VIAF. In order to test the usability of WeME, we invited 26 users to test the application.

Information Technologies (ITs) are highly useful for Human rights promotion globally. Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have proved the influential tool to fight against violations of Human rights. ICT has represented a way to strengthen human rights. Technology also means that individuals’ human rights are exposed to unprecedented risks, caused by the transition of these rights to the digital field. If we observe the different revolutions around the world especially the county having autocracy for a long period of time has been overruled with the help of ICTs. In this study, the analysis of the role of ICTs in Human rights has been made. The study summarizes that the ICT is playing vital role in establishing awareness and preventing violation of human rights of the global citizens.

Globally, attention has majorly been focused on pollution and exhaustion of fossil fuels allied to the conventional energy sources while the non-conventional energy/renewable energy sources have always been considered clean and environmentally friendly. Of the two, the non-conventional (renewable) is being preferred because it is believed to be more environmentally friendly. Renewable Energy Technologies (RETs) especially Solar Photovoltaics have seen many plants being constructed to either supplement the grid or as alternatives for those far from the grid. Solar Photovoltaics plants occupy large tracts of land which would have been used for other economic activities for revenue generation such as agriculture, forestry or tourism in archaeological sites. The negative impacts slow down the application of Solar PV , but a modelling tool that can easily and quantitively assess the impacts in monetary form would accelerate the Solar PV application. The work presents a developed modelling tool that is able to assess not only the techno-economic impacts but also the environmental impacts in monetary form, for one to be able to determine the viability of a plant in a given region. The results are compared with those of HOMER software.

Wind energy conversion systems have become a key technology to harvest wind energy worldwide. In permanent magnet synchronous generator-based wind turbine systems, the rotor position is needed for variable speed control and it uses an encoder or a speed sensor. However, these sensors lead to some obstacles, such as additional weight and cost, increased noise, complexity and reliability issues. For these reasons, the development of new sensorless control methods has become critically important for wind turbine generators. This paper aims to develop a new sensorless and adaptive control method for a surface-mounted permanent magnet synchronous generator. The proposed method includes a new model reference adaptive system, which is used to estimate the rotor position and speed as an observer. Adaptive control is implemented in the pulse-width modulated current source converter. In the conventional model reference adaptive system, the proportional-integral controller is used in the adaptation mechanism. Moreover, the proportional-integral controller is generally tuned by the trial and error method, which is tedious and inaccurate. In contrast, the proposed method is based on model predictive control which eliminates the use of speed and position sensors and also improves the performance of model reference adaptive control systems. In this paper, the proposed predictive controller is modelled in MATLAB/SIMULINK and validated experimentally on a 6-kW wind turbine generator. Test results prove the effectiveness of the control strategy in terms of energy efficiency and dynamical adaptation to the wind turbine operational conditions. The experimental results also show that the control method has good dynamic response to parameter variations and external disturbances. Therefore, the developed technique will help increase the uptake of permanent magnet synchronous generators and model predictive control methods in the wind power industry.

We initiated this series with a view to catalyse and extend the focus on conceptualisation and application of behavioural science methods for managing innovation, albeit from a whole human perspective. We started with the notion that how to increase individual (human) creativity, collaboration productivity and innovativeness in innovation projects is a common concern for most firms. After discussions on the brain-mind-behaviour triad in the beginning, the interim editorial highlighted behavioural experiments as one plausible method to further the science of managing for innovation. In this final piece on the series, we conclude with a caveat on using experimental methods in examining the human side of innovation (Salampasis and Mention 2017) and discuss avenues for future research in innovation management, which increasingly reflects a collaborative affair (Bogers et al., 2017; Heil and Bornemann 2018). (...)

This study assessed resources capability of government co-operative supporting organizations (GCSOs) in innovations dissemination to primary co-operative societies (PCSos) in Tanzania. Case study research design using multiple cases was used involving five cases. Primary data were collected using key informant interviews, focus groups discussions, documentary reviews and personal observations. Data were analyzed using content analysis. Findings indicate that, most GCSOs in Tanzania were poor in terms of resources to disseminate innovations to PCSos. Most GCSOs were also not determined at prioritizing and utilizing available resources for dissemination of innovations to PCSos. Further, some external factors e.g. inadequate government resources commitment, employment freezing and others have been adversely affecting GCSOs resources capability to disseminate innovations to PCSos. Moreover, there were no formal and comprehensive incentive systems to reward innovation dissemination activities in most of the GCSOs. It is recommended that GCSOs should mobilize more internal resources and ensure sufficient innovation resources prioritization and utilization to adequately facilitate innovations dissemination to PCSos. The GCSOs should also establish clear incentive systems to reward innovation dissemination activities.

Penggunaan media sosial semakin hari semakin meningkat. Salah satu media sosial yang popular saat ini adalah Twitter. Menjelang pemilihan Presiden Republik Indonesia semakin banyak tweet yang membahas tentang kegiatan tersebut. Hal ini menyebabkan topik kampanye pemilu memiliki peluang yang baik untuk dilakukan proses analisis sentimen. Saat ini, mayoritas analisis sentimen di Indonesia dilakukan hanya menilai sentimen dari kalimat tanpa mengetahui apa entitas yang ada dalam kalimat. Tujuan penelitian ini yaitu melakukan analisis sentimen dengan pendekatan berbasis ontologi. Ontologi digunakan dalam menyaring data yang akan digunakan. Ontologi dalam penelitian ini adalah ekonomi dengan atribut finansial, lapangan kerja, dan kesejahteraan. Proses analisis sentimen dilakukan dengan metode Lexicon-based dan Support Vector Machine (SVM). Proses akuisisi data diperoleh sejumlah 700.000 tweet. Koleksi tersebut diseleksi berdasarkan ontologi ekonomi menghasilkan 16.998 tweet dan dilakukan pelabelan manual sebanyak 1.600. Kemudian dilakukan pengolahan data hingga diperoleh dataset final sejumlah 1.050 tweet. Berdasarkan hasil penelitian yang dilakukan akurasi yang diperoleh berdasarkan metode Lexicon-based adalah 39% dan metode SVM sebesar 83%. Dari penelitian ini diketahui bahwa SVM mempunyai performa yang lebih baik dibandingkan dengan Lexicon-based. Hasil Lexicon-based menunjukkan bahwa sentimen pada mayoritas atribut berupa netral. Sedangkan hasil SVM menunjukkan bahwa sentimen pada mayoritas atribut (finansial dan kesejahteraan) berupa positif, sisanya (lapangan kerja) berupa netral. Selanjutnya, proses ekstraksi dan pembuatan ontologi Bahasa Indonesia secara semi-otomatis pada dataset perlu untuk dikembangkan pada penelitian berikutnya untuk menyempurnakan ontologi.Kata kunci: Analisis Sentimen, Twitter, Ontology, SVM, Lexicon Abstract[Comparison of the Lexicon-based and SVM Method for Ontology-Based Analysis of the 2019 Presidential Election Campaign on Twitter] The use of social media is increasing. One of the most popular social media is Twitter. Towards the election of the President of the Republic of Indonesia, election topic tweets discussed almost every day. Hence, it is suitable for the sentiment analysis process. Nowadays, the sentiment analysis is only evaluating the sentence without knowing what the entity is in the sentence. To overcome this drawback, we propose a sentiment analysis based on ontology. Ontology is used to filter the data to be used. The ontology used in this study is economics with attributes, i.e., financial employment, and welfare. The sentiment analysis process is carried out using the Lexicon and Support Vector Machine (SVM) based methods. The process of acquiring data obtained 700,000 tweets. The collection was selected based on economic ontology to produce 16,998 tweets, and 1,600 manual labels were labelled. Then, the number of the final dataset is 1,050 tweets. The results show that the accuracy of the Lexicon-based method is 39%, and the SVM method is 83%. The SVM has better performance than Lexicon-based. Lexicon-based results show that the sentiment on the majority attributes is neutral. While the SVM results show that the sentiment on the majority attributes (financial and welfare) is positive, the rest (employment) is neutral. A semi-automatic ontology extraction and development for Bahasa Indonesia is necessary for the future works to make a comprehensive ontology and provide better results. Keywords: Sentiment Analysis, Twitter, Ontology, SVM, Lexicon

This paper seeks to make a particular contribution in what are the roles of consultancies as key innovation intermediaries in service industry. In line with previous literature, the research purposes to test the application of Pinto et al (2016) framework within service companies, triangulating the findings of Pinto et al (2017). Four in-depth case studies of service companies were developed, resulting on detailed descriptions of the phenomenon using constructs to order the data and relate to earlier literature. Key findings highlight changes in motivations for consultancy engagement, from an initial focus on knowledge (output) to a focus on methodology (process). The adequacy of the framework proposed by Pinto et al (2016) is confirmed, and a new function of intermediaries arises from this study, related with “evaluation of innovation outcomes”. The study highlights the contribution of consultancies in preparing companies to innovate.

The innovation management literature describes a competitive advantage when applying Design Thinking (DT) in corporate environments. In this paper we study the perceived challenges, enablers, and benefits for implementing DT in publicly funded transdisciplinary industry-academia research and innovation consortia (RIC). We facilitate and investigate five large RIC from the food and high-tech industry in Norway and Germany using an explorative qualitative action research design. Our research shows that the challenges of using DT in RIC are to some extent comparable to those for the corporate context. Additionally, we identify distinct challenges for RIC. Benefits from using DT in RIC are stronger user and innovation focus, better transdisciplinary collaboration, and triangulation of qualitative with scientific data. We suggest that complex RIC benefit from an intermediary (DT) role translating business needs into research questions, and research results into understandable and business-relevant information and innovation.

Agriculture is a risky industry because forces beyond human control influence the quality and profitability of their activities. Farmers' incomes reveal high volatility due to product and crop price as well as catastrophic risks such as natural disasters and diseases. The following paper discusses different methods, also those not specific to EMS, and their exemplary application. An attempt has been made to answer the question of what methods of risk analysis and management are appropriate for agriculture. The goal is to identify methods which can be used in EMS for agriculture, especially in the family farmsteads. The paper is based on the latest, third edition of ISO 14001

In the process of managing participation in fairs, a long-term vision, taking into account a number of non-financial dimensions of the assessment, makes it more complex and risky and, consequently it requires more attention. The article presents the parameters of the process of managing participation in fairs by the exhibitors studied, analyses the relationships between them and identifies key risk factors in trade fairs activity of exhibitors. The article describes the respondents' behaviours in the studied area and highlights the importance of non-financial elements determining the readiness of exhibitors to participate in the fair. The decisions to participate in fairs are more and more often made based, for example, on the assessment of cooperation with organizers. The possibility of achieving non-sales goals during the event is also becoming more and more important, even if the company has difficulty assessing the degree of their implementation.

The concept of occupational health and safety is not defined in Polish law. The only place where such a definition can be found is PN-N-1801:2004. Nevertheless, according to the Act on standardisation, the application of Polish Standards is voluntary. Activities in the field of occupational health and safety should be an integral part of business management. Companies from countries which are members of the European Union, in accordance with Directive 89/391/EEC, are obliged to implement standards related to occupational health and safety. The most commonly used and recognised standard for occupational health and safety management systems, in line with the specifics of each company, is the OHSAS 18001 international management system, while in Poland it is the PN-N-18001 standard. The study examined the scope of OHS at work among Research and Innovation Centre Pro-Akademia employees. The employees were subjected to surveys. The results obtained show that employees appreciate the importance of OHS regulations, but they do not always consciously comply with them. One of the tools that enabled author to prepare this article is analytic method called desk research. Desk Research is a research method that boils down to analyzing the records of available data sources, including in particular their compilation, mutual verification and processing. Such analysis is the basis for drawing conclusions about the examined problem. For example - the effect of the Desk Research analysis proceeded as part of the labor market survey is the diagnosis of the state of the labor market in the studied area, the characteristics of all its component groups as well as a description and verification of the actions taken by the institutions operating within it.

This paper presents the modifications that have been made to the sickle insert of the gear pump with internal gearing. This procedure allowed the obtainment of radial compensation. The test stand to plot the characteristics of the pump before, as well as after the first and second modification is discussed. The results of the measurements from the tests conducted are presented. The results obtained confirmed the achievement of radial compensation by cutting the appropriate channel in the sickle insert. As a result, it will be possible to obtain a higher discharge pressure for this type of pump and to increase its efficiency.

Nano- and biotechnologies are the key elements of the complex of NBIC-technologies, developed within the concept of continuous growth of innovations in the context of the transition to the sixth technological mode. The purpose of the article is to study the prospects for the development of nano- and biotechnologies in various sectors of the economy, as well as explore opportunities for accelerating the commercialization of research results in these areas. The article’s relevance is confirmed by the strengthening of the role of nano- and biotechnologies in the sphere of innovation development of countries worldwide. The results of the study have shown that the nanotechnology market has a divergent structure, and the basic characteristic of nanoproducts is their interdisciplinary nature. The world leaders in the production and commercialization of nanotechnologies are the United States, China, Japan, Germany and South Korea. Biotechnologies are developing rapidly as well. Worldwide, the largest number of biotechnologies is created in areas such as health care (biomedicine and biopharmaceuticals), industry and agriculture. The leading countries in the field of development and commercialization of biotechnologies are the United States, France, Germany and South Korea.

As many programs of scientific and technical cooperation of various fields are being successfully implemented between Ukraine and the EU, the author has set the goal of intensifying relations between Ukraine and Chile in the field of green energy. The cooperation Ukraine has had with the EU serves as an example of future cooperation between Ukraine and Chile. The text explores Chile’s experience in the field of green energy and, through the comparative example of such cooperation between Ukraine and the EU countries, shows that such interaction is a worthwhile endeavor. Based on an analysis of research materials, one of the priority areas of scientific and technical cooperation is the use of non-traditional renewable energy technologies. In Ukraine, and the EU, as well as Chile, there are objective factors (natural, resources, socio-economic, environmental- technological) that concern their development. It is interesting to note Ukraine’s scientific experience and implementation of these technologies and the organizational and economic support of them as priorities in the context of national and regional policy. All aspects of international scientific and technical cooperation, including through the exchange of intellectual products, make it possible to increase the effectiveness of forms of state support, the innovation, production and business activities of Ukraine and the corresponding development of producers and consumers' motivation towards using non-conventional forms of renewable energy technology.

Purpose: Most organizations seek for innovative solutions to address tabulate changes and competition. However, each organization is required for rapid and effective processes of assimilating technological innovation into its operational activities. Consistent with previous studies, the aim of this study was to understand whether an organization characterized as CAS (Complex Adaptive System) could positively affect the process of assimilating technological innovation through supporting the development of knowledge workers. Such workers deal mostly with changes. Hence, they possess the ability to combine personal benefits with organizational goals, they are sensible to changes in the environment, they understand the integration of information required for such a process, and they need the ability to socialize among themselves. Design/methodology/approach: A sample of 300 employees in organizations of different sectors responded to an online questionnaire, which examined their attitude towards technological innovation in correlation with the level of organization's CAS characteristics. Pearson and regression analyses were used to examine the relationships between the functioning of the workers as CAS fractals[1] and their attitudes toward the process of assimilation of technological innovation. Findings: Workers who function as “fractals”, namely as knowledge-worker in organizations having the characteristics of CAS, were able to combine personal benefits with organizational goals. They had sensitivity to changes in the environment, integration of the information required for the process and the ability to socialize among themselves. These abilities of knowledge workers have significantly influenced the development of positive attitudes towards the process of assimilation of technological innovation, a better understanding of the technology and the advantages they gain from it, which make them ready to be involved in the process. Practical implications: The practical contribution of this study is the ability to best portray the characteristics of an optimal work environment in an organization that wishes to undergo assimilation processes, technological innovation, management and dissemination of relevant knowledge for the organization's use. Such an organization is required to provide its employees with a degree of operational autonomy enabling them to interweave personal interests and organizational goals, and to be involved and to influence the processes of assimilating technological innovation in the organization. The organization should also maintain a high level of updating, transparency, and transfer of knowledge from outside into the organization. In addition, investment in information systems for the information integration provides the employees with the possibility of social networking during their work.

Many firms from diverse sectors increasingly use artificial intelligence (AI) to strengthen their efficiency by replacing human work. However, many of these advanced automation procedures will become standard tools in the future, and their relatively isolated application will not enable companies to gain a competitive advantage. Drawing on the distinction of data, information, knowledge and intelligence or wisdom, this paper suggests an intelligence-based view of firm performance as an extension of the knowledge-based view and the resource-based view. An intelligence-based perspective underscores the need to integrate AI applications with specific human expertise to complicate imitation by competitors. To sustain a competitive advantage over time, companies further need to develop a meta-intelligence to dynamically renew and recombine their intelligence architecture with multiple types of human and artificial intelligence. An intelligence-based view provides a systematic framework for assessing a firm’s possibilities to profit from AI by generating growth and innovation beyond optimization and efficiency.

This article aims to provide a conceptual framework for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to evaluate the appropriation of blockchain technology for their business needs and challenges. This conceptual framework aims to respond to the problem of increasing speculations surrounding the blockchain that is considered to be an absolute and innovative solution to many business-related problems. However, this argument might not be realistic for SMEs despite this assumption. The main argument of the article is that SMEs should be skeptical while evaluating the appropriation of this technology for their business needs and they should follow a tailored approach whilst adopting it. Otherwise, the likelihood is high that a short-term and unstructured knowledge management process to adopt blockchain will end up with a waste of resources. The present paper conceptualizes an appropriation framework within nine factors namely, reduction of costs, internalization, digital representation of assets, unalterable data recording, network size, transparent and synchronized ledger, scalability, fair trade, and financing. Given the field’s infancy state of development, the paper relies on a qualitative document analysis involving SME literature and extant literature and white papers of blockchain applications.

In the last decade, design thinking has been discussed as a new paradigm for dealing with complex business problems. The implementation of design thinking is linked with substantial changes in the organizational culture, and becomes visible in new approaches to designing office and learning spaces. To analyze proponents’ perspectives on the implementation process, we adapted Schein’s (1990, 2017) approach of different layers of an organizational culture. In general, two layers in an organization are addressed, namely visible artifacts and behaviors, as well as basic principles to think about approaches to deal with business problems (mindset). In total, eight semi-structured expert interviews were conducted with proponents to learn more about the implementation of design thinking and the architecture of related office spaces. The findings suggest that design thinking addresses both aspects—the provision and inner design of physical space as well as a change of mindset.

Nowadays, the optimization of energy consumption and resources is one of the most urgent topics in worldwide industry. The energy consumption monitoring and control in various multiphase flow industrial applications, where a proper flow characteristic and an optimal phase mixture control is crucial, is hard to perform due to the physical and chemical complexity of the processes. The Electrical Capacitance Tomography (ECT) is one of the relatively cheap non-invasive measurement methods that can help in the monitoring and control of optimal energy and resources dozing in industrial processes. ECT diagnostics systems use unique sensors that can non-intrusively detect spatial capacitance changes caused by spatial changes in the electrical permittivity of industrial process components. One of the latest ECT extensions is a three-dimensional measurement strategy that uses a multilayer structure of the capacitance sensor. In this paper, the authors propose a novel approach to the 3D ECT sensors fabrication process that uses 3D computer modelling and 3D printing to easily get any sensor shape, electrode layout, scale and shielding strategy. This study compares the measurement abilities of a 3D ECT sensor fabricated using a traditional hand-made technique with the 3D printed device. The results have proven the potential of the new 3D print-based sensor regarding its significant fabrication time reduction as well as the improvement of the overall 3D ECT sensor measurement accuracy and stability.

There is an extensive literature on characteristics of “entrepreneurial” or “innovative” universities. As both terms have generally been used to refer to the same condition, different rankings of entrepreneurial universities use indicators universally recognized for innovative activity and primarily related to research and knowledge transfer (scholarly production, patents granted and licensed, number of firms created to exploit research results, etc.). Innovation is essentially grounded in an entrepreneurial mentality, but an innovative university (hereafter, IU) is one that transmits this mentality to all of its members, including the foremost among its central missions: education. The IU is a university that becomes a driver of economic and social development in the region in which it is established, seeking to improve society through knowledge. In recent years, various attempts have been made to “measure” this innovative/ entrepreneurial character in a more technical way. In a prior study, we proposed a characterization of an entrepreneurial and innovative university. Here, we build on that study to define the IU. The originality of this proposal stems from its inclusion of the so-called third and fourth missions (knowledge transfer and social responsibility, respectively) as transversal elements implicit in the university’s two central missions. In an IU, therefore, the university’s relationship with and impact on its surrounding agents are essential aspects entwined with its two basic functions.

The problem of localization of nodes of a wireless sensor network placed in different physical media (anchor nodes above ground and sensor nodes underground) is addressed in this article. We use time of arrival of signals transmitted between neighboring sensor nodes and between satellite nodes and sensor nodes as the ranging measurement. The localization problem is formulated as a parameter estimation of the joint distribution of the time of arrival values. The probability distribution of the time of arrival of a signal is derived based on rigorous statistical analysis and its parameters are expressed in terms of the location coordinates of the sensor nodes. Maximum likelihood estimates of the nodes’ location coordinates as parameters of the joint distribution of the various time of arrival variables in the network are computed. Sensitivity analysis to study the variation in the estimates with respect to error in measured soil complex permittivity and magnetic permeability is presented to validate the model and methodology.

This paper develops a conceptual model for finding key factors for new product development (NPD) evaluation. It builds on the work of the most cited and published authors on innovation management, but transfers attention from advertising aspects and efficiency, to factors identified within the NPD process such as new product project definition, a firm’s resources, organisation-product fit, and commercial entity, that would lead to success with “Information acquired” being identified as the underlying key factor. This paper presents a summary of the results of correlation coefficients calculated between the factors identified and outcome measures, derived from the leading authors’ work. Further, analytic hierarchy process (AHP) was used to evaluate the results of the correlation coefficients of sub-factors, which were modified by considering the ranking of each author.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hits Portugal in early March 2020, medical doctors, engineers and researchers, with the encouragement of the Northern Region Health Administration, teamed up to develop and build, locally and in a short time, a ventilator that might eventually be used in extreme emergency situations in the hospitals of northern Portugal. This letter tells you the story of Pneuma, a low-cost emergency ventilator designed and built under harsh isolation constraints, that gave birth to derivative designs in Brazil and Morocco, has been industrialized with 200 units being produced and is now looking forward to the certification as a medical device that will possibly support a go-to-market launch. Open intellectual property (IP), multidisciplinarity teamwork, fast prototyping and product engineering have shortened to a few months an otherwise quite longer idea-to-product route, clearly demonstrating that when scientific and engineering knowledge hold hands great challenges can be successfully faced.

Accurate photovoltaic (PV) power forecasting is crucial to achieving massive PV integration in several areas, which is needed to successfully reduce or eliminate carbon dioxide from energy sources. This paper deals with short-term multi-step PV power forecasts used in model-based predictive control for home energy management systems. By employing radial basis function (RBFs) artificial neural networks (ANN), designed using a multi-objective genetic algorithm (MOGA) with data selected by an approximate convex-hull algorithm, it is shown that excellent forecasting results can be obtained. Two case studies are used: a special house located in the USA, and the other a typical residential house situated in the south of Portugal. In the latter case, one-step-ahead values for unscaled root mean square error (RMSE), mean relative error (MRE), normalized mean average error (NMAE), mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) and R2 of 0.16, 1.27%, 1.22%, 8% and 0.94 were obtained, respectively. These results compare very favorably with existing alternatives found in the literature. Programa Operacional Portugal 2020 and Operational Program CRESC Algarve 2020 grant 01/SAICT/2018. Antonio Ruano acknowledges the support of Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia, through IDMEC, under LAETA, grant UIDB/50022/2020. info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

The most profound requirements of fifth-generation (5G) technology implementations are the architecture design and the radio base station technology to capably run applications such as device-to-device, machine-to machine and internet of things at a reduced latency. Owing to these requirements, the implementation of 5G technology is very expensive to mobile network operators (MNO). In this study we modified the existing 4G network to form a distributed wireless network architecture (DWNA), the picocell and distributed antenna system were modified to support the enabling technology of 5G technology were a multi-edge computer (MEC), software-defined networking (SDN), massive multiple input multiple output (MIMO), ultra-dense network (UDN), Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) and device-to-device (D2D) communication at a reduced cost of ownership, improved coverage and capacity. We present a mathematical model for operational expenditure, capital expenditure and total cost of ownership (TCO) for the DWNA. A mathematical model for DWNA capacity and throughput was presented. Result shows that it is very economical for MNO to rent the space of the tower infrastructure from tower companies. The sensitivity analysis also shows a significant reduction in TCO for both the modified picocell and modified distributed antenna systems.

This article advances the relevance of a narrative approach in studies of collaborative innovation. The narrative approach outlined is based in translation theory, developed within science and technology studies (STS) and organizational studies. The research is based in a case study of an innovation initiative in municipal elderly care in Norway. The case study follows the implementation processes of the initiative in three elderly care institutions. Various forms of resistance were encountered in the implementation process, and the analysis shows how narrative strategies worked as brokering mechanisms in negotiations of this resistance. The article explores how a collaborative innovation process evolves through interplays between strategic narratives and counter narratives and contributes by demonstrating how narratives may work as important brokering mechanisms in collaborative innovation processes. The article discusses finally how and why narrative approaches may contribute to research on collaborative innovation, and it outlines managerial implications.

Nowadays, by increasing energy demand and considering the importance of environmental issues in recent decades, the use of renewable energies is expanding. Among renewable energies, wind power and its technology are growing and evolving more rapidly. Resource assessment in Iran has revealed the significant potential of wind energy around the country. To further develop wind energy in the country and create large-scale wind power plants, the consideration of distributed power generation using small wind turbines for applications in agricultural and residential use is needed. Conventional small wind turbines and small wind lens turbines have been developed in recent years. In this research project, a small wind lens turbine is designed. The advantages of this turbine are an increased production capacity and reduced cut-in speed and noise pollution. In this study, a lens (or shroud) is added to a small turbine, and the maximized annual energy production (AEP) and minimization of the levelized cost of energy (LCOE) are modeled. We applied the NSGA-II algorithm for optimization to find the best answer. The input parameters in the objective function of the AEP are cut-in, cut-out, rated speeds, scale factor, and shape factor. Additionally, the input parameters in the objective function of the LCOE are the power production, initial capital cost, annual operating expenses, and balance of energy. The results indicate that installing a wind lens turbine in Kish Island led to an LCOE decrease of 56% on average, and we can see an 83% increase in the AEP. In the Firoozkooh area, an average reduction of 59% in the LCOE and 74% increase in the AEP for a wind lens turbine is observed.

This paper presents the effect of grinding wheel contact stiffness on the plunge grinding cycle. First, it proposes a novel model of the generalized plunge grinding system. The model is applicable to all plunge grinding operations including cylindrical, centerless, shoe-centerless, internal, and shoe-internal grinding. The analysis of the model explicitly describes transient behaviors during the ramp infeed and the spark-out in the plunge grinding cycle. Clarification is provided regarding the premise that the system stiffness is composed of machine stiffness and wheel contact stiffness, and these stiffnesses significantly affect productivity and grinding accuracy. The elastic deflection of the grinding wheel is accurately measured and formulas for representing the deflection nature under various contact loads are derived. The deflection model allows us to find the non-linear contact stiffness with respect to the normal load. The contact stiffnesses of four kinds of grinding wheels with different grades and bond materials are presented. Both cylindrical grinding and centerless grinding tests are carried out, and it is experimentally revealed that the time constant at ramp infeed and spark-out is significantly prolonged by reducing the grinding force. It is verified that a simulation of the grinding tests using the proposed model can accurately predict critical parameters like forces and machine deflection during plunge grinding operations. Finally, this paper provides a guideline for grinding cycle design in order to achieve the required productivity and grinding accuracy.

The world is targeting fully renewable power generation by the middle of the century. Distributed generation is the way to increase the penetration level of renewable energies. This paper presents load frequency control of a hybrid tidal, wind, and wave microgrid to feed an isolated island. This research is a step towards 100% renewable energy communities in remote seas/oceans islands. The wave and tidal generation systems model are presented. The study presents load frequency control through three supplementary control strategies: conventional integrators, fractional order integrator, and non-linear fractional order integrator. All the controllers of the microgrid are designed by using a novel black widow optimization technique. The applied technique is compared to other existing state-of-the-art algorithms. The results show that the black widow non-linear fractional integrator has a better performance over other strategies. Coordination between the unloaded tidal system and blade pitch control of both wind and tidal systems are adopted in the microgrid to utilize the available reserve power for the frequency support. Simulation and optimization studies are performed using the MATLAB/SIMULINK 2017a software application.

This paper reviews the energy storage participation for ancillary services in a microgrid (MG) system. The MG is used as a basic empowering solution to combine renewable generators and storage systems distributed to assist several demands proficiently. However, because of unforeseen and sporadic features of renewable energy, innovative tasks rise for the consistent process of MGs. Power management in MGs that contain renewable energy sources (RES) can be improved by energy storage. The energy storage systems (ESSs) have several merits, such as supply and demand balancing, smoothing of RES power generation, enhancing power quality and reliability, and facilitating the ancillary services like voltage and frequency regulation in MG operation. The integration of ESS technology has become a solution to the challenges the power distribution networks face in achieving improved performance. By simplifying a smooth and robust energy balance within the MG, storage devices match energy generation to consumption. MG, and its multidisciplinary portrait of current MG drivers, tasks, real-world applications, and upcoming views are elucidated in this paper.

The female perspective of implementing failure learning orientation is explored through the analysis of interviews with Canadian female executives of technology firms. The results of this study established several strategies for executives to use for creating an organizational culture that learns from failure. The strategies include, reimagine failure to mitigate negative emotions, focus on the root of the issue, openly discuss strategies and failures, be proactive, encourage risk-taking in experimentation, and finally, provide a calming presence.

The boiling process is utterly fundamental to the design and safety of water-cooled fission reactors. Both boiling water reactors and pressurised water reactors use boiling under high-pressure subcooled liquid flow conditions to achieve high surface heat fluxes required for their operation. Liquid water is an excellent coolant, which is why water-cooled reactors can have such small sizes and high-power densities, yet also have relatively low component temperatures. Steam is in contrast a very poor coolant. A good understanding of how liquid water coolant turns into steam is correspondingly vital. This need is particularly pressing because heat transfer by water when it is only partially steam (‘nucleate boiling’ regime) is particularly effective, providing a great incentive to operate a plant in this regime. Computational modelling of boiling, using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation at the ‘component scale’ typical of nuclear subchannel analysis and at the scale of the single bubbles, is a core activity of current nuclear thermal hydraulics research. This paper gives an overview of recent literature on computational modelling of boiling. The knowledge and capabilities embodied in the surveyed literature entail theoretical, experimental and modelling work, and enabled the scientific community to improve its current understanding of the fundamental heat transfer phenomena in boiling fluids and to develop more accurate tools for the prediction of two-phase cooling in nuclear systems. Data and insights gathered on the fundamental heat transfer processes associated with the behaviour of single bubbles enabled us to develop and apply more capable modelling tools for engineering simulation and to obtain reliable estimates of the heat transfer rates associated with the growth and departure of steam bubbles from heated surfaces. While results so far are promising, much work is still needed in terms of development of fundamental understanding of the physical processes and application of improved modelling capabilities to industrially relevant flows.

Human action recognition has turned into one of the most attractive and demanding fields of research in computer vision and pattern recognition for facilitating easy, smart, and comfortable ways of human-machine interaction. With the witnessing of massive improvements to research in recent years, several methods have been suggested for the discrimination of different types of human actions using color, depth, inertial, and skeleton information. Despite having several action identification methods using different modalities, classifying human actions using skeleton joints information in 3-dimensional space is still a challenging problem. In this paper, we conceive an efficacious method for action recognition using 3D skeleton data. First, large-scale 3D skeleton joints information was analyzed and accomplished some meaningful pre-processing. Then, a simple straight-forward deep convolutional neural network (DCNN) was designed for the classification of the desired actions in order to evaluate the effectiveness and embonpoint of the proposed system. We also conducted prior DCNN models such as ResNet18 and MobileNetV2, which outperform existing systems using human skeleton joints information.

Some of the most promising distributed recycling and additive manufacturing (DRAM) technical systems use fused particle fabrication (FPF) or fused granular fabrication (FGF), where compression screws force post-consumer waste plastic through a heated nozzle for direct 3D printing. To assist the technical evolution of these systems, this study provided the details of an invention for a low-cost, easily replicable open-source grinding machine for compression screw manufacturing. The system itself can be largely fabricated using FPF/FGF following the self-replicating rapid prototyper (RepRap) methodology. This grinding machine can be made from a cordless cut-off grinder and &lt, $155 in parts. The new invention is demonstrated to be able to cut custom screws with variable (i) channel depths, (ii) screw diameters, (iii) screw lengths, (iv) pitches, (v) abrasive disk thicknesses, (vi) handedness of the screws, (vii) and materials (three types of steel tested: 1045 steel, 1144 steel, and 416 stainless steel). The results show that the device is more than capable of replicating commercial screws as well as providing makers with a much greater flexibility to make custom screws. This invention enables the DRAM toolchain to become even more self-sufficient, which assists the goals of the circular economy.