Paths of technology upgrading in the BRICS economies     

Iciar Dominguez Lacasa  Björn Jindra  Slavo Radosevic  Mahmood Shubbak 《Research Policy》2019,48(1):262-280

This paper explores technology upgrading of BRICS economies based on a three-pronged approach, which distinguishes between the intensity of technology upgrading, structural change and global interaction. We develop a statistical framework based on patent indicators to measure technological upgrading and apply it to BRICS economies in the period 1980–2015. The paper shows that there is no single path of technology upgrading. Instead, we find several unique paths with different trade-offs between intensity, structural change and the nature of the global interaction. All BRICS economies display increased generation of frontier technological activities, while China and Russia have also increased the intensity of behind frontier technological activities. China has also diversified its technology knowledge base and entered into dynamic frontier areas. With increasing intensity of frontier technology activities of the BRICS, the relative, but not absolute, the importance of foreign actors and international collaboration has declined. However, BRICS economies seem to lack the organisational and complementary capabilities to match the extent of technology sourcing from abroad, observed in high-income countries. Our result represents the application of a new conceptual framework and contributes to assessing the sustainability of innovation-based growth among BRICS.  相似文献   

The technological system of production and innovation: The case of photovoltaic technology in China     

Mahmood H. Shubbak 《Research Policy》2019,48(4):993-1015

This research paper studies the Chinese technological system of production and innovation in the field of photovoltaics (PV). It contributes to a better understanding of the emergence and development of the system by utilizing three levels of analysis: the institutional framework of the system, the market dynamics of production and deployment, and the composition of innovation-related activities. The analysis demonstrates the interrelated roles of transnational factors, local government policies, and research and development (R&D) activities undertaken by the main actors in shaping the system dynamics. Tracking the relative position of China in the global PV manufacturing, installation and technological development, the analysis shows a gap between the growth of China’s market share and its modest share of transnational patent applications. This suggests a puzzle, which the paper attempts to answer by inspecting the individual companies in the system against four aspects. First, the dynamic development of their size and performance. Second, the nature of their international involvement through foreign direct investment and mergers and acquisition deals. Third, their technological specialization within the PV value chain over time. Fourth, the spatial scope of their patenting protection endeavours. The analysis recognises four periods of system development driven jointly by market dynamics and government plans. Behind the continuous growth of the system, there were different driving and moderating factors in each period.  相似文献   

Challenging the myths about madaris in Pakistan: A national household survey of enrolment and reasons for choosing religious schools     

Anne Cockcroft  Neil Andersson  Deborah Milne  Khalid Omer  Noor Ansari  Amir Khan  Ubaid Ullah Chaudhry 《International Journal of Educational Development》2009

There is speculation about madaris in Pakistan as sources of terrorists and about levels and reasons for enrolment, but a dearth of empirical data. We studied madarsah enrolment among 53,960 representative households; 853 focus groups of parents discussed enrolment choices. In 2004, 2.6% of all children (3.8% of school-going children) aged 5–9 years attended a madarsah. Children from urban and less educated households were more likely to attend a madarsah, but there was no difference by sex of the child or household vulnerability. Parents chose madaris because they offered an Islamic education. Our findings challenge misconceptions about madaris in Pakistan.  相似文献   

The effect of two different interval-training programmes on physiological and performance indices     

Mahmood Sindiani  Alon Eliakim  Daria Segev 《European Journal of Sport Science》2017,17(7):830-837

The aim of the present study was to compare the effect of an increasing-distance, interval-training programme and a decreasing-distance, interval-training programme, matched for total distance, on aerobic and anaerobic physiological indices. Forty physical education students were randomly assigned to either the increasing- or decreasing-distance, interval-training group (ITG and DTG), and completed two similar relevant sets of tests before and after six weeks of training. One training programme consisted of increasing-distance interval-training (100–200–300–400–500?m) and the other decreasing-distance interval training (500–400–300–200–100?m). While both training programmes led to a significant improvement in VO₂ max (ES?=?0.83–1.25), the improvement in the DTG was significantly greater than in the ITG (14.5?±?3.6 vs. 7.8?±?3.2%, p?<?.05). In addition, while both training programmes led to a significant improvement in all anaerobic indices (ES?=?0.83–1.63), the improvements in peak power (15.7?±?7.8 vs. 8.9?±?4.7), mean power (10.6?±?5.4 vs. 6.8?±?4.4), and fatigue index (18.2?±?10.9 vs. 7.0?±?14.2) were significantly greater in the DTG compared to the ITG (p?<?.05). The main finding of the present study was that beyond the significant positive effects of both training programmes on aerobic and anaerobic fitness, the DTG showed significant superiority over the ITG in improving aerobic and anaerobic performance capabilities. Coaches and athletes should therefore be aware that, in spite of identical total work, an interval-training programme might induce different physiological impacts if the order of intervals is not identical.  相似文献   

Replicating web contents using a hybrid particle swarm optimization     

Amjad Mahmood 《Information processing & management》2010

We consider the problem of placing copies of objects in a distributed web server system to minimize the cost of serving read and write requests when the web servers have limited storage capacities. We formulate the problem as a 0–1 optimization problem and present a hybrid particle swarm optimization algorithm to solve it. The proposed hybrid algorithm makes use of the strong global search ability of particle swarm optimization (PSO) and the strong local search ability of tabu search to obtain high quality solutions. The effectiveness of the proposed algorithm is demonstrated by comparing it with the genetic algorithm (GA), simple PSO, tabu search, and random placement algorithm on a variety of test cases. The simulation results indicate that the proposed hybrid approach outperforms the GA, simple PSO, and tabu search.  相似文献   

Between the public intellectual and the scholar: decolonization and some post-independence initiatives in African higher education     

Mahmood Mamdani 《Inter-Asia Cultural Studies》2016,17(1):68-83

This article focuses on epistemological decolonization, including knowledge production and its institutional locus – the university – in the post-independence African context. The article begins by problematizing both the concept and the institutional history of the university, in its European and African contexts, to underline the specifically modern character of the university as we know it and its genesis in post-Renaissance Europe. Against this background, the article traces post-independence reform of universities in Africa, which is unfolding in two waves: the first on access, Africanization, generating a debate between rights and justice; and the second on institutional reform, epitomized by the debate around disciplinarity. At the same time, the notions of excellence and relevance have functioned as code words, each signaling a different trajectory in the historical development of the university. Lastly, the article explores the role and tension between the public intellectual and the scholar from the perspective of decolonization.  相似文献   

Teaching and learning the European Union: traditional and innovative methods. Series: Innovation and change in professional education,Vol. 9     

Khalid Khan 《Studies in Continuing Education》2016,38(1):124-125

  相似文献   

Effects of loading rate and hydraulic residence time on anoxic sulfide biooxidation   总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1  

CAI Jing ZHENG Ping MAHMOOD Qaisar ISLAM Ejazul HU Bao-lan WU Dong-lei 《浙江大学学报(A卷英文版)》2007,8(7):1149-1156

The optimal operation conditions in an anoxic sulfide oxidizing (ASO) bioreactor were investigated. The maximal removal rates for sulfide and nitrate were found to be 4.18 kg/(m3·d) and 1.73 kg/(m3·d), respectively. The volumetrical volumetric loading rates (LRs) observed through decreasing hydraulic retention time (HRT) at fixed substrate concentration are higher than those by increasing substrate concentration at fixed HRT. The sulfide oxidation in ASO reactor was partially producing both sulfate and sulfur; but the amount of sulfate produced was approximately one third that of sulfur. The process was able to tolerate high sulfide concentration, as the sulfide removal percentage always remained near 99% when influent concentration was up to 580 mg/L. It tolerated relatively lower nitrate concentration because the removal percentage dropped to 85% when influent con- centration was increased above 110 mg/L. The process can tolerate shorter HRT but careful operation is needed. Nitrate conversion was more sensitive to HRT than sulfide conversion since the process performance deteriorated abruptly when HRT was decreased from 3.12 h to 2.88 h. In order to avoid nitrite accumulation in the reactor, the influent sulfide and nitrate concentrations should be kept at 280 mg/L and 67.5 mg/L respectively. Present biotechnology is useful for removing sulfides from sewers and crude oil.  相似文献   

An exact analytical solution for convective heat transfer in rectangular ducts     

Mohammad Mohsen Shahmardan  Mahmood Norouzi  Mohammad Hassan Kayhani  Amin Amiri Delouei 《浙江大学学报(A卷英文版)》2012,13(10):768-781

An exact analytical solution is obtained for convective heat transfer in straight ducts with rectangular cross-sections for the first time. This solution is valid for both H1 and H2 boundary conditions, which are related to fully developed convective heat transfer under constant heat flux at the duct walls. The separation of variables method and various other mathematical techniques are used to find the closed form of the temperature distribution. The local and mean Nusselt numbers are also obtained as functions of the aspect ratio. A new physical constraint is presented to solve the Neumann problem in non-dimensional analysis for the H2 boundary conditions. This is one of the major innovations of the current study. The analytical results indicate a singularity occurs at a critical aspect ratio of 2.4912 when calculating the local and mean Nusselt numbers.  相似文献   

Electronic resources and services in Pakistani university libraries: A survey of users' satisfaction     

Muhammad Sajid Mirza  Khalid Mahmood 《International Information and Library Review》2012,44(3):123-131

This study is an attempt to evaluate the effectiveness of electronic resources and services in Pakistani university libraries on the basis of users' satisfaction. A survey method was employed to conduct the research. Using convenience sampling, eight university libraries; four each from Islamabad and Lahore including two from the public sector and two from the private sector having IT applications, were included in the users survey. The total population (i.e., 40,236) of library users was very large; therefore, a reasonable, manageable and convenient sample of 800 library users, including 100 users each from the eight libraries was selected. A semi structured questionnaire was designed to collect data, while a five-point Likert Scale from 1 (Dissatisfied) to 5 (Extremely satisfied) was used to measure the satisfaction level of the respondent. The study concluded that Pakistani university libraries are offering effective electronic resources and services to their users.  相似文献