Inventors often experience a low productivity after their company has been subject to a merger or acquisition (M&As). It is of central managerial interest to identify factors facilitating the integration of new inventive staff and thereby counteracting innovation declines after M&As. This paper provides empirical evidence into the role of acquiring firms’ absorptive capacity for the post-merger...

The idea of foresight as a new tool for S&T policies rests on the need to face the challenges of high tech developments, to respond to increasing global competition and to develop inter-organisational strategies. However, the impact of technological and global changes varies per country and per innovation sector, as do possibilities to develop interorganisational strategies. In this article we ...

Organizations usually strive for innovation to achieve economic growth. Thereby, incremental innovation of e.g., existing products is often the most attractive way because it is plannable to a certain extent and often reveals short-term success. However, many markets change due to new competitive structures caused by the rise of digital services, which facilitates market entries of new companie...

What factors affect a scientist’s choice of research problem? Qualitative research in the history, philosophy, and sociology of science suggests that this choice is shaped by an “essential tension” between the professional demand for productivity and a conflicting drive toward risky innovation. We examine this tension empirically in the context of biomedical chemistry. We use complex networks t...

OBJECTIVES To describe the levels of exposure to fungal alpha-amylase in British bakeries and flour mills, and to describe the relation between exposure to alpha-amylase and sensitisation to fungal alpha-amylase. METHODS 495 personal flour dust samples were taken in seven British bakeries and flour mills and analysed for alpha-amylase with an immunoassay. Workers at the sites were asked to fi...

Objectives—To describe the levels of exposure to fungal á-amylase in British bakeries and flour mills, and to describe the relation between exposure to á-amylase and sensitisation to fungal á-amylase. Methods—495 personal flour dust samples were taken in seven British bakeries and flour mills and analysed for á-amylase with an immunoassay. Workers at the sites were asked to fill out questionnai...

A simple, rapid screening procedure for determining the relative amounts of pancreatic (P)- and salivary (S)-type amylase in serum is presented, involving incorporation of a selective inhibitor (from wheat-germ) into commercially available BMD Single-Vial Amylase and Beckman Enzymatic Amylase-DS procedures for manual and automated isoamylase measurements. Optimal concentrations of inhibitor inh...

α-Amylase from Trichoderma harzianum was covalently immobilized on activated wool by cyanuric chloride. Immobilized α-amylase exhibited 75% of its initial activity after 10 runs. The soluble and immobilized α-amylases exhibited maximum activity at pH values 6.0 and 6.5, respectively. The immobilized enzyme was more thermally stable than the soluble one. Various substrates were hydrolyzed by imm...

The study aimed at isolation and screening of fungal amylase producer, optimization of solid state fermentation conditions for maximum amylase production by the best amylase producer, and characterization of the crude amylases, so produced. Aspergillus fumigatus NTCC1222 showed the highest amylase activity (164.1 U/mL) in secondary screening under SSF conditions and was selected for further stu...

alpha-Amylase is a starch cleaving enzyme often used in the baking industry as a flour additive. It is usually of fungal origin, produced by Aspergillus oryzae. One previous report has shown IgE antibodies and positive skin prick test against alpha-amylase in asthmatic bakers. This paper describes four alpha-amylase sensitised index cases with occupational asthma or rhinitis and the results of ...