Search

The literature on the diffusion of innovation from the 1970s has found that a domestic inter-urban hierarchy was the most common conduit for the innovation diffusion. Has this hierarchy become obsolete in today’s globalized economy? As less-developed cities within a developing country absorb technological innovation directly from overseas, is the nationality of cities becoming less important? Contemporary economic geography literature tends to answer these questions in the affirmative. This study challenges that resounding yes. Through our analysis of Chinese patent licensing data, we find evidence not only for the survival but also for the reinforcement of the domestic inter-urban hierarchy. While it is true that the number of cities licensing patents to import technology from overseas has been increasing, it is being outmatched by the domestic patent licensing from the top-tier cities within China. This development demonstrates that the role of the nation as a spatial unit of knowledge production and application has remained constant throughout, even as the technological level of its cities has improved under the increasing globalization of the national economy.

Tea (Camellia sinensis(L.) O. Kuntze) is a popular beverage consumed worldwide. To establish fundamental scientific data, we analyzed the amino acids and volatile compounds in seven tea cultivars grown in Korea investigated phenotype also. Phenotypically, the leaf area and greenness index of young shoots and leaf blades were particularly different among the four Korean cultivars. Nine amino acids were detected from each cultivar, with the total amino acid and theanine contents being 9.08–41.42 and 2.81–24.60 mg/g, respectively. Moreover, 107 volatile compounds were identified as common components among tea cultivars using headspace solid-phase microextraction / gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (HS-SPME/GC-MS), and 38 key compounds were identified using partial least squares-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) and hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA). The (Z)-linalool oxide (furanoid) concentrations were significantly high in Korean tea plant cultivars, and linalool concentrations were also high or low, but had high relative contents. Linalool and its various oxides are the major compounds responsible for the tea aroma. In conclusion, Korean tea cultivars have distinct characteristics, and the results of this study will form the basis for identifying Korean tea plant cultivars that can produce high-value tea products.