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Using data on the patent portfolios of UK universities, the paper compares the levels of patenting activity (filings), success (grants) and quality (patents with commercial co-assignees and patent citations) at Welsh, Scottish and Northern Irish institutions. Patent activity, per researcher, in Wales is on a par with that in Scotland and about twice the rate in Northern Ireland, but the numbers of researchers relative to population in Wales and Northern Ireland are around half of the number in Scotland. Patent quality indicators are less favourable to Wales, while both activity levels and conversion of applications into grants are poor in Northern Ireland. It is suggested that greater cross-university collaboration in Wales and Northern Ireland would help improve performance.

Technium is a project that aims to bring a sub-regional innovation system and drive collective learning. The project, which was formed through a partnership between Welsh Development Agency and Swansea University, also provides business incubation. An evaluation of the Technium model is given.

Implications of the Welsh agenda on sustainable development are analyzed. Implications of Welsh gross domestic product targets, devolution and tax rates are emphasized.

The employer-employee relationship in the Thai sex industry is examined.

A simple dynamic model that distinguishes between primary materials using and primary materials producing was used to show that recycling methods that depended on voluntary action could lead to an increased use of primary materials. A primary-materials producer and a materials user are the agents. Northern producers of the final good are effectively subsidized by recycling on a voluntary basis. Their accumulation intensity may offset the unit savings on primary materials. Results show that a reduction of the Northern savings propensity is the most effective primary sources conservation method.

Economists Tugan and Baranowsky theorized that economic crises due to underconsumption will not occur since capitalists will continue to invest in capital goods or machines to make more machines. The phenomena of assets increasing in value despite questionable intrinsic utility was described as a 'bubble.' Bubbles happen when individuals invest in assets in the hope of selling at increased prices to other individuals with the same intentions. While bubbles may give rise to periodic booms and crashes, they help remove inefficiency from an economy.