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A survey of U.S. Air Force air-to-air armament from World War II through Vietnam's Operation ROLLING THUNDER reveals the institution's focus on developing advanced technologies and tactics designed to thwart hordes of Soviet bombers. Challenged by nimble MiGs over Vietnam, the service was reluctant to investigate "low-tech" armament solutions. When the value of a gun in air combat was finally acknowledged, the Air Force elected to field it as part of an integrated weapons system on the F-4E. In the interim, pilots at DaNang air base cobbled together an inelegant but effective air-to-air external gun system. The episode reveals the significant potential, and fragility, of unit-initiated tactical innovation and the peril that can arise when an organization's technological exuberance obfuscates less technologically-appealing solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Medical provision in Civil War armies has generally suffered a poor reputation. Medical matters have been excluded from assessments of how far Civil War armies confirm evidence of the so-called 'Military Revolution', whilst Harold Cook argued that it was not until after the Glorious Revolution that the medical infrastructure of the armed forces was brought in line with continental practices, particularly those of the Dutch army. Despite the recent rehabilitation of early modern practitioners elsewhere, frontline military practitioners continue to be dismissed as uneducated, unskilful and incompetent. This is largely due to the lack of a fresh perspective since C. H. Firth published Cromwell's Army in 1902. This article argues that the English were well aware of current medical practice in European armies and endeavoured to implement similar procedures during the Civil Wars. Indeed, almost all the developments identified by Cook for the later seventeenth century can be found in Civil War armies. Whilst failures may have occurred, most of these can be attributed to administrative and financial miscarriages, rather than ignorance of contemporary medical developments. Moreover, there is little to suggest that medics mobilized for Civil War armies were any less capable than those who practised civilian medicine in this period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article challenges the erstwhile historical reliance upon the memoirs of the key protagonist of British Scientific Intelligence during the Second World War. Meticulous archival research has confirmed that the history of the genesis of British Scientific Intelligence has been distorted by the legacy and legend of R.V. Jones and his memoirs entitled Most Secret War. This article confirms that British Intelligence success in this regard was not solely the result of one man's heroic accomplishments but, in reality, involved many individuals and organisations whose valuable exploits have been hidden in the shadows by Most Secret War. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article studies the role of entrepreneurial techniques in the capitalization of early industrial ventures. It focuses on the preparation and circulation of project proposals by the Du Pont de Nemours family, ahead of their transplantation to the United States: father Pierre Samuel's 1797 plan for an agricultural colony and his son Irénée's 1800 project for a gunpowder manufactory. The two men and the types of projects they proposed did not enjoy the same amount of credit in investor circles, leading them to rely on different territorialization techniques in their proposals. The father located the proposed colony in the geographical space of the United States to narrate a single and hesitant path into the future. The son relied on accounting simulations to prove that profits would ensue, whatever the circumstances, in the calculable space of American markets. His project was assigned not just a destination but also a destiny. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two of the most significant innovations of the fourth millennium BC were the invention of the wheel and of wheeled vehicles, which led to other major innovations during the Late Copper Age. Discussed here are the major milestones and advances in research on wheeled vehicles, problems of dating, and the issues relating to the actual place of the invention of wheeled vehicles as well as the fruitful collaboration between various analytical disciplines and archaeology concerned with the study of wheels and early wheeled vehicles. I have collected the finds relating to wheels and wheeled vehicles. It would appear that the invention of the wheel and of wheeled conveyances occurred in different centres. Even though we are unable to date the creation of the very first vehicle to the year, it seems quite certain that wheeled vehicles appeared more or less simultaneously in several regions in the fourth millennium BC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The focus of this paper is the digital transition in major Japanese newspapers that sell millions of copies per day. By digital transition we refer to the shift to publishing content on digital platforms—in this case the shift from print to online and mobile media. Japan is globally one of the most important newspaper markets with the world's largest daily newspapers measured by circulation. The research focusing on the digital transition in Japanese newspapers and the implications of this shift has been hitherto almost non-existent. In this paper, the digital transition is examined by means of qualitative in-depth interviews with representatives from leading Japanese newspapers. The conclusion deriving from the empirical analysis is that for Japanese newspapers the most essential approach in coping with the transition to digital is protecting the printed paper and treating the digital platforms as supplementary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electronic cigarettes are advertised as the latest technological gadget--the smoking equivalent of smart phones. I challenge this sense of novelty by tracing their history to the 1960s, when researchers at British American Tobacco first recognized that smokers' brains were dependent on nicotine. This discovery enabled British American Tobacco to develop a novel kind of smoking device under the codename "Ariel" between 1962 and 1967. Whereas filters were meant to eliminate specific harmful constituents of tobacco smoke, Project Ariel tried to reduce smoking to its alkaloid essence: nicotine. By heating instead of burning tobacco, the scientists working on Ariel managed to produce an aerosol smoking device that delivered nicotine with very little tar while retaining the look and feel of a cigarette. However, after receiving two patents for Ariel, British American Tobacco ultimately decided to abandon the project to avoid endangering cigarettes, its main product. Today, as ecigarettes are surging in popularity, it is worth revisiting Ariel because it is not just an episode in the history of aerosol smoking devices but its starting point. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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We build on the analysis in Akcigit, Grigsby, and Nicholas (2017) by using US patent and census data to examine the relationship between immigration and innovation. We construct a measure of foreign born expertise and show that technology areas where immigrant inventors were prevalent between 1880 and 1940 experienced more patenting and citations between 1940 and 2000. The contribution of immigrant inventors to US innovation was substantial. We also show that immigrant inventors were more productive than native born inventors; however, they received significantly lower levels of labor income. The immigrant inventor wage-gap cannot be explained by differentials in productivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growth of IoT appears to be based on trading off security for convenience. The futuristic technology brings with it a landscape scattered with vulnerabilities. The paper traces the exponential growth of IoT and its business potential. It then journeys into the dark alleys of IoT exposing the real and present dangers that the technology poses to all demographics and Nation- States. The paper then explores the cyber policy landscape in the USA, the EU and in India and analyses the procedural hazards for enforcement emanating fromthe principle of territoriality, which the cyber domain clearly poses a challenge to. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inspired by the imaginative experiments in fiction undertaken in response to scientific developments and technological change in the seventeenth century, this essay seeks to use science fiction's investment in speculative departures and hypothetical worlds to develop a new method for comparative analysis of the early modern world. This essay takes a new approach to the question of a global history of science fiction as a genre, proposing a triangulation among early Qing China, seventeenth-century England, and the present, rather than a teleological account of generic development from early modernity to the present. This model is elaborated through a comparative study of literary responses to new telescopic lens technologies in Li Yu's Shi'er lou (1658) (Twelve Towers), Margaret Cavendish's A Blazing World (1666), and global science fiction today. The aim of this essay is largely methodological, seeking to demonstrate what is to be gained through comparative studies of the early modern world and how we might go about writing them. Inspired by Columbus's short-lived misreading of accounts that describe the supposedly man-eating Caniba as the soldiers of the Great Khan of China, this essay analyzes representations of cannibalism in China and Latin America in the early modern age. This anecdote, involving cannibal (mis)translation between Europe, the Americas, and China, forms the basis for a reflection on early modern constructions of cultural identity and alterity. Instead of looking through a European perspective that would treat the Americas and China as cultural antipodes--one a territory in need of civilizing, one an object of civilizational envy--the essay focuses on a comparison of representations of cannibalism in China and Latin America by paying particular attention to the tension between, on the one hand, the impulse to frame cannibalism as barbarian atrocity that would deny its practitioners humanity and, on the other hand, cannibal imaginaries as an integral part of civilization. In dialogue with scholarly reflections on the early modern period as a global constellation as well as with recent theories of intercultural comparison, this essay's consideration of cannibal translations between China and Latin America performs and tests a type of comparison that combines an attention to links between two cultures with observations on the patterns of similarity and difference that structure such comparisons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the expansion of the digital humanities projects in the language of design and public policy. It examines the fragmentation and social complexity of the organizations and communities with the effort to state the problem and the solution for online digital collections. It also cites the trade and cultural exchange between the U.S. and China.

Internationalization of firms is happening at an ever-increasing pace, and more and more small firms from emerging economies are shifting their approach from domestic to global orientation. Small firms are considered a crucial factor for the development of emerging countries. They contribute to the development of countries by generating employment, supporting innovation and sustaining economic development (Mukole, 2010). They also help in achieving wider socioeconomic goals of emerging countries. They do so by quickly adding jobs, giving competition to big firms and fostering entrepreneurial spirit (Javalgi & Todd, 2011). Small firms from emerging markets are increasingly looking at internationalization as one of the important strategic options to grow. These firms, lacking in propriety resources, do not approach internationalization as a way to exploit existing resources; instead, they view internationalization to acquire resources and capabilities. Moreover, these small firms from emerging markets face different kinds of liabilities- liability of newness, liability of foreignness and liability of third-world multinationals, mainly due to poor branding, lack of resources, lack of cutting-edge technology, and lack of scale. Firms from emerging markets view internationalization as one of the strategic options to grow large and acquire resources and capabilities (Guillén & García-Canal, 2009). They use strategic alliance as one of the essential tools to enter international markets. This paper argues that small firms from emerging market lack resources, consequently they go for internationalization. Building on the linkage, leverage and learning framework proposed by Mathews (2006), we argue that smaller firms from emerging markets get into an alliance to form a linkage with a wider network of globally connected firms to get access to requisite resources and capabilities. Further, we posit that piggybacking on strategic alliance help such firms offset the liability of foreignness and poor branding, small firms from emerging markets sponge upon the strategic alliances for internationalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With a continuously growing population, India faces a real challenge in fulfilling the target of food security for all of her citizen. Parallel to increment of food production, better processing of it as well plays a vital role in ensuring nutrient food to all in a sustainable fashion. Food processing industry may plays a vital role in this direction and, therefore, occupies an important place in India’s overall economic growth, in general and that of her manufacturing sector, in particular. For its significant share to the industrial output and both direct and indirect employment generating capacity, food processing industry is considered to be a remarkable pooling factor for the prosperity of agricultural sector as well. In this study, we explore the performance of the production units of this industry. We have analyzed data on Annual Financial Statements of food processing companies, collected through Prowess database of Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) during 2000-2015. We use a two stage methodology for our analyses. Using data envelopment analysis (DEA) method in the first stage, we obtain technical efficiency (TE) score of the individual production units of the industry. In this connection, we also examine the extent of diverse technologies used across its various sub-sectors, through a measure called technology closeness ratio (TCR), which we explain in the paper in details. We then explain such TE scores in terms of certain company -specific variables using simple ordinary least squares (OLS) regression method, to have an idea on the factors that may influence such performance. Results suggest that the units producing dairy products and sugar recorded relatively lower level of TE, whereas those producing vegetable oil and products are more technically efficient as compared to other sub-sectors within the industry. Overall TCR varies from 0.63 (for sugar and dairy products) to 0.93 (for vegetable oil and products), implying thereby that the former two have an opportunity to improve their overall performance to a sizeable extent through technological upgradation, whereas the latter does not have much scope to improve themselves in this regard, and can improve their overall performance only through more efficient utilization of available resources! Moreover, observed evidence of positive impact of R and D intensity and infrastructural factor on performance have a remarkable implication on the role of the government for providing necessary infrastructural facilities and (probably) initiating innovative scheme(s) to make research and development activities more attractive to them! [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapid globalization driven by the development needs of transition economies, economic reform in developing countries, and unprecedented productivity growth owing to lower unit labor cost, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) revolution, and international movement of labor has posed a challenge for maintaining a sustainable economic growth worldwide. Using qualitative analysis based on data from various secondary sources, we note that both outsourcing and brain drain have intensified over the years as more and more countries are now embracing globalization as a strategy for higher economic growth and development. While the benefits of globalization can differ across countries, it seems that outsourcing and brain drain can bring into play some offsetting forces that are likely to bridge the gap between advanced and developing countries by creating a ‘level playing field’ in the global economy. While the developing and emerging economies are losing skilled labor through ‘brain drain’ to the advanced nations, they are gaining remittance earnings from those nations. At the same time, outsourcing from the advanced countries has created new employment and other opportunities in developing and emerging markets. Although the final impact of outsourcing is debatable, it is very likely that companies will intensify such activities in future due to strong evidences in support of significant cost savings. The outflow of skilled manpower, popularly called brain drain, from developing countries is also likely to increase due to growing demand for ‘replacement migration’ from advanced countries. Increasing job gains from outsourcing and the associated benefits on the economies of developing countries are likely to cancel out the perceived negative impact of brain drain, argued in this paper. The implication is that developed countries should ideally target the relatively poorer countries in their plan for outsourcing, because they are still deprived of the benefits of job creation, though these countries are losing their high-skilled manpower through brain drain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Schumpeter in 1942 clearly established the necessity of innovation for all forms of global competition. The more we enter in globalized markets Innovation is becoming a critical tool for business value creation. Innovation, understood as something new that can create value, the integration or generation of new ideas to generate products or services is widely view as a key driver for a country’s economic growth. Further, policies for economic development are often drafted around a country’s innovative capacity and usually then transferred across Nations as a form of templates for key economic development initiatives. However, there are many definitions of innovation across country/culture levels and therefore the concept of innovation can raise definitional issues. This research argues that a country’s culture may have an impact in defining innovation and as a consequence in the final outputs and aims to seek more precise ways of understanding innovation. Furthermore, the intention of this research is to explore and understand how innovation is perceived across different cultural groups and demonstrate that a unique or singular perception may not be as effective in deciphering this important term. This research presents findings across three different countries with very distinctive and entrepreneurial cultures, although all of three countries are in the Asia Pacific area. The research makes a contribution at two levels. First, at the scholarly level, it contributes toward theory development by improving our understanding of the roles of cultural factors in the innovation concept. This leads to a better perception of the different definitions underlying innovation and how these impact on firms implementing innovation strategies across countries. Second, at an applied level, the study provides insights for management and policy makers. In the case of management, this study provides information that allows them to make decisions that could help them develop or assess the effectiveness of existing innovation activities and strategies. This study finds that the perception and interpretation of innovation across the responders is influenced by their regional location. Few triggers for these interpretations are highlighted however it is discussed that further study is required to understand in depth the reasons for these differences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on theories in organizational sociology that argue that transpositions of people,/ skills, and knowledge across domains give rise to innovations and organizational foundings that institutionalize them, we conducted a mixed-methods study of the employment biographies of staffers working in technology, digital, data, and analytics on American presidential campaigns, and the rates of organizational founding by these staffers, from the 2004 through the 2012 electoral cycles. Using Federal Election Commission and LinkedIn data, we trace the professional biographies of staffers (N = 629) working in technology, digital, data, or analytics on primary and general election presidential campaigns during this period. We found uneven professionalization in these areas, defined in terms of staffers moving from campaign to campaign or from political organizations to campaigns, with high rates of new entrants to the field. Democrats had considerably greater numbers of staffers in the areas of technology, digital, data, and analytics and from the technology industry, and much higher rates of organizational founding. We present qualitative data drawn from interviews with approximately 60 practitioners to explain how the institutional histories of the two parties and their extended networks since 2004 shaped the presidential campaigns during the 2012 cycle and their differential uptake of technology, digital, data, and analytics. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Standard productivity measures indicate large fluctuations in technology during the Great Depression. This article's historical technology series (1892–1966), controlled for aggregation effects, varying input utilization, non-constant returns, and imperfect competition, does not indicate technology regress such that could trigger the downturn. In contrast, technology improvements in the recovery were so rapid that, over the whole Great Depression period, technology growth was highest among pre-WWII decades. This article also finds that output changed little and inputs fell when technology improved in the pre-WWII period. Real-business-cycle models have difficulty in explaining pre-WWII business cycles characterized by such responses. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article presents the author's view about the education system and quality in Columbia. He highlights the contribution of technology to the economic development and for the success of the future generation. The author cites the benefits of internships for both men and women who are seeking for job opportunities.

Over the last several decades, many students of technology have tried to make sense of the concept of technology and its origins. However, nothing similar exists in the literature on "technological innovation," a phrase that emerged after World War II. This paper suggests that technological innovation is a counter-concept to science--and more particularly to basic research--as a dominant cultural value of the twentieth century. Technological innovation emerged as a phrase or concept because in discourse, action, and policy, it was useful to include in understandings of economic growth a larger number of people than just scientists and more activities than just science or basic research. Technological innovation is a total process. "It integrates what would otherwise be separate activities and inquiries in order to redraw the intellectual world that society adopts" (Roy Harris, The Semantics of Science, [p. xi]). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The year 2016 witnesses the 150th anniversary of laying the first successful transatlantic telegraph cables. This review essay offers a critical rereading of existing scholarship while simultaneously suggesting new perspectives for research. Telegraphy = globalization, the history of wiring the world commencing with the Atlantic cable of 1866 seems to suggest. At the same time, this essay argues, this equation should make scholars uneasy and cautious of a possible technological determinism retracing its steps back into the middle of scholarly debates on globalization. More attention needs to be paid to whose globalization we are talking about, what the globalization of politics, markets, and media means in connection to communication, and whether the cables really started something radically new. 150 years after laying the "first" Atlantic cable, there is still room for research. New spaces, theories, and methodologies, as well as alternate user groups including women and subalterns, offer avenues to test established scholarship on global communications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue on topics including people no longer choosing the technique, strategies that connect the society, and vision of urban evolution.

This paper will present the problem of virtuality from a philosophical perspective to think contemporary forms of understanding of the term related to technological developments in recent history. This perspective pretends to establish a thoughtful critique of the levity with which some concepts related to virtuality (such as "possibility", "potential", "reality", "actual", "cyberspace", "artificial intelligence", etc...) are taken. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information on the Imitation als Killer-App? Erfolgs- und Misserfolgslogiken einer Kulturtechnik im Mittelalter, a conference that was held from November 12-14, 2015 is presented. Topics discussed include imitation, technological innovation in the Middle Ages and sacred landscapes in Rome, Italy. The symposium featured several historians including Florian Hartmann, Lukas Clemens and Gerald Schwedler.

The immediate postwar period saw the emergence of the first digital computers as well as developments in cybernetics, brain research, and information theory. In this era, questions of mechanical intelligence came to the forefront in public media. In Britain the BBC broadcast radio talks by many leading practitioners in these fields in which they discussed their work and speculated on its implications for conceptions of intelligence. Generally, speakers were either skeptical or unskeptical toward the issue of intelligent behavior in machines. The skeptics, who tended to have backgrounds in physical science and mathematics, usually took reductive approaches to argue that machines could not be intelligent. The nonskeptics, who tended to have a biological orientation, usually avoided reductive approaches and conceded that the distinction between machines and animal brains might not be clear-cut. These differing interpretations of new technology, their association with distinct intellectual traditions, and their promotion via a wide-reaching and respected medium are seen as instances of social shaping of technology in action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New topics in the history of technology develop through stages. For the history of the online world, different stages have been marked by different dominant interpretations, moving from technical and teleological narratives about just a few favored systems and individuals to a more eclectic mix. Narratives are also influenced by still-living pioneers. But these changing stories are not just interesting for the historiography of cyberspace. They directly affect what source material gets valued and thus preserved, an effect hugely amplified by the fragility of digital media. Early biases can become self-fulfilling by erasing the source materials that could support competing points of view. This article details practices that have developed in response to such challenges at collecting institutions, using the Computer History Museum as a case study in the hope that it may prove useful to others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents results from a study of Solutrean points from Upper Solutrean assemblages on the Iberian Peninsula. This supraregional, comparative approach--using a standardized and consistent set of attributes and analytical methods--focuses on the technological organization and strategies involved in the design, production, and use of these tools to shed light on possible reasons for synchronic variability beyond that of the final tool types. The data suggest that regional patterning is deeply rooted in distinct tool manufacture and use behaviors, reflecting adaptations of technological strategies to the different subsistence and mobility patterns of hunter-gatherer groups living in rather different environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How can those in the history of science, history of technology, and economics communicate more with each other than they are accustomed? How can they become more globally oriented? While these three disciplines today have more convergent interests than in the past, there is still a large potential for further exchange and involvement to explore and exploit. The contributors to this Focus section discuss a number of concepts that may serve as tools to bring these three disciplines more closely together and ease their evolution in a less Eurocentric direction. These concepts include trading zones, interaction and formalization, production, and machines and self-organization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]