Technological Progress (technological + progress)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


TECHNOLOGICAL PROGRESS UNDER LEARNING BY IMITATION,

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC REVIEW, Issue 2 2009
Morgan Kelly
I analyze technological progress when knowledge has a large tacit component so that transmission of knowledge takes place through direct personal imitation. It is shown that the rate of technological progress depends on the number of innovators in the same knowledge network. Assuming the diffusion of knowledge to mirror the geographical pattern of trade,the greater the trade between two sites, the greater the probability that technical knowledge flows between them,I show that a gradual expansion of trade causes a sudden rise in the rate of technological progress. [source]


Singapore's transition to innovation-based economic growth: infrastructure, institutions and government's role

R & D MANAGEMENT, Issue 2 2006
Winston T. H. Koh
Technological progress and innovation plays a central role in a country's economic progress. As an economy advances to the global technological frontier and narrows the technological gap, an innovation-based growth strategy that focuses on investments in R&D and technology creation offers the greatest potential for economic growth. In this paper, we discuss the requirements for a successful transition, in terms of changes to the technology infrastructure, economic institutions and the incentives' structure. This paper outlines the efforts made by Singapore to re-make itself as an innovation-based economy, and the challenges faced by the government in transforming the nation's infrastructure and institutions to develop innovation capabilities and encourage entrepreneurship. [source]


ADOPTION AND PRODUCTIVITY IMPACT OF MODERN RICE VARIETIES IN BANGLADESH

THE DEVELOPING ECONOMIES, Issue 2 2006
Mahabub HOSSAIN
O13; O33 Technological progress has helped Bangladesh to achieve self-sufficiency in rice production in 2001 from a heavy import-dependence, despite doubling of population and a reduction in arable land since its independence in 1971. As the adoption of modern varieties (MV) of rice is reaching a plateau, particularly for the irrigated ecosystem, an important issue is whether the research system will be able to sustain the growth of production. The present paper addresses the following questions: (i) to what extent farmers have been replacing the old MV with the new MV, and (ii) what has been the impact of the variety replacement on productivity and profitability. How crucial is the continuous research and release of improved rice varieties toward improving farm production and income for farmers comes out as a clear message to policymakers from the current paper. [source]


Technological progresses in monoclonal antibody production systems

BIOTECHNOLOGY PROGRESS, Issue 2 2010
Maria Elisa Rodrigues
Abstract Monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) have become vitally important to modern medicine and are currently one of the major biopharmaceutical products in development. However, the high clinical dose requirements of mAbs demand a greater biomanufacturing capacity, leading to the development of new technologies for their large-scale production, with mammalian cell culture dominating the scenario. Although some companies have tried to meet these demands by creating bioreactors of increased capacity, the optimization of cell culture productivity in normal bioreactors appears as a better strategy. This review describes the main technological progresses made with this intent, presenting the advantages and limitations of each production system, as well as suggestions for improvements. New and upgraded bioreactors have emerged both for adherent and suspension cell culture, with disposable reactors attracting increased interest in the last years. Furthermore, the strategies and technologies used to control culture parameters are in constant evolution, aiming at the on-line multiparameter monitoring and considering now parameters not seen as relevant for process optimization in the past. All progresses being made have as primary goal the development of highly productive and economic mAb manufacturing processes that will allow the rapid introduction of the product in the biopharmaceutical market at more accessible prices. © 2010 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Biotechnol. Prog., 2010 [source]


Continuous glucose monitoring and closed-loop systems

DIABETIC MEDICINE, Issue 1 2006
R. Hovorka
Abstract Background The last two decades have witnessed unprecedented technological progress in the development of continuous glucose sensors, resulting in the first generation of commercial glucose monitors. This has fuelled the development of prototypes of a closed-loop system based on the combination of a continuous monitor, a control algorithm, and an insulin pump. Method A review of electromechanical closed-loop approaches is presented. This is followed by a review of existing prototypes and associated glucose sensors. A literature review was undertaken from 1960 to 2004. Results Two main approaches exist. The extracorporeal s.c.,s.c. approach employs subcutaneous glucose monitoring and subcutaneous insulin delivery. The implantable i.v.,i.p. approach adopts intravenous sampling and intraperitoneal insulin delivery. Feasibility of both solutions has been demonstrated in small-scale laboratory studies using either the classical proportional,integral,derivative controller or a model predictive controller. Performance in the home setting has yet to be demonstrated. Conclusions The glucose monitor remains the main limiting factor in the development of a commercially viable closed-loop system, as presently available monitors fail to demonstrate satisfactory characteristics in terms of reliability and/or accuracy. Regulatory issues are the second limiting factor. Closed-loop systems are likely to be used first by health-care professionals in controlled environments such as intensive care units. [source]


Lancashire, India, and shifting competitive advantage in cotton textiles, 1700,1850: the neglected role of factor prices1

ECONOMIC HISTORY REVIEW, Issue 2 2009
STEPHEN BROADBERRY
In the early eighteenth century, wages in Britain were more than four times as high as in India, the world's major exporter of cotton textiles. This induced the adoption of more capital-intensive production methods in Britain and a faster rate of technological progress, so that competitive advantage had begun to shift in Britain's favour by the late eighteenth century. However, the completion of the process was delayed until after the Napoleonic Wars by increasing raw cotton costs, before supply adjusted to the major increase in demand for inputs. [source]


Fundamentals of Metal-induced Crystallization of Amorphous Semiconductors

ADVANCED ENGINEERING MATERIALS, Issue 3 2009
Zumin Wang
Abstract A general, quantitative model has been developed that provides fundamental understanding of the metal-induced crystallization (MIC) of amorphous semiconductors. Interface thermodynamics has been shown to play a decisive role for the whether or not occurrence of MIC. The model has been employed to predict the MIC temperature for various metal/amorphous-semiconductor systems. A consequence of the model is the prediction that the thickness of an ultrathin, pure Al film put on the top of an amorphous Si layer can be used as a very accurate tool to tune the crystallization temperature of amorphous Si. These theoretical predictions have been confirmed experimentally. The fundamental understanding reached may lead to pronounced technological progress in the low-temperature manufacturing of crystalline-Si-based devices deposited on cheap and flexible substrates such as glasses, plastics, and possibly even papers. [source]


Numerical modelling of complex resistivity effects on a homogenous half-space at low frequencies

GEOPHYSICAL PROSPECTING, Issue 3 2006
T. Ingeman-Nielsen
ABSTRACT The many different existing models describing the spectral behaviour of the resistivity of geological materials at low frequency, combined with the lack of available field data, render the interpretation of complex resistivity (CR) data very difficult. With a recent interest in CR-measurements for environmental applications and thanks to technological progress, the use of wide-band frequency equipment seems promising, and it is expected to shed light on the different results among the published solutions to the electromagnetic (EM) coupling problem. We review the theory of EM-coupling over a homogeneous half-space with CR-effects and study some aspects of the complex coupling function. We advocate the use of the CR-based coupling function in the interpretation process, in order to obtain a better understanding of the physical processes involved in CR-effects. Application of the model to real field data shows systematic good agreement in two simple cases, even over wide ranges of frequencies. Interpretation with a double Cole,Cole model is applied for comparison, and in spite of good fits to the data, large differences are observed in the interpreted low-frequency dispersion. We conclude that the use of a second Cole,Cole model to describe EM-coupling may corrupt the interpretation of the low-frequency dispersion, even when only the normal range of frequencies (<100 Hz) is considered, and that the use of the actual EM-coupling expression is essential when the goal is a better understanding of interaction between CR-effects and EM-coupling. [source]


Long-term land-cover changes in the Belgian Ardennes (1775,1929): model-based reconstruction vs. historical maps

GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY, Issue 7 2002
C. C. Petit
Abstract Understanding long-term human-environment interactions requires historical reconstruction of past land-cover changes. The objective of this study is to reconstruct past land-use and land-cover changes in a rural municipality of the Belgian Ardennes over the last 250 years. Two approaches were compared. The first approach produced backward projections based on a mechanistic model which computes the demand for different land uses under the assumption of an equilibrium between the production and consumption of resources. The second approach involved using a series of historical maps to extract directly land-use areas. A stochastic Markov chain model was also used to project backward missing land-cover data in the time series. The consistency between the results obtained with the different approaches suggests that land-use area can be successfully reconstructed on the basis of the mechanistic model, under conditions of a subsistence farming system and a closed economy. Land-use/cover changes in the Belgian Ardennes from 1775 to 1929 were more driven by the interventionist measures of the Belgian government and by technological progress than by the ,pressure' of the growing population and livestock. Thanks to agricultural intensification, a decrease in land under human use was supporting increasing human and livestock populations from 1846 to 1880. Reforestation has accelerated since the mid-19th century. This case study illustrates the highly dynamic and non-linear character of land-use change trajectories over long time periods and their strong interactions with the history of societies. [source]


Efficiency and TFP Growth in the Spanish Regions: The Role of Human and Public Capital

GROWTH AND CHANGE, Issue 2 2003
Maria del Mar Salinas Jiménez
Once estimates of efficiency are obtained, the aim of this paper is to analyze the effects of human and public capital on growth in terms of their impact on Total Factor Productivity (TFP). Public capital is believed to increase the productivity of the private factors of production whereas human capital is thought to contribute to the production process as an additional input and to have a dynamic influence on growth through its impact on technological innovation (shifts in the production frontier) and technological diffusion (movements toward the frontier), which are the components of this TFP measure. Considering inefficiencies will then allow the effects of these variables on TFP growth to be estimated via technological progress and efficiency gains. [source]


TECHNOLOGICAL PROGRESS UNDER LEARNING BY IMITATION,

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC REVIEW, Issue 2 2009
Morgan Kelly
I analyze technological progress when knowledge has a large tacit component so that transmission of knowledge takes place through direct personal imitation. It is shown that the rate of technological progress depends on the number of innovators in the same knowledge network. Assuming the diffusion of knowledge to mirror the geographical pattern of trade,the greater the trade between two sites, the greater the probability that technical knowledge flows between them,I show that a gradual expansion of trade causes a sudden rise in the rate of technological progress. [source]


Role of Endogenous Vintage Specific Depreciation in the Optimal Behavior of Firms

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC THEORY, Issue 3 2008
Cagri Saglam
D92; O33; E22; C61 This paper studies the firms' capital accumulation process in a vintage capital model with embodied technological change. We take into account that depreciation is endogenous and in particular associated with vintage specific maintenance expenditure. We prove that maintenance is a local substitute for investment as soon as the marginal cost of maintenance is strictly increasing. We show that maintenance and investment in new capital goods appear as complements with respect to the changes in productivity, cost of maintenance, fixed cost of operation, efficiency of maintenance services and appear as substitutes with respect to the price of new machines. Allowing for investment in old vintages, we determine that investment in old machines appears as a substitute of both investments in new machines and maintenance services. We end up by analyzing the effects of technological progress on optimal plans and prove that a negative anticipation effect can occur even without any market imperfections. [source]


Competition from Large, Multimarket Firms and the Performance of Small, Single-Market Firms: Evidence from the Banking Industry

JOURNAL OF MONEY, CREDIT AND BANKING, Issue 2-3 2007
ALLEN N. BERGER
banks; community banking; bank size; multimarket banks; technological progress We offer and test two competing hypotheses for the consolidation trend in banking using U.S. banking industry data over the period 1982,2000. Under the efficiency hypothesis, technological progress improved the performance of large, multimarket firms relative to small, single-market firms, whereas under the hubris hypothesis, consolidation was largely driven by corporate hubris. Our results are consistent with an empirical dominance of the efficiency hypothesis over the hubris hypothesis,on net, technological progress allowed large, multimarket banks to compete more effectively against small, single-market banks in the 1990s than in the 1980s. We also isolate the extent to which technological progress occurred through scale versus geographic effects and how they affected the performance of small, single-market banks through revenues versus costs. The results may shed light as well on some of the research and policy issues related to community banking. [source]


Rival research programmes and their influence on nursing practice

JOURNAL OF NURSING MANAGEMENT, Issue 2 2004
David Newbold BSc
In most forms of industry, there is an explicit link between research and development and subsequent technological processes. New discoveries can alter the direction or trajectory of technological progress. In this respect, health care is no different to any other form of industry. There are several theories of science which attempt to explain this link and predict its behaviour. According to Lakatos (1978), rival research programmes may co-exist, whilst Brouwer (1990) suggests they may vie with each other to alter the direction of technological progress. Presently, there are at least two research programmes which are competing to capture the activities of nurses. These are: the Health Care as Industrial Process programme, generating guideline driven nursing, and use of care pathways to maximize throughput plus labour substitution to minimize costs; and the Health Care as Therapeutic Interaction programme, focused on the management and delivery of the fundamental aspects of nursing care, and the use of emotional labour and psychological care to enable patients to cope and make sense of their situation. Ideally, the direction of practice should reflect both of these valid research programmes, with nurses as the staff best placed to integrate medical technology with humanity. Arguably, it is the Industrial Process programme which is currently dominant, at the price of decreased quality of care, and loss of the health benefits of therapeutic interaction. Greater effort is needed, in terms of research to reduce the apparent ,invisibility' of emotional labour, and education of nurses to boost therapeutic interaction skills. In order to re-direct the trajectory, managers should acknowledge and accommodate aspects of therapeutic interaction in service re-engineering, and use quality assurance tools which may accurately detect and monitor therapeutic interaction by nurses. [source]


WORKPLACE RESTRUCTURING AND URBAN FORM: THE CHANGING NATIONAL SETTLEMENT PATTERNS OF THE CANADIAN WORKFORCE

JOURNAL OF URBAN AFFAIRS, Issue 1 2010
MARKUS MOOS
ABSTRACT:,This article examines the relationship between emerging work arrangements and national settlement patterns. While growth is centralized in large cities, social commentators continue to suggest that workplace restructuring,facilitated by technological progress,encourages more dispersed settlement patterns, evoking concern about the environmental sustainability of the trend. Multivariate analysis using Canadian census data shows that with the exception of self-employed professionals, the home workers, and self-employed in nonmanual occupations have a lower tendency to reside in large cities than otherwise similar wage and salary earning commuters. However, household mobility and temporal trends suggest that workplace restructuring is not dispersing workers away from large cities by inducing mobility, but that take-up is higher in more remote areas. It is argued that workplace restructuring permits more dispersed national settlement patterns than if workers needed to move to large cities for proximity to employment growth. The article reflects on the implications of the findings for urban sustainability policies that promote compact urban forms and the policies that emphasize consumption amenities of cities to attract mobile workers. [source]


Efficient organization of information processing

MANAGERIAL AND DECISION ECONOMICS, Issue 1 2007
Jacek Cukrowski
The paper examines the application of the concept of economic efficiency to organizational issues of collective information processing in decision making. Information processing is modeled in the framework of the dynamic parallel processing model of associative computation with an endogenous setup cost of the processors. The model is extended to include the specific features of collective information processing in the team of decision makers which may lead to an error in data analysis. In such a model, the conditions for efficient organization of information processing are defined and the architecture of the efficient structures is considered. We show that specific features of collective decision making procedures require a broader framework for judging organizational efficiency than has traditionally been adopted. In particular, and contrary to the results available in economic literature, we show that there is no unique architecture for efficient information processing structures, but a number of various efficient forms. The results indicate that technological progress resulting in faster data processing (ceteris paribus) will lead to more regular information processing structures. However, if the relative cost of the delay in data analysis increases significantly, less regular structures could be efficient. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


It's not technical progress: empirical TFP determination and structural change

OXONOMICS, Issue 1 2008
Markus Eberhardt
The process of economic growth is inseparable from the process of structural change. This paper examines the problem of measuring technological progress and structural change in the growth accounting literature. It uses a simple computation exercise to illustrate how dual economy considerations increase the difficulties associated with measuring technological change. [source]


From electronic grade to solar grade silicon: chances and challenges in photovoltaics

PHYSICA STATUS SOLIDI (A) APPLICATIONS AND MATERIALS SCIENCE, Issue 15 2005
S. Pizzini
Abstract Photovoltaics is a promising but challenging opportunity for the environmentally clean production of electric energy, as the cost of the produced energy is still too high to compete with conventional thermal and nuclear sources, in spite of the scientific and technological progress occurred in this field after the first oil crisis of 1973. Among the problems which should be solved to make photovoltaics fully competitive, a breakthrough concerning the cost reduction of the base material is compulsory. Aim of this paper is to discuss the scientific and technological problems encountered in the development of solar silicon for its use in high efficiency and low cost solar cells, and to give some firm experimental evidences about its potentialities. (© 2005 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim) [source]


The Long-run Determinants of Australian Income Inequality,

THE ECONOMIC RECORD, Issue 270 2009
NOEL GASTON
Recent interest has been stimulated by the growth of income inequality in most developed countries during the 1980s and 1990s. However, considerable uncertainty still exists as to which factors have been the most important causes of this development. This article uses a measure of income inequality derived from taxation statistics and a recently proposed method for testing long-run Granger non-causality to examine the key determinants of Australia's inequality for the years 1970,2001. In line with popular concern, we find that globalisation and technological progress , defined as the global flow of information , has increased income inequality. In contrast, improved terms of trade have been equity-enhancing. Of the institutional determinants, de-unionisation has had an adverse effect on income inequality, whereas higher minimum wages have reduced it. [source]


Low-Growth Equilibrium Accompanied by High Levels of Educational Attainment

THE JAPANESE ECONOMIC REVIEW, Issue 4 2002
Koichi Yotsuya
The paper demonstrates the low-growth trap associated with high educational attainment in an overlapping-generations model by examining the dual positive effect of senior educated workers in leading-edge technology: on technological progress and on young workers' on-the-job learning. If new technology is sufficiently productive, young workers will demand education to update technology when old, and high technological growth is sustained in the future. Conversely, if new technology is unproductive, they will demand education merely to improve the skills necessary for existing technology, and technological progress will stagnate. Nevertheless, vigorous investment in education occurs since young workers have little hope for on-the-job learning. JEL Classification Numbers: I20, J24, O33, O40. [source]


R&D AND BUYERS' WAITING OPTION,

THE JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL ECONOMICS, Issue 1 2006
EIRIK GAARD KRISTIANSEN
Anticipation of technological progress may induce buyers to delay the adoption of new technologies. We analyze how buyers' waiting option may feed back into firm's timing of innovations. Buyers are shown to have inefficiently weak incentives to wait for potentially better products. This induces firms to accelerate the introduction of new products. Furthermore, buyers' inclination to adopt new technologies prematurely expands firms' scope for preemption of potential rivals. The analysis sheds light on R&D competition in durable goods markets such as the market for aircraft. [source]


Science, Diminishing Returns and Long Waves

THE MANCHESTER SCHOOL, Issue 5 2001
Chol-Won Li
An endogenous growth model with long waves of growth, underlining the distinction between science and technology, is constructed. Scientific progress accelerates the rate of technological progress, but diminishing returns to technological research decelerates it. This process repeats itself with endogenous clustering of innovations. We show that higher trend (long-run) growth is associated with more frequent waves of economic activity. Moreover, we identify a trade-off between actual and trend growth rates when technological research activities are subsidized. [source]


NEW ZEALAND CREDIT UNION MERGERS

ANNALS OF PUBLIC AND COOPERATIVE ECONOMICS, Issue 3 2010
Lynn Mcalevey
ABSTRACT,:,Research into the benefits of mergers in small financial institutions, in particular credit unions, is sparse. This study helps to fill this gap by analyzing recent intense merger activity in New Zealand credit unions. The major driver for these mergers was not the usual reason of attempting to increase efficiency for competitive purposes but rather enforced government action. Data envelopment analysis is used to explore changes in efficiency in merged credit unions between 1996 and 2001. Those credit unions not involved in merger activity are used as a control group. Overall, credit unions have become more efficient over the period, notably in those that undertook mergers. The Malmquist index indicates significant technological progress over the period but a slight regression in terms of efficiency. [source]


Productivity, Growth and Economic Integration in the Southern China Region

ASIAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL, Issue 1 2000
Yanrui Wu
Since the late 1970s, the economies of Taiwan, Hong Kong, Guangdong and Fujian together have formed one of the fastest growing regions in the world. Rapid growth in trade and investment flows among these economies has led to anincreasingly integrated sub-regional economic bloc. How has economic integration affected productivity performance among the economies involved? Has regionalintegration led to convergence in growth and efficiency? These are some of the questions that this paper attempts to deal with. Both time-series and panel-data models have been employed to examine productivity, technological progress and efficiency in the four economies. [source]


Future biorefineries: Can we combine technological progress and integrate strengths from different market players?

BIOFUELS, BIOPRODUCTS AND BIOREFINING, Issue 3 2010
In Focus: Biorefineries, Johan Sanders Guest Editors
Biorefinery success often depends on good collaboration between partners. Copyright © 2010 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd [source]


Technical Efficiency, Technological Change and Output Growth of Wheat Farms in Saskatchewan

CANADIAN JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS, Issue 2 2001
Konstantinos Giannakas
This paper utilizes recent advances in stochastic decomposition methodology to examine the level and the driving forces of technical efficiency for an unbalanced panel data set of 100 wheat farms in Saskatchewan during the period 1987,95. The contributions of resource use and total factor productivity to the output growth of these farms are also investigated. The analysis indicates moderate levels of technical efficiency and a considerable variation of efficiency ratings among Saskatchewan farms. The ownership status, composition of labor employed, participation in crop insurance and government income transfer programs, participation in Top Management Workshops, degree of specialization, level of intensification and mechanization of production, type of land used, and the farm debts account for differences in efficiency across wheat farms. Even though the productive efficiency of the farms has been increasing over time, the results show that technological progress was the main source of productivity and output growth during the study period. L'analyse que voici fait appel aux plus récentes améliorations apportées à la méthode de décomposition stochastique pour déterminer le degré d'efficacité technique et les motivations d'ungroupe non pondéré de 100 producteurs de blé de la Saskatchewan entre 1987 et 1995. Les auteurs ont aussi déterminé dans quelle mesure l'exploitation des ressources et la productivité totale des facteurs affectent la croissance de la production dans les exploitations concernées. L'analyse révéle un degré moyen d'efficacité technique et une variation considérable du rendement chez les agriculteurs de la Saskatchewan. La variation du rendement s'explique par divers facteurs comme le type de propriété, la composition de la main-d',uvre, l'inscription aux programmes gouvernementaux d'assurance récolte et de transfert du revenu, la participation à des ateliers de gestion, le degré de spécialisation, le niveau d'industrialisation et de mécanisation de la production, le genre de terres cultivées et la dette de l'exploitant. Même si la productivité des fermes a augmenté au fil des ans, les résultats indiquent que le progrés de la technologie demeure la principale source d'une croissance du rendement et de la production durant la période à l'étude. [source]


Monitoring retinal ganglion cells in vivo

ACTA OPHTHALMOLOGICA, Issue 2008
M PAQUES
Progress in imaging techniques will considerably increase our knowledge on retinal cell pathophysiology and death during optic nerve disesases as a whole. Experimentally, current in vivo imaging using the green laser reflectance mode of the SLO allows noninvasive microscopic-scale definition of the nerve fibers. However, loss of the axons is a late and irreversible event, thus imaging the retinal ganglion cells themselves would be preferable in order to detect diseased states at an earlier stage. Retrogradelly-labelled RGCs can be conveniently seen in vivo, but such imaging require invasive procedures, the effect of which on RGC physiology remains uncertain. The recent development of molecular imaging of apoptotic ganglion cells is promising. The cSLO also allows in vivo imaging of other cellular compartments that are relevant for glaucoma, for instance microglial cells. In humans, current techniques allow imaging of the nerve fiber layer with a relatively low resolution. The GDx evaluates the nerve fiber layer thickness through light polarisation, and high resolution OCT through mapping of its thickness around the optic nerve. Yet, it is likely that these systems lack sensitivity for detection of the early loss of the NFL, and even more for early dysfunction of RGCs. Presently, adaptive optics does not appear to be a technique of choice for the NFL, but technological progress may prove this assertion to be wrong. In the future, techniques allowing increased contrast of fibrillar structures such as en face OCT may prove of interest. [source]


China's Economic Prospects and Sino,US Economic Relations

CHINA AND WORLD ECONOMY, Issue 2 2006
Pingfan Hong
F00; P21 Abstract A better comprehension of the mixed sentiment in the rest of world towards the rapid rise of the Chinese economy will depend on the understanding of some key features of the Chinese economy, such as those associated with its size, structure and institution. To further sustain its high growth, China is facing more challenges than it has encountered in the past 2 decades, including a gamut of material constraints. Although polices and technological progress might alleviate many of these constraints, the ultimate solution will still lie in continued institutional reform. China's recent move towards a more flexible exchange rate regime is in line with its broad reform and in accordance with the progress of its development. However, such a move will have limited immediate effects on the prodigious US trade deficit, which itself is a problem rooted in the flawed international reserve system, far beyond a Sino-US trade issue. Edited by Xiaoming Feng [source]


Technological progresses in monoclonal antibody production systems

BIOTECHNOLOGY PROGRESS, Issue 2 2010
Maria Elisa Rodrigues
Abstract Monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) have become vitally important to modern medicine and are currently one of the major biopharmaceutical products in development. However, the high clinical dose requirements of mAbs demand a greater biomanufacturing capacity, leading to the development of new technologies for their large-scale production, with mammalian cell culture dominating the scenario. Although some companies have tried to meet these demands by creating bioreactors of increased capacity, the optimization of cell culture productivity in normal bioreactors appears as a better strategy. This review describes the main technological progresses made with this intent, presenting the advantages and limitations of each production system, as well as suggestions for improvements. New and upgraded bioreactors have emerged both for adherent and suspension cell culture, with disposable reactors attracting increased interest in the last years. Furthermore, the strategies and technologies used to control culture parameters are in constant evolution, aiming at the on-line multiparameter monitoring and considering now parameters not seen as relevant for process optimization in the past. All progresses being made have as primary goal the development of highly productive and economic mAb manufacturing processes that will allow the rapid introduction of the product in the biopharmaceutical market at more accessible prices. © 2010 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Biotechnol. Prog., 2010 [source]