R+D+4i Project EULER's GOOD NEWS on excellence factors
Asko Miettinen, Romà Puiggermanal and Jaume Reguant
 GOOD NEWS from Finland
By Asko Miettinen
Newsweek: Finland is world’s best country to live
Newsweek magazine ranked in mid August Finland as the best country to live in. The American newsmagazine’s study examined living conditions in 100 countries around the world. The analysis took into account several factors such as education and health care, quality of life, economic dynamism, and political environment. Finishing after Finland were Switzerland and Sweden.
The analysis of educational systems used factors such as international PISA studies as well as measures of efficiency and the educational level of the population at large. In this, Finland was in first place, followed by South Korea and Canada.
Finland’s lowest mark was in health care, in which it came 17th. This ranking was based on a World Health Organisation comparison.
Finland was in fourth place in assessing quality of life, eighth in economic dynamism and ranked fifth in the quality of the political environment.
It is important to remember that there is no one model for national success and that rankings like this are perhaps most illustrative when comparing countries of equal size and wealth: being small and rich seems to be best witness the continuing success of the Nordic nations (all among top 10 in the Newsweek ranking).
Finnish banks succeeded well in stress tests
The Finnish banking sector passed without any problems in the ‘stress tests’ published by the EU in late July. It was examined in these tests, if the banks could maintain in the crisis situation a sufficient amount best quality ranked primary own equity, or so called Tier 1-capital. The minimum requirement was that in bad conditions, the ratio calculated on the basis of the risks of the bank and equity would be six per cent. The minimum requirement by the law is four per cent. This ration was after all tests more than 10 per cent in the case of Finland. The overall results of the tests were as expected: out of 91 banks 7 failed in these European-wide administrated tests.
Output of the national economy grows fast in Finland
The latest statistics indicate that, according to the series for working days, output went up with 4.6 percent in July 2010 from the corresponding month of the year before. The same trend has continued based on pre-information available. The growth expectation for 2010 is 3.5 percent and for 2011 4 per cent. The important export figures show increase by 40 per cent in metal industry and 20 per cent in forest industry. The other side of the same token is, however, that after the record decrease of 8 per cent in GDP in 2009 it is easy to show rapid growth. It will actually take several years to reach the GDP level 2008.
  GOOD NEWS from Catalonia
By Jaume Reguant & Romà Puiggermanal
A new technology designed to improve the production of myocardial tissue
Innovative equipment designed at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) allows the simulation in vitro of the electrical and mechanical heart conditions and facilitates the cellular differentiation in the regeneration of myocardial tissue. The technology, designed by the Group Biomedical Electronics and Instrumentation Department of Electronic Engineering of the “Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya”, will permit the tissue creation for the improvement of the cardiovascular diseases treatment. Unlike other manual methods that are being used in the present, the system designed by UPC allows a more accurate and a continuous tracking and monitoring on line of the cell growth, while the cells are subjected to electrical and mechanical stimuli. The productivity of the myocardium tissue is also enhanced with this system.
A recently established company is a pioneer in the creation of smart textiles with conductive inks and flexible lighting technologies
Located in Barcelona, Sensing Tex SL offers innovative technological solutions in the smart textiles market. The products marketed by SENSING TEX are based on two different technologies: the use of conductive inks, flexible and elastic, which can be printed on textiles with specific coatings and laminates, and the textile light, based on the use of optical fibres woven flat along the direction of the weave and knitted fabric.
In contrast with other similar technologies, Sensing Tex uses just one layer of ink, which makes the textile lighter, finer, more flexible and less expensive; it also allows the combination of different materials with different properties (pressure, light or temperature) in the same textile. The technology of Sensing Tex offers maximum flexibility in the design of circuits and in addition, uses standard techniques and machinery of the textile sector, which brings down the cost.
New Catalan aeronautic engine in Shanghai expo
Aero Engineering, a Catalan firm devoted to the development and fabrication of aeronautic engines, introduced in the Shanghai International Exhibition an engine of last generation able to work on very bad conditions, as through a cloud of ashes, or a dust tempest.
The new engine, that deserved a great attention, is being developed and will be on fabrication in a short time.
Some news related to Catalan Universities
- The University of Barcelona (UB) is the best in Spain, because it is excellent in five of the seven disciplines set, according to the ranking prepared by the European Centre for Higher Education Development (CHE). They are also excellent the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), the Pompeu Fabra University (UPF) and the Catalonia Polytechnic University (UPC).
- The Catalans won the Spanish Campus 'League'. In the Catalan universities, notes the economist Andreu Mas-Colell, "there is a degree of flexibility and a greater propensity to innovate in organizational structures" than in universities in the rest of Spain.
- The UAB is the first public university in scientific productivity, according to a report by the magazine 'Popular Science' on the quality of Spanish universities.
- The UB and the UPF, the only Spanish universities among the top 200 of the Times Ranking.
- The (UB) and the (UAB), selected among the top 200 in QS World University Ranking.
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