Collaboration with entrepreneurship education programmes : building spinout capacity at universities

As the University Spin Out (USO) has become a highly desirable outcome for commercialization efforts, the development of entrepreneurial capacity within the university system becomes increasingly more important. We hypothesize that entrepreneurship education (EE) programs ceterus paribus may play a role in developing this capacity. This paper examines the attitudes and perceptions of academics who are directly involved in the field of EE programs with four research goals in mind: 1) to determine whether or not there are perceived advantages to collaboration between EE programs and technology transfer departments, 2) identify specific factors that influence these perceptions, (3) query academics as to perceived barriers to collaboration, and (4) to identify whether collaborations already exist and categorize them. Our findings suggest that significant advantages from collaboration between these two functions are perceived and that indirect linkages are believed to be more important than direct linkages.

The role of entrepreneurship education in the commercialization of intellectual property at Canadian universities

In this research paper, we explore the relationship between the commercialization of intellectual property created within Canadian universities and academic entrepreneurship education programs. The steady growth and importance of both these activities over the last twenty years highlights the value of empirically examining the linkages that may exist between them. This paper will endeavor to add to the limited research in these areas and provide both empirical evidence and theoretical support to improve definition and distinction of the roles of these two seemingly interrelated activities. The data tested suggest that the main driver of commercialization intensity is derived from the creation of an environment rich in IP. However, further study is required to enhance understanding. In particular, we need to know more about the impact that the development of entrepreneurial capacity within an institution may have upon the spin-out process.

A unified formalism for landmark based representation of maps and navigation plans

We present a unified formalism for representing maps and using them for constructing plans of navigation for an autonomous agent. The foundation of this work lies in addressing key questions that an agent is confronted with when navigating. That is, besides the main task of how to reach the intended destination from the current position, the agent faces other questions like: where am I? what landmarks can I see? where is my destination relative to me and the landmarks I am seeing? Fundamental to this representation is the use of visual landmarks, which are used as pivotal points in the landscape being described. Further, in the representation of spatial information and navigation there are three different viewpoints: first, the localized representation from the viewpoint of a sighted, mobile agent; second, the static representation seen by the map-maker; and third, the view of an external agent giving directions on the basis of his own experience/knowledge. The major contribution of this map model and the associated navigation method lies in the framework which unifies these three different points of view. This unification enables the agent to make no distinction in terms of following implicit instructions contained in a map and the directions given by external agents.

University entrepreneurship : context, process and performance

This project embraced empirical work that studied existing research commercialization systems (RCS) at both first tier and second tier universities, found them flawed and produced an enhanced framework that is definitely applicable to second tier universities (the vast majority) and possibly applicable to first tier universities as well.

Entrepreneurship as a process : toward harmonizing multiple perspectives

Are there any common denominators within the diversity of entrepreneurship literature that may serve as foundations for understanding the entrepreneurial process in a systematic and comprehensive way that is useful to both scholars and practitioners? The objective of this paper was to discover about the entrepreneurial process what, if anything, is both generic (all processes that are “entrepreneurial” do this) and distinct (only entrepreneurial processes do this). Our approach was to evaluate published models of entrepreneurial process to discover what scholars have argued about what entrepreneurs do and how they do it (the processes they use) and to seek out any key commonalities that scholars claim are associated with the phenomenon. Unfortunately for the field, the investigation demonstrates that, as at the time of our investigation, the 32 extant models of entrepreneurial process are highly fragmented in their claims and emphases and are insufficient for establishing an infrastructure upon which to synthesize an understanding of entrepreneurial process that is both generic and distinct. Insights gained in the study lead to suggestions for future research and theory development of which the most urgent is the need to develop a single harmonized model of entrepreneurial process capable of embracing the best of what is on offer and adding new theoretical arguments in areas where practice shows that they are lacking.

Regional versus urban differences in teenage alcohol use: Does parental disapproval account for these differences?

Objective: To investigate if parental disapproval of alcohol use accounts for differences in adolescent alcohol use across regional and urban communities. Design: Secondary data analysis of grade-level stratified data from a random sample of schools. Setting: High schools in Victoria, Australia. Participants: A random sample of 10273 adolescents from Grade 7 (mean age=12.51 years), 9 (14.46 years) and 11 (16.42 years). Main outcome measures: The key independent variables were parental disapproval of adolescent alcohol use and regionality (regional/ urban), and the dependent variable was past 30 days alcohol use. Results: After adjusting for potential confounders, adolescents in regional areas were more likely to use alcohol in the past 30 days (OR=1.83, 1.44 and 1.37 for Grades 7, 9 and 11, respectively, P<0.05), and their parents have a lower level of disapproval of their alcohol use (b=-0.12, -0.15 and -0.19 for Grades 7, 9 and 11, respectively, P<0.001). Bootstrapping analyses suggested that 8.37%, 23.30% and 39.22% of the effect of regionality on adolescent alcohol use was mediated by parental disapproval of alcohol use for Grades 7, 9 and 11 participants respectively (P<0.05). Conclusions: Adolescents in urban areas had a lower risk of alcohol use compared with their regional counterparts, and differences in parental disapproval of alcohol use contributed to this difference.

Extinction risk in cloud forest fragments under climate change and habitat loss

Aim: To quantify the consequences of major threats to biodiversity, such as climate and land-use change, it is important to use explicit measures of species persistence, such as extinction risk. The extinction risk of metapopulations can be approximated through simple models, providing a regional snapshot of the extinction probability of a species. We evaluated the extinction risk of three species under different climate change scenarios in three different regions of the Mexican cloud forest, a highly fragmented habitat that is particularly vulnerable to climate change. Location Cloud forests in Mexico.
Methods: Using Maxent, we estimated the potential distribution of cloud forest for three different time horizons (2030, 2050 and 2080) and their overlap with protected areas. Then, we calculated the extinction risk of three contrasting vertebrate species for two scenarios: (1) climate change only (all suitable areas of cloud forest through time) and (2) climate and land-use change (only suitable areas within a currently protected area), using an explicit patch-occupancy approximation model and calculating the joint probability of all populations becoming extinct when the number of remaining patches was less than five.
Results: Our results show that the extent of environmentally suitable areas for cloud forest in Mexico will sharply decline in the next 70 years. We discovered that if all habitat outside protected areas is transformed, then only species with small area requirements are likely to persist. With habitat loss through climate change only, high dispersal rates are sufficient for persistence, but this requires protection of all remaining cloud forest areas.
Main conclusions: Even if high dispersal rates mitigate the extinction risk of species due to climate change, the synergistic impacts of changing climate and land use further threaten the persistence of species with higher area requirements. Our approach for assessing the impacts of threats on biodiversity is particularly useful when there is little time or data for detailed population viability analyses.

Job embeddedness: a multifoci theoretical extension

Integrating the expanding job embeddedness (JE) literature, in this article we advance a multifoci model of JE that is theoretically grounded in conservation of resources (COR) theory. From COR theory, we posit that employees' motivation to acquire and protect resources explains why they become embedded and how they behave once embedded. Our COR-based JE model highlights contextual antecedents that clarify how employees become embedded within different foci. Its multifoci theoretical lens also illustrates how different forms of work-focused embeddedness differentially affect work outcomes and how they interact with nonwork foci to influence those outcomes. Along with directions for further research, we further discuss theoretical and practical implications of our integrative formulation.

A nação pela pedra: coleções de paleontologia no Brasil, 1836-1844

A formação e o estudo de coleções de história natural e de paleontologia participaram da instauração da ordem política do Império do Brasil, delineando também uma ordem científica. A simbiose entre ciência e nação encontrou em Peter W. Lund, iniciador dos estudos de paleontologia em nosso país, um agente ativo e constante. As coleções e escritos desse naturalista deram amparo à visualização do passado e à escrita da história em museus, instituições científicas e culturais brasileiras e europeias. As disputas pelo ordenamento político sob as Regências e a Maioridade foram acompanhadas de perto pelo estudo e a explicação das formas de vida e do globo no passado.

Loss of nuclear poly(A)-binding protein 1 causes defects in myogenesis and mRNA biogenesis

The nuclear poly(A)-binding protein 1 (PABPN1) is a ubiquitously expressed protein that plays a critical role in polyadenylation. Short expansions of the polyalanine tract in the N-terminus of PABPN1 lead to oculopharyngeal muscular dystrophy (OPMD), which is an adult onset disease characterized by eyelid drooping, difficulty in swallowing and weakness in the proximal limb muscles. Although significant data from in vitro biochemical assays define the function of PABPN1 in control of poly(A) tail length, little is known about the role of PABPN1 in mammalian cells. To assess the function of PABPN1 in mammalian cells and specifically in cells affected in OPMD, we examined the effects of PABPN1 depletion using siRNA in primary mouse myoblasts from extraocular, pharyngeal and limb muscles. PABPN1 knockdown significantly decreased cell proliferation and myoblast differentiation during myogenesis in vitro. At the molecular level, PABPN1 depletion in myoblasts led to a shortening of mRNA poly(A) tails, demonstrating the cellular function of PABPN1 in polyadenylation control in a mammalian cell. In addition, PABPN1 depletion caused nuclear accumulation of poly(A) RNA, revealing that PABPN1 is required for proper poly(A) RNA export from the nucleus. Together, these experiments demonstrate that PABPN1 plays an essential role in myoblast proliferation and differentiation, suggesting that it is required for muscle regeneration and maintenance in vivo.

Properties of l=1 B-1 and B*(2) Mesons

This Letter presents the first strong evidence for the resolution of the excited B mesons B-1 and B-2(*) as two separate states in fully reconstructed decays to B+(*())pi(-). The mass of B-1 is measured to be 5720.6 +/- 2.4 +/- 1.4 MeV/c(2) and the mass difference Delta M between B-2* and B-1 is 26.2 +/- 3.1 +/- 0: 9 MeV/c(2), giving the mass of the B-2* as 5746.8 +/- 2.4 +/- 1.7 MeV/c(2). The production rate for B-1 and B-2* mesons is determined to be a fraction (13.9 +/- 1.9 +/- 3.2)% of the production rate of the B+ meson.