Inventors and entrepreneurs in academia: What types of skills and experience matter?

This paper aims to improve our understanding of the attributes of academic researchers that influence the capacity to contribute to technical advance, by adding to the pool of technological opportunities available to industry or engaging in the exploitation of entrepreneurial opportunities. We investigate a number of factors associated with the skills developed by academic researchers. We find that contributions to the pool of technological opportunities and exploitation of entrepreneurial opportunities involve different sets of skills and expertise of scientists. Our results show that the former is driven by academic scientists research excellence and discovery of earlier technological opportunities and the latter is driven by previous collaboration with industry partners, scientific breadth and experience of technological discovery. © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The retrieval of structured design knowledge

Design rationale is an effective way of capturing knowledge, since it records the issues addressed, the options considered, and the arguments used when specific decisions are made during the design process. Design rationale is generally captured by identifying elements and their dependencies, i.e. in a structured way. Current retrieval methods focus mainly on either the classification of rationale or on keyword-based searches of records. Keyword-based retrieval is reasonably effective as the information in design rationale records is mainly described using text. However, most of the current keyword-based retrieval methods discard the implicit structures of these records, resulting either in poor precision of retrieval or in isolated pieces of information that are difficult to understand. This ongoing research aims to go beyond keyword-based retrieval by developing methods and tools to facilitate the provision of useful design knowledge in new design projects. Our first step is to understand the structured information derived from the relationship between lumps of text held in different nodes in the design rationale captured via a software tool currently used in industry, and study how this information can be utilised to improve retrieval performance. Specifically, methods for utilising various structured information are developed and implemented on a prototype keyword-based retrieval system developed in our earlier work. The implementation and evaluation of these methods shows that the structured information can be utilised in a number of ways, such as filtering the results and providing more complete information. This allows the retrieval system to present results that are easy to understand, and which closely match designers' queries. Like design rationale, other methods for representing design knowledge also in essence involve structured information and thus the methods proposed can be generalised to be adapted and applied for the retrieval of other kinds of design knowledge. Copyright © 2002-2012 The Design Society. All rights reserved.

Fluid-structure interaction of three-dimensional magnetic artificial cilia

A numerical model is developed to analyse the interaction of artificial cilia with the surrounding fluid in a three-dimensional setting in the limit of vanishing fluid inertia forces. The cilia are modelled using finite shell elements and the fluid is modelled using a boundary element approach. The coupling between both models is performed by imposing no-slip boundary conditions on the surface of the cilia. The performance of the model is verified using various reference problems available in the literature. The model is used to simulate the fluid flow due to magnetically actuated artificial cilia. The results show that narrow and closely spaced cilia create the largest flow, that metachronal waves along the width of the cilia create a significant flow in the direction of the cilia width and that the recovery stroke in the case of the out-of-plane actuation of the cilia strongly depends on the cilia width. © 2012 Cambridge University Press.

高度特化等级裂腹鱼类分子系统发育与生物地理学

分析了分布于青藏高原及其邻近地区23个种和亚种36个群体高度特化等级裂腹鱼类的线粒体DNA细胞色素b序列,重建了系统发育关系.并采用地质隔离事件校正分支时间,估计了主要分支发生时间.结果发现,高度特化等级裂腹鱼类不是单系群,裸鲤属和裸裂尻属也不是单系群.全裸重唇鱼可能是特化类群向高度特化类群演化的过渡类型.高度特化等级裂腹鱼类的系统发育关系总体上反映了水系之间和地质历史的联系,即来自相同和相邻水系的物种通常具有更近的亲缘关系.估计的主要分支发生事件与青藏高原近晚地质时期强烈隆起有很好的一致性,表明高度特化

银鲫Ran基因的cDNA克隆、表达特征及其在精核解凝中的作用

采用RACE-PCR技术结合SMART cDNA合成技术,从银鲫中克隆到Ran的全长cDNA并对其编码区全长进行了原核表达、相应抗体制备及其时空表达特征分析。RT-PCR结果表明,Ran基因除在脑组织的转录水平较低外,其它组织中的转录水平几乎相同;Ran基因在不同发育阶段的胚胎中都有mRNA转录,但其mRNA的量在原肠期以后呈下降趋势。Western blot结果表明,Ran在卵巢和精巢中均高水平表达,在心、脑、肝、脾、肾中有较低水平表达,在肌肉中则不表达。同时检测到Ran在不同胚胎发育阶段均有较强表达。

双链RNA病毒诱导的牙鲆胚胎细胞差减cDNA文库的构建

以紫外线灭活的dsRNA病毒草鱼出血病病毒(GCHV)诱导和模拟诱导的牙鲆胚胎细胞为材料,利用抑制性差减杂交(SSH)技术,成功构建了双链RNA病毒诱导的牙鲆胚胎细胞(FEC)差减cDNA文库。以管家基因αtub lin作为差减指标,经检测,该文库差减效率达210倍,表明经病毒诱导后某些差异表达基因也得到了相应倍数的富集。将获得的cDNA片段连接到pGEM T载体,PCR检测显示差减片段在250bp~2 000bp之间。该差减cDNA文库的构建为从分子水平研究牙鲆培养细胞对dsRNA病毒的免疫反应、以及进

银鲫ZP3的表达特征和卵壳ZP3蛋白的分离

克隆得到银鲫(Carassius auratus gibelio)ZP3基因全长cDNA,在体外表达出银鲫的ZP3融合蛋白,并制备出多抗血清;通过免疫印迹和RT-PCR分析,研究了银鲫ZP3在卵子发生过程中的表达特征和在早期发育胚胎中的状态变化。研究结果表明,银鲫ZP3的转录发生在卵黄发生以前,而ZP3蛋白的翻译起始于卵黄形成阶段,且随着卵母细胞进一步成熟,其含量不断增加。ZP3蛋白的存在状态在受精后和早期胚胎发育过程中发生了明显变化。在受精后5—30min期间,抽提液中原始的ZP3蛋白带迅速消失,取而代

雌核发育银鲫原肠期胚胎和尾芽期胚胎差异表达基因的呈现

构建了雌核发育银鲫原肠期胚胎和尾芽期胚胎间的抑制性差减杂交cDNA质粒文库。对原肠期739个 和尾芽期816个PCR阳性克隆进行斑点杂交,得到72个原肠期和98个尾芽期斑点杂交阳性克隆。测序和基因 数据库比对结果表明:72个原肠期斑点杂交阳性克隆中,包括19个已知基因的cDNA片段和31个没有同源性的 cDNA片段;98个尾芽期斑点杂交阳性克隆中,包括52个已知基因的cDNA片段和37个没有同源性的cDNA片 段。采用虚拟Northern杂交和RT PCR证实了部分基因在银鲫胚胎发育过程中的差异表达。这些

金鱼藻抗氧化酶对水体无机氮升高的响应

为了研究水体富营养化引起的无机氮升高对沉水植物的胁迫 ,本研究用 4种浓度的碳酸铵和 5种浓度的硝酸钾对金鱼藻进行急性处理 ,分别在 5— 4 8h内测定植株超氧化物歧化酶 (SOD)、过氧化氢酶 (CAT)、过氧化物酶(POD)和抗坏血酸过氧化物酶 (APX)的活力。结果表明铵盐处理下 4种酶中CAT活性变化最大 ,在 5— 15h时其活性与处理浓度正相关。更长时间 2 4h处理则导致响应停止。硝酸盐处理下SOD、APX和CAT活性在 2 4h时才有明显升高。SOD和CAT活性在 4种酶中变化最大 ,它