The pursuit of academic excellence and business engagement: Is it irreconcilable?

Universities currently need to satisfy the demands of different audiences. In light of the increasing policy emphasis on "third mission" activities, universities are attempting to incorporate these into their traditional missions of teaching and research. University strategies to accomplishing its traditional missions are well-honed and routinized, but the incorporation of the third mission is posing important strategic and managerial challenges for universities. This study explores the relationship between university-business collaborations and academic excellence in order to examine the extent to which academic institutions can balance these objectives. Based on data from the UK Research Assessment Exercise 2001 at the level of the university department, we find no systematic positive or negative relationship between scientific excellence and engagement with industry. Across the disciplinary fields reported in the 2001 Research Assessment Exercise (i. e. engineering, hard sciences, biomedicine, social sciences and the humanities) the relationship between academic excellence and engagement with business is largely contingent on the institutional context of the university department. This paper adds to the growing body of literature on university engagement with business by examining this activity for the social sciences and the humanities. Our findings have important implications for the strategic management of university departments and for higher education policy related to measuring the performance of higher education research institutions. © 2013 Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, Hungary.

Stakeholder challenges in purchasing medical devices for patient safety.

OBJECTIVE: This study identifies the stakeholders who have a role in medical device purchasing within the wider system of health-care delivery and reports on their particular challenges to promote patient safety during purchasing decisions. METHODS: Data was collected through observational work, participatory workshops, and semi-structured qualitative interviews, which were analyzed and coded. The study takes a systems-based and engineering design approach to the study. Five hospitals took part in this study, and the participants included maintenance, training, clinical end-users, finance, and risk departments. RESULTS: The main stakeholders for purchasing were identified to be staff from clinical engineering (Maintenance), device users (Clinical), device trainers (Training), and clinical governance for analyzing incidents involving devices (Risk). These stakeholders display varied characteristics in terms of interpretation of their own roles, competencies for selecting devices, awareness and use of resources for purchasing devices, and attitudes toward the purchasing process. The role of "clinical engineering" is seen by these stakeholders to be critical in mediating between training, technical, and financial stakeholders but not always recognized in practice. CONCLUSIONS: The findings show that many device purchasing decisions are tackled in isolation, which is not optimal for decisions requiring knowledge that is currently distributed among different people within different departments. The challenges expressed relate to the wider system of care and equipment management, calling for a more systemic view of purchasing for medical devices.

Statistics anxiety, trait anxiety, learning behavior, and academic performance

The present study investigated the relationship between statistics anxiety, individual characteristics (e.g., trait anxiety and learning strategies), and academic performance. Students enrolled in a statistics course in psychology (N=147) filled in a questionnaire on statistics anxiety, trait anxiety, interest in statistics, mathematical selfconcept, learning strategies, and procrastination. Additionally, their performance in the examination was recorded. The structural equation model showed that statistics anxiety held a crucial role as the strongest direct predictor of performance. Students with higher statistics anxiety achieved less in the examination and showed higher procrastination scores. Statistics anxiety was related indirectly to spending less effort and time on learning. Trait anxiety was related positively to statistics anxiety and, counterintuitively, to academic performance. This result can be explained by the heterogeneity of the measure of trait anxiety. The part of trait anxiety that is unrelated to the specific part of statistics anxiety correlated positively with performance.

Exploring an effective model of new product development in medical devices: A knowledge cluster approach

This study proposes a new product development (NPD) model that aims to improve the effectiveness of innovative NPD in the medical devices. By adopting open innovation theory and applying an in-depth investigation methodology, this paper proposes a knowledge cluster that improves the integration of interdisciplinary human resources and enhances the acquirement of innovative technologies. A knowledge cluster approach helps gather, organise, synthesise, and accumulate knowledge in order to become the impetus for innovation. Although enterprises are no longer the principals of research and development, they should still be capable of integrating professional physicians, external groups, and individuals through the knowledge cluster platform. However, in order to support an effective NPD model, enterprises should provide adequate incentives and trust to external individuals or groups willing to contribute their expertise and knowledge to this knowledge cluster platform. Copyright © 2013 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

Statistics anxiety, state anxiety during an examination, and academic achievement.

BACKGROUND: A large proportion of students identify statistics courses as the most anxiety-inducing courses in their curriculum. Many students feel impaired by feelings of state anxiety in the examination and therefore probably show lower achievements. AIMS: The study investigates how statistics anxiety, attitudes (e.g., interest, mathematical self-concept) and trait anxiety, as a general disposition to anxiety, influence experiences of anxiety as well as achievement in an examination. SAMPLE: Participants were 284 undergraduate psychology students, 225 females and 59 males. METHODS: Two weeks prior to the examination, participants completed a demographic questionnaire and measures of the STARS, the STAI, self-concept in mathematics, and interest in statistics. At the beginning of the statistics examination, students assessed their present state anxiety by the KUSTA scale. After 25 min, all examination participants gave another assessment of their anxiety at that moment. Students' examination scores were recorded. Structural equation modelling techniques were used to test relationships between the variables in a multivariate context. RESULTS: Statistics anxiety was the only variable related to state anxiety in the examination. Via state anxiety experienced before and during the examination, statistics anxiety had a negative influence on achievement. However, statistics anxiety also had a direct positive influence on achievement. This result may be explained by students' motivational goals in the specific educational setting. CONCLUSIONS: The results provide insight into the relationship between students' attitudes, dispositions, experiences of anxiety in the examination, and academic achievement, and give recommendations to instructors on how to support students prior to and in the examination.

Development of a nanoporous and multilayer drug-delivery platform for medical implants.

Biodegradable polymers can be applied to a variety of implants for controlled and local drug delivery. The aim of this study is to develop a biodegradable and nanoporous polymeric platform for a wide spectrum of drug-eluting implants with special focus on stent-coating applications. It was synthesized by poly(DL-lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA 65:35, PLGA 75:25) and polycaprolactone (PCL) in a multilayer configuration by means of a spin-coating technique. The antiplatelet drug dipyridamole was loaded into the surface nanopores of the platform. Surface characterization was made by atomic force microscopy (AFM) and spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE). Platelet adhesion and drug-release kinetic studies were then carried out. The study revealed that the multilayer films are highly nanoporous, whereas the single layers of PLGA are atomically smooth and spherulites are formed in PCL. Their nanoporosity (pore diameter, depth, density, surface roughness) can be tailored by tuning the growth parameters (eg, spinning speed, polymer concentration), essential for drug-delivery performance. The origin of pore formation may be attributed to the phase separation of polymer blends via the spinodal decomposition mechanism. SE studies revealed the structural characteristics, film thickness, and optical properties even of the single layers in the triple-layer construct, providing substantial information for drug loading and complement AFM findings. Platelet adhesion studies showed that the dipyridamole-loaded coatings inhibit platelet aggregation that is a prerequisite for clotting. Finally, the films exhibited sustained release profiles of dipyridamole over 70 days. These results indicate that the current multilayer phase therapeutic approach constitutes an effective drug-delivery platform for drug-eluting implants and especially for cardiovascular stent applications.

Biofunctionalization of PET/SiO2 surfaces for single molecule experiments and medical applications

PET/SiO2 layers were chemically modified to maintain immobilization of functional single molecules. GFP molecules provide an ideal system due to their stability and intrinsic fluorescence. GFP in vivo biotinylated within its NH2-terminal region and attached on the substrate via the biotinstreptavidin bond was further investigated with confocal microscopy, atomic force microscopy (AFM) and spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE). AFM revealed monolayered donut-like structures representing assemblies of biotinstreptavidinbiotinGFP immobilized onto PET/SiO2 surfaces via mPEG. In particular, regions with an approximate height of 12 nm, which approaches the molecular dimensions of the above complex given by molecular modeling, could be detected. The dimensions of the donut-like structures suggest a close-to-each-other positioning of the GFP molecules - which, however, retain their functionality, as evidenced by confocal microscopy. © 2011 World Scientific Publishing Company.

Nonradiative recombination centers in Ga(As,N) and their annealing behavior studied by Raman spectroscopy

Nitrogen-related defects in diluted Ga(As,N) have been detected by Raman scattering in resonance with the localized E+ transition. These defects are attributed to local vibrational modes of nitrogen dimers on Ga- and As-lattice sites. Rapid thermal annealing under appropriate conditions is found to be able to remove the nitrogen dimers. The required minimum annealing temperature coincides with the threshold-like onset of strong, near-band-gap photoluminescence. This finding suggests that the nitrogen dimers are connected with nonradiative recombination centers. (C) 2004 American Institute of Physics.

Photoluminescence of Te isoelectronic centers in ZnS : Te under hydrostatic pressure

The photoluminescence of four epitaxial ZnS: Te samples with Te concentration from 0.5% to 3.1% was investigated at different temperature and ambient pressure. Two well-known emission bands related to the isolated Te-1 and Te-2 pair isoelectronic centers were observed for the samples with Te concentrations of 0.5% and 0.65%. For the samples with Te concentrations of 1.4% and 3.1%, only was the Te-2-related peak observed. The pressure behaviors of these emission bands, were studied at 15 K. The Te-1 -related band has faster pressure shift to higher energy than ZnS band gap. On the other hand, the pressure coefficient of Te-2 -related bands is smaller than that of the ZnS band gap. According to a Koster-Slater model, we found that the increase of the density bandwidth of the valence band with pressure is the main reason for the faster shift of the Te-1 centers, while the relatively large difference in the pressure behavior of the Te-1 and Te-2 centers is mainly due to the difference in the pressure-induced enhancement of the impurity potential on Te-1 and Te-2 centers.

Recombination kinetics of Te isoelectronic centers in ZnSTe

The recombination kinetics of Te isoelectronic centers in ZnS1-xTex (0.0065 less than or equal to x less than or equal to 0.85) alloys is studied by time-resolved photoluminescence (TRPL) at low temperature. The measured radiative recombination lifetimes of different Te bound exciton states are quite different, varying from a few nanoseconds to tens of nanosecond. As the bound exciton state evolves from a single Te impurity (Te-1) to larger Te clusters (Te-n, n=2,3,4), the recombination lifetime increases. It reaches maximum (similar to40 ns) for the Te-4 bound states at x=0.155. The increase of the exciton lifetime is attributed to the increasing exciton localization effect caused by larger localization potential. In the large Te composition range (x > 0.155), the exciton recombination lifetime decreases monotonically with Te composition. It is mainly due to the hybridization between the Te localized states and the host valence band states. The composition dependences of the exciton binding energy and the photoluminescence (PL) line width show the similar tendency that further support the localization picture obtained from the TRPL measurement. (C) 2005 American Institute of Physics.