Surviving Spin-offs as a Measure of Research Funding Effectiveness

Companies spun-off from university laboratories that commercialize intellectual property are significant drivers of innovation in Canada, where spin-offs are created at a much higher rate per research dollar than in the U.S. This paper is based on data from nine Canadian universities active in technology transfer on the spin-offs they created between 1995 and 2003

Technology Transfer at Canadian Universities: Fiscal Year 2001 Update

This report is an extension of Clayman\u27s original May 29, 2003 report entitled Technology Transfer at Canadian Universities: Fiscal Year 2001 Update. It incorporates and analyzes data from Licensing Surveys by the Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM) on performance indicators of technology transfer in Fiscal Years (FY) 1991 through 2001

A Marketplace-based Approach to Cloud Network Slice Composition Across Multiple Domains

Cloud network slicing can be defined as the process that enables isolated end-to-end and on-demand networking abstractions, which: (a) contain both cloud and network resources, and (b) are independently controlled, managed and orchestrated. This paper contributes to the vision of the NECOS project and relevant platform, that aim to address the limitations of current cloud computing infrastructures to accomplish the challenging requirements of the slicing approach. The NECOS platform implements the Slice-as-a-Service model, enabling the dynamic creation of end-to-end (E2E) slices from a set of constituent slice parts contributed from multiple domains. A challenging issue is to define the facility that implements dynamic slice resource discovery, aligned to the requirements of the slice owner or tenant, over different infrastructure providers. Here, we propose a Marketplace-based approach implementing relevant federated interactions for the resource discovery and we detail its architecture, workflows, and information model. We also present its initial implementation details and provide both quantitative and qualitative experimental results validating its main operation

Charge-ordering and optical transitions of LiV2O5 and NaV2O5

We present the measurements of the polarized optical spectra of NaV2O5 and LiV2O5. In an energy range from 0.5 to 5.5 eV we observe similar peaks in the E parallel a spectra of LiV2O5 and NaV2O5, which suggests similar electronic structure along the a axis in both materials. On the other hand, we find an almost complete suppression of the peaks in sigma_b of LiV2O5 around 1 and 5 eV. We attribute this suppression to the charge localization originating from the existence of double-chain charge-ordering patterin in LiV2O5.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures final version, to appear in PR

Theory of de Haas-van Alphen Effect in Type-II Superconductors

Theory of quasiparticle spectra and the de Haas-van Alphen (dHvA) oscillation in type-II superconductors are developed based on the Bogoliubov-de Gennes equations for vortex-lattice states. As the pair potential grows through the superconducting transition, each degenerate Landau level in the normal state splits into quasiparticle bands in the magnetic Brillouin zone. This brings Landau-level broadening, which in turn leads to the extra dHvA oscillation damping in the vortex state. We perform extensive numerical calculations for three-dimensional systems with various gap structures. It is thereby shown that (i) this Landau-level broadening is directly connected with the average gap at H=0 along each Fermi-surface orbit perpendicular to the field H; (ii) the extra dHvA oscillation attenuation is caused by the broadening around each extremal orbit. These results imply that the dHvA experiment can be a unique probe to detect band- and/or angle-dependent gap amplitudes. We derive an analytic expression for the extra damping based on the second-order perturbation with respect to the pair potential for the Luttinger-Ward thermodynamic potential. This formula reproduces all our numerical results excellently, and is used to estimate band-specific gap amplitudes from available data on NbSe_2, Nb_3Sn, and YNi_2B_2C. The obtained value for YNi_2B_2C is fairly different from the one through a specific-heat measurement, indicating presence of gap anisotropy in this material. C programs to solve the two-dimensional Bogoliubov-de Gennes equations are available at http://phys.sci.hokudai.ac.jp/~kita/index-e.html .Comment: 16 pages, 11 figure

Timescales of Massive Human Entrainment

The past two decades have seen an upsurge of interest in the collective behaviors of complex systems composed of many agents entrained to each other and to external events. In this paper, we extend concepts of entrainment to the dynamics of human collective attention. We conducted a detailed investigation of the unfolding of human entrainment - as expressed by the content and patterns of hundreds of thousands of messages on Twitter - during the 2012 US presidential debates. By time locking these data sources, we quantify the impact of the unfolding debate on human attention. We show that collective social behavior covaries second-by-second to the interactional dynamics of the debates: A candidate speaking induces rapid increases in mentions of his name on social media and decreases in mentions of the other candidate. Moreover, interruptions by an interlocutor increase the attention received. We also highlight a distinct time scale for the impact of salient moments in the debate: Mentions in social media start within 5-10 seconds after the moment; peak at approximately one minute; and slowly decay in a consistent fashion across well-known events during the debates. Finally, we show that public attention after an initial burst slowly decays through the course of the debates. Thus we demonstrate that large-scale human entrainment may hold across a number of distinct scales, in an exquisitely time-locked fashion. The methods and results pave the way for careful study of the dynamics and mechanisms of large-scale human entrainment.Comment: 20 pages, 7 figures, 6 tables, 4 supplementary figures. 2nd version revised according to peer reviewers' comments: more detailed explanation of the methods, and grounding of the hypothese

Multi-institutional Evaluation of Producing and Testing a Novel 3D-Printed Laparoscopic Trainer

To create, distribute, and evaluate the efficacy of a portable, cost effective 3D-printed laparoscopic trainer for surgical skills development.Objective: To create, distribute, and evaluate the efficacy of a portable, cost-effective 3D-printed laparoscopic trainer for surgical skills development. Methods: The UCI Trainer (UCiT) laparoscopic simulator was developed via computer-aided designs (CAD), which were used to 3D-print the UCiT. Once assembled, a tablet computer with a rear-facing camera was attached for video and optics. Four institutions were sent the UCiT CAD files with a 3D-printer and instructions for UCiT assembly. For a comparison of the UCiT to a standard trainer, peg transfer and intracorporeal knot tying skills were accessed. These tasks were scored, and participants were asked to rate their experience with the trainers. Lastly, a questionnaire was given to individuals who 3D-printed and assembled the UCiT. Results: We recruited 25 urologists; none had any 3D-printing experience. The cost of printing each trainer was $26.50 USD. Each institution used the Apple iPad for optics. Six of eight participants assembled the UCiT in < 45 minutes, and rated assembly as somewhat easy. On objective scoring, participants performed tasks equally well on the UCiT vs the conventional trainer. On subjective scoring, the conventional trainer provided a significantly better experience vs the UCiT; however, all reported that the UCiT was useful for surgical education. Conclusion: The UCiT is a low cost, portable training tool that is easy to assemble and use. UCiT provided a platform whereby participants performed laparoscopic tasks equal to performing the same tasks on the more expensive, nonportable standard trainer

How 911 callers and call‐takers impact police encounters with the public: The case of the Henry Louis Gates Jr. arrest

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/156456/2/capp12508_am.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/156456/1/capp12508.pd