207 research outputs found

    Motivations, behaviour and cognition of novice and habitual business angels in new firm incorporations

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    Re-investment is vital to the business angel "industry" because re-investing angels endorse a greater number of entrepreneurs and invest more funds than non-reinvesting angels. In this exploratory empirical analysis, the appraisal qualities of business angels are examined relative to their impact on producing successful investments as well as their impact upon re-investment. The three appraisal qualities investigated are business angels' motivations, their deal generation behaviours and the cognitive heuristics of overconfidence and representativeness. The analysis is based on the information model of the existence of the formal venture capital industry. A typology of business angels is introduced based on 1) their intentions to re-invest and 2) their exit status at re-investment. Business angels who have re-invested are classified as habitual angels. A novel data set reveals information about angels' first to fourth investments that allows for comparability between novice and habitual angels' first investments. The data set is randomly sampled from a known population of newly incorporated firms on the east coast of Canada producing a more representative sample than other business angel studies. Six in-depth case studies add to the findings. The findings indicate that financial motivations, intermediated deal generation and under-confidence are associated with financially successful informal venture capital investments. However, compared to novice angels, the representative sample of habitual angels eschew financial motivations and intermediation, and are characterised by overconfidence at the level of their first investment. Habitual angels demonstrate some qualities that indicate they learn with subsequent investments. Implications for policy makers, business angels and entrepreneurs are included

    A Pattern-Centered Analysis of Adolescents\u27 Concerns and hopes about future crises: Differences in ways of coping and personal adjustment

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    Introduction Many adolescents are concerned about global and future crises, such as the health of the planet or terrorism/safety. Yet, adolescents can also express hope about the future. Thus, asking adolescents about their concern and hope could yield subgroups with different ways of coping and personal adjustment. Method Australian adolescents (N = 863; age 10-16) completed surveys to report their concern (worry and anger) and hope about the planet, safety, jobs, income, housing, and technology, as well as their active and avoidant coping, depression, and life satisfaction. Results Four distinct subgroups were identified using cluster analysis: Hopeful (low on concern and high on hope across all issues, 32%), Uninvolved (low in concern and hope; 26%), Concerned about the Planet (CP, 27%), and Concerned about Future Life (CFL, 15%). When compared (adjusting for age, sex, and COVID timing), the CP subgroup was highest in active coping (e.g., taking action) but moderate in personal adjustment. Hopeful had the most positive adjustment, whereas CFL had the poorest adjustment. Uninvolved were lowest in coping but moderate in adjustment. Conclusions Findings suggest ways of coping and adjustment may not always align, in that CP is connected with more active coping but also some cost to personal adjustment, whereas Hopeful is associated with optimal adjustment but perhaps at the cost of active coping. In addition, although CFL adolescents emerged as the at-risk group, the low levels of hope and coping in Uninvolved adolescents raise the possibility that they are at risk of future problems

    Go open! Supporting higher education staff engagement in open educational practices

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    his paper reports on the activities of a team in Dublin City University (DCU), composed of academic staff and library staff, who engaged in a collaborative project, Go Open, in 2020 and 2021 that encourages members of the DCU community to engage in open educational practices. The academic staff team members, from DCU’s Open Education Unit, have experience in providing online, flexible, open education/access programmes that include many examples of open educational practice, while the library staff have experience in advocating for engagement in open educational practice and open scholarship/science. The project goals were: to produce user-friendly resources that would give an introduction to open education generally and more specifically key types of open educational practice; to provide concrete examples of open educational practice to contextualise the educational problems for which such practices can provide a solution; and provide links to other sources of information on open education such as key websites and thought leaders so that those whose interest in open education is sparked by the resources are facilitated in taking their next step. These project goals align with the first action area of the UNESCO OER recommendation, that of building capacity of stakeholders to create, access, re-use, adapt and redistribute OER. The Go Open project developed both a guide, ‘Go Open: A beginners guide to open education’, and a LibGuide (https://dcu.libguides.com/GoOpen), both of which were launched at an event in April 2021 as part of the team’s ongoing project output dissemination and advocacy for open education practice. In the two weeks after the launch event the guide had 387 views and 178 downloads, while the libguide had 781 views. The Go Open Project was funded by the National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education and DCU’s Teaching Enhancement Unit through the SATLE 19 fund

    Go open: a beginners guide to open education

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    In this short guide, we aim to give you a beginners guide to the area of open education, so that you can engage with open education practices in your teaching, research and support activities and to Go Open

    The Labadie, Jones and Cockburn Banks Nephrops Grounds (FU2021) 2023 UWTV Survey Report and catch scenarios for 2024

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    This report provides the main results of the 2023 underwater television survey on the ‘Labadie, Jones and Cockburn Banks’ ICES assessment area; Functional Unit 2021. The 2023 annual survey was multi-disciplinary in nature collecting UWTV and other ecosystem data. A total of 100 UWTV stations were completed at 6 nm intervals over a randomised isometric grid design. The 2023 mean burrow density was 0.104 burrows/m2 compared with 0.101 burrows/m2 in the year 2022. The 2023 geostatistical abundance estimate was 1026 million, a 0.6% decrease on the abundance from 2022, with a CV of 4%, which is well below the upper limit of 20% recommended by SGNEPS 2012. Low to medium densities were observed throughout the ground. Using the 2023 estimate of abundance and updated stock data implies catch in 2024 that correspond to the ICES MSY approach of 1865 tonnes assuming that discard rates and fishery selection patterns do not change from the average of 2020– 2022. Two species of sea-pen (Virgularia mirabilis and Pennatula phosphorea) were recorded as present at the stations surveyed. Trawl marks were observed at 20% of the stations surveyed.Marine Institut

    Walk with Me: a protocol for a pilot RCT of a peer-led walking programme to increase physical activity in inactive older adults

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    Background: Levels of physical activity decline with age. Some of the most disadvantaged individuals in society, such as those from lower socio-economic position, are also the most inactive. Increasing physical activity levels, particularly among those most inactive, is a public health priority. Peer-led physical activity interventions may offer a model to increase physical activity in the older adult population. This study aims to test the feasibility of a peer-led, multicomponent physical activity intervention in socio-economically disadvantaged community dwelling older adults. Methods: The Medical Research Council framework for developing and evaluating complex interventions will be used to design and test the feasibility of a randomised controlled trial (RCT) of a multicomponent peer-led physical activity intervention. Data will be collected at baseline, immediately after the intervention (12 weeks) and 6 months after baseline measures. The pilot RCT will provide information on recruitment of peer mentors and participants and attrition rates, intervention fidelity, and data on the variability of the primary outcome (minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity measured with an accelerometer). The pilot trail will also assess the acceptability of the intervention and identify potential resources needed to undertake a definitive study. Data analyses will be descriptive and include an evaluation of eligibility, recruitment, and retention rates. The findings will be used to estimate the sample size required for a definitive trial. A detailed process evaluation using qualitative and quantitative methods will be conducted with a variety of stakeholders to identify areas of success and necessary improvements. Discussion: This paper describes the protocol for the ‘Walk with Me’ pilot RCT which will provide the information necessary to inform the design and delivery of a fully powered trial should the Walk with Me intervention prove feasible

    Radar Sounding of the Medusae Fossae Formation Mars: Equatorial Ice or Dry, Low-Density Deposits?

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    The equatorial Medusae Fossae Formation (MFF) is enigmatic and perhaps among the youngest geologic deposits on Mars. They are thought to be composed of volcanic ash, eolian sediments, or an ice-rich material analogous to polar layered deposits. The Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionospheric Sounding (MARSIS) instrument aboard the Mars Express Spacecraft has detected nadir echoes offset in time-delay from the surface return in orbits over MFF material. These echoes are interpreted to be from the subsurface interface between the MFF material and the underlying terrain. The delay time between the MFF surface and subsurface echoes is consistent with massive deposits emplaced on generally planar lowlands materials with a real dielectric constant of ∼2.9 ± 0.4. The real dielectric constant and the estimated dielectric losses are consistent with a substantial component of water ice. However, an anomalously low-density, ice-poor material cannot be ruled out. If ice-rich, the MFF must have a higher percentage of dust and sand than polar layered deposits. The volume of water in an ice-rich MFF deposit would be comparable to that of the south polar layered deposits

    Verifying the operational definition of neighborhood for the psychosocial impact of structural deterioration

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    The physical decay of neighborhoods is associated with social conditions such as disease risk, poor mental health, and fear of crime. Researchers assessing neighborhood effects commonly operationalize neighborhoods via municipal boundaries such as U.S. Census Tracts, although more sophisticated analyses examine structures within a defined radius of respondents, typically .25-mile. This study verifies the .25-mile heuristic as a sound operational definition for neighborhood residential structures consequential to social conditions with measures of social contact with neighbors, perceptions of social capital, fear of neighborhood crime, and satisfaction with neighborhood quality of life. Deteriorating commercial structures cluster in smaller areas than deteriorating residential structures; however, the peak consequential radius appears to occur at 4 times the distance of residential structures. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/57514/1/20216_ftp.pd
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