The Academic Entrepreneur: Myth or Reality for Increased Regional Growth in Europe?

Knowledge flows from universities to the regional economy can take different forms ranging from formal research collaborations to consultancy and informal personal connections. One of the knowledge communication channels drawing substantial interest of both researchers and regional policy makers is academic spin-off firm formation. According to the concept of the “academic entrepreneur” (Etzkowitz) university spin-off firm formation has grown naturally from the academic culture of the US where professors traditionally behave very much like entrepreneurs while setting up and maintaining research labs, hiring research assistants, “marketing” research results in conferences and publications or networking with colleagues and funding agencies. Spinning off a company is just a step forward from such entrepreneurial tasks of academics. Thus according to this concept academic motivations are main drivers in university spin-off firm formation in the US. Despite this challenging view the empirical literature pays relatively little attention to the particular “academic” features of university spin-offs and rarely considers the specificities of university entrepreneurship most notably the role of scientists as entrepreneurs. Empirical evidence suggests that Europe performs less successfully than the US in transferring knowledge from university labs to the regional economy via spin-off companies. One potential reason behind this difference is that institutions that determine the continental European research system hold back the emergence of academic entrepreneurs. Thus it is the main research question in our paper whether those specific “academic” drivers behind university spin-off firm formation are present at all in the continental European context. The related question is whether professional characteristics of the academics, their social capital, the norms of academia and the academic and business environment support or hinder these academic motivations? This paper is based on interviews carried out with university researchers who actively participate in firm formation in Hungary. Hungary is an excellent European case since the features of its university system are rooted in the continental (mainly German) tradition, but it also inherits some characteristics from the even more centralized socialist (soviet) tradition.University, spin-off, academic entrepreneurship, regional university technology transfer

A tanári alkalmasság-vizsgálat sajtóvisszhangja

A pedagógusképzésben alkalmazható alkalmassági vizsgálatok témaköre nem túlságosan népszerű a hazai neveléstudományi szakirodalomban: a kilencvenes évek közepén volt napirenden, majd 2008-tól tért vissza ismét. A legfontosabb tanulmánykötet ebben a témában 2011-ben jelent meg, Falus Iván szerkesztésében. Ez a könyv a nemzetközi tendenciákat és standardokat vizsgálja. A 2013-ban bevezetett alkalmasságvizsgálat ötlete 2009 őszén merült fel először, de az érdeklődés 2012 őszén nőtt meg igazán. Jelen tanulmányban arra keressük a választ, hogy az ötlet felmerülése és első megvalósítása milyen visszhangot váltott ki a sajtóban. A vizsgálat tehát a 2012. szeptember és 2013. július vége között megjelent publikációk elemzésére irányul

Poisson limit of an inhomogeneous nearly critical INAR(1) model

An inhomogeneous first--order integer--valued autoregressive (INAR(1)) process is investigated, where the autoregressive type coefficient slowly converges to one. It is shown that the process converges weakly to a Poisson or a compound Poisson distribution.Comment: Latex2e pdfeTex Version 3, 22 pages, submitted to ACTA Sci. Math. (Szeged

Psychological support based on positive suggestions in the treatment of a critically ill ICU patient

This case report describes the way psychological support based on positive suggestions (PSBPS) was added to the traditional somatic treatment of an acute pancreatitis 36-year-old male patient. Psychological support based on positive suggestions (PSBPS) is a new adjunct therapeutic tool focused on applying suggestive techniques in medical settings. The suggestive techniques usually applied with critically ill patients are based on a number of pre-prepared scripts like future orientation, reframing, positivity, supporting autonomy, etc., and other, very unique and personalized interventions, which are exemplified with verbatim quotations. We describe the way several problems during treatment of intensive care unit (ICU) patients were solved using suggestive methods: uncooperativeness, difficulties of weaning, building up enteral nutrition, supporting recovery motivation, and so on, which permanently facilitated the patient’s medical state: the elimination of gastrointestinal bleeding, recovery of the skin on the abdomen, etc. Medical effects follow-up data at 10 months show that the patient recovered and soon returned to his original work following discharge

Relationship between seed harvesting method and seed physiological quality for a number of Pioneer maize hybrids

The seed germination and seed vigor of eight Pioneer Hi-Bred maize hybrids were evaluated immediately after harvesting and a year later. The aim was to determine whether the seed showed loss of germination and vigor when shelled mechanically. The seed was cleaned but not dressed, and then germinated according to the ISTA standard procedure in four seed analysis laboratories. In addition, the seed of two randomly chosen hybrids was divided into four fractions based on size and shape, and the germination of each fraction was examined separately. All the germination results were acceptable according to the ISTA (2010) standard (over 90%), but a higher germination percentage was observed after manual shelling than after mechanical shelling. The number of abnormal seedlings, however, was higher for mechanically shelled seeds than for those harvested as whole ears. When the seed of separate seed fractions was tested, the germination percentage was lowest for the medium-sized round fraction and highest for the large flat fraction. The seed vigor of three of the hybrids was highest when maize seeds were harvested shelled rather than on the ear. For all the hybrids the germination percentage was lower for both groups when analyzed a year after harvesting. Better germination results were obtained for all the hybrids after whole ear harvesting than in the shelled group, but the difference was not significant. In the vigor tests the results obtained for mechanically shelled seed were superior to those for whole ear harvesting for the same three hybrids, but again the difference was not significant. The experiments should be repeated over several years to determine whether mechanically shelling maize seed negatively affects seed germination and vigor

A tudat és az agy alapműködési hálózatának a kapcsolata

A tudat és neuralis korrelációi az idegtudományok központi kérdését képezik. A tudatkutatás új eredményei felvetik, hogy a normál éber tudat feltétele az agy alapműködési hálózatának aktivitása, tagjainak koherens működése. A self (önmagunk) a tudat tárgya. A selffel kapcsolatos észlelési feladatok során az agy alapműködési hálózatának aktivitásfokozódását mutatták ki. A hálózat összeköttetései révén a selffel összefüggő értékelések egy polimodális integráció rendszerét képezhetik, a magasan integrált asszociatív információk finom feldolgozásában vesznek részt. A tudatosság szintje és a praecuneus aktivitás között szoros a kapcsolat. Természetesen (alvás), sérülés, vagy drogok hatására létrehozott módosult tudatállapotban a hálózat aktivitásváltozását mutatták ki. Az agy alapműködési hálózatának aktivitása a tudat neuralis korrelációja. A jövő kutatásainak lesz a feladata annak a kérdésnek a megválaszolása, hogy a hálózat működése az okozója vagy csupán kísérője a humán tudat kialakulásának