Boundary spanning in a for-profit research lab: An exploration of the interface between commerce and academe

In innovative industries, private-sector companies increasingly are participants in open communities of science and technology. To participate in the system of exchange in such communities, firms often publicly disclose what would otherwise remain private discoveries. In a quantitative case study of one firm in the biopharmaceutical sector, we explore the consequences of scientific publication-an instance of public disclosure-for a core set of activities within the firm. Specifically, we link publications to human capital management practices, showing that scientists' bonuses and the allocation of managerial attention are tied to individuals' publications. Using a unique electronic mail dataset, we find that researchers within the firm who author publications are much better connected to external (to the company) members of the scientific community. This result directly links publishing to current understandings of absorptive capacity. In an unanticipated finding, however, our analysis raises the possibility that the company's most prolific publishers begin to migrate to the periphery of the intra-firm social network, which may occur because these individuals' strong external relationships induce them to reorient their focus to a community of scientists beyond the firm's boundary.

Social Influence Given (Partially) Deliberate Matching: Career Imprints in the Creation of Academic Entrepreneurs

Actors often match with associates on a small set of dimensions that matter most for the particular relationship at hand. In so doing, they are exposed to unanticipated social influences because counterparts have more interests, attitudes, and preferences than would-be associates considered when they first chose to pair. This implies that some apparent social influences (those tied to the rationales for forming the relationship) are endogenous to the matching process, while others (those that are incidental to the formation of the relationship) may be conditionally exogenous, thus enabling causal estimation of peer effects. We illustrate this idea in a new dataset tracking the training and professional activities of academic biomedical scientists. In qualitative and quantitative analyses, we show that scientists match to their postdoctoral mentors based on two dominant factors, geography and scientific focus. They then adopt their advisers' orientations toward commercial science as evidenced by the transmission of patenting behavior, but they do not match on this dimension. We demonstrate this in two-stage models that adjust for the endogeneity of the matching process, using a modification of propensity score estimation and a sample selection correction with valid exclusion restrictions. Furthermore, we draw on qualitative accounts of the matching process recorded in oral histories of the career choices of the scientists in our data. All three methods-qualitative description, propensity score estimators, and those that tackle selection on unobservable factors-are potential approaches to establishing evidence of social influence in partially endogenous networks, and they may be especially persuasive in combination.

Tris(hydroxypropyl)phosphine Oxide: A Chiral Three-Dimensional Material with Nonlinear Optical Properties

The achiral C_(3v) organic phosphine tris(hydroxypropyl)phosphine oxide (1) crystallizes in the unusual chiral hexagonal space group P6_3. The structure is highly ordered because each phosphine oxide moiety forms three hydrogen bonds with adjacent hydroxy groups from three different molecules. The properties of the crystals and the presence of hydrogen bonding interactions were investigated using single crystal Raman spectroscopy. The crystals show nonlinear optical properties and are capable of efficient second harmonic generation

Inflammation Combined with Ischemia Produces Myelin Injury and Plaque-Like Aggregates of Myelin, Amyloid-β and AβPP in Adult Rat Brain.

BackgroundIschemia, white matter injury, and Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathologies often co-exist in aging brain. How one condition predisposes to, interacts with, or perhaps causes the others remains unclear.ObjectivesTo better understand the link between ischemia, white matter injury, and AD, adult rats were administered lipopolysaccharide (LPS) to serve as an inflammatory stimulus, and 24 h later subjected to 20-min focal cerebral ischemia (IS) followed by 30-min hypoxia (H).MethodsMyelin and axonal damage, as well as amyloid-β (Aβ) and amyloid-β protein precursor (AβPP) deposition were examined by Western blot and immunocytochemistry following LPS/IS/H. Findings were compared to the 5XFAD mouse AD brain.ResultsMyelin/axonal injury was observed bilaterally in cortex following LPS/IS/H, along with an increase in IL-1, granzyme B, and LPS. AβPP deposition was present in ischemic striatum in regions of myelin loss. Aβ(1-42) and AβPP were deposited in small foci in ischemic cortex that co-localized with myelin aggregates. In the 5XFAD mouse AD model, cortical amyloid plaques also co-localized with myelin aggregates.ConclusionsLPS/IS/H produce myelin injury and plaque-like aggregates of myelin. AβPP and Aβ co-localize with these myelin aggregates

Relationships between Nighttime Imagery and Population Density for Hong Kong

Nighttime imagery is an unusual remote sensing data source that offers capabilities to represent human activities on the Earth’s surface through the observation of artificial lighting at night. Previous analyses of images of the earth at night derived from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program-Operational Linescan System (DMSP-OLS) have revealed a striking correlation between city-lights and human population density. Nighttime light photographs taken by astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) may have the potential of offering more sophisticated representations of population density with finer spatial and spectral resolution than the DMSP-OLS imagery. The objective of this study is to analyze and map the relationships between the city lights of Hong Kong, China, and representations of population and population density, through comparing two types of nighttime imagery (DMSP-OLS satellite image and ISS photograph) to census population and population density derived from the LandScan population dataset

From Starburst to Quiescence: Testing AGN feedback in Rapidly Quenching Post-Starburst Galaxies

Post-starbursts are galaxies in transition from the blue cloud to the red sequence. Although they are rare today, integrated over time they may be an important pathway to the red sequence. This work uses SDSS, GALEX, and WISE observations to identify the evolutionary sequence from starbursts to fully quenched post-starbursts in the narrow mass range $\log M(M_\odot) = 10.3-10.7$, and identifies "transiting" post-starbursts which are intermediate between these two populations. In this mass range, $\sim 0.3\%$ of galaxies are starbursts, $\sim 0.1\%$ are quenched post-starbursts, and $\sim 0.5\%$ are the transiting types in between. The transiting post-starbursts have stellar properties that are predicted for fast-quenching starbursts and morphological characteristics that are already typical of early-type galaxies. The AGN fraction, as estimated from optical line ratios, of these post-starbursts is about 3 times higher ($\gtrsim 36 \pm 8 \%$) than that of normal star-forming galaxies of the same mass, but there is a significant delay between the starburst phase and the peak of nuclear optical AGN activity (median age difference of $\gtrsim 200 \pm 100$ Myr), in agreement with previous studies. The time delay is inferred by comparing the broad-band near NUV-to-optical photometry with stellar population synthesis models. We also find that starbursts and post-starbursts are significantly more dust-obscured than normal star-forming galaxies in the same mass range. About $20\%$ of the starbursts and $15\%$ of the transiting post-starbursts can be classified as the "Dust-Obscured Galaxies" (DOGs), while only $0.8\%$ of normal galaxies are DOGs.The time delay between the starburst phase and AGN activity suggests that AGN do not play a primary role in the original quenching of starbursts but may be responsible for quenching later low-level star formation during the post-starburst phase.Comment: 30 pages, 18 figures,accepted to Ap

Proteostasis by STUB1/HSP70 complex controls sensitivity to androgen receptor targeted therapy in advanced prostate cancer.

Protein homeostasis (proteostasis) is a potential mechanism that contributes to cancer cell survival and drug resistance. Constitutively active androgen receptor (AR) variants confer anti-androgen resistance in advanced prostate cancer. However, the role of proteostasis involved in next generation anti-androgen resistance and the mechanisms of AR variant regulation are poorly defined. Here we show that the ubiquitin-proteasome-system (UPS) is suppressed in enzalutamide/abiraterone resistant prostate cancer. AR/AR-V7 proteostasis requires the interaction of E3 ubiquitin ligase STUB1 and HSP70 complex. STUB1 disassociates AR/AR-V7 from HSP70, leading to AR/AR-V7 ubiquitination and degradation. Inhibition of HSP70 significantly inhibits prostate tumor growth and improves enzalutamide/abiraterone treatments through AR/AR-V7 suppression. Clinically, HSP70 expression is upregulated and correlated with AR/AR-V7 levels in high Gleason score prostate tumors. Our results reveal a novel mechanism of anti-androgen resistance via UPS alteration which could be targeted through inhibition of HSP70 to reduce AR-V7 expression and overcome resistance to AR-targeted therapies