Firm Size Effects on Venture Capital Syndication: The Role of Resources and Transaction Costs

The present paper examines firm size effects on the decision of venture capital firms to participate in a venture capital investment syndication network. The authors submit that firm size effects in venture capital syndication are dependent on resource acquisition motives and transaction cost considerations. Analysis of 317 venture capital firms in 6 European countries reveals a curve linear relationship between firm size and venture capital syndication participation. We also find positive and negative moderating effects of firm size. The implication of our findings is that there are both advantages and disadvantages in syndicated investment for the smaller and larger venture capitalist.Firm Size;Resource-Based View;Syndication Networks;Transaction Cost Theory;Venture Capital

Lessons Learned from the Flight Unit Testing of the Near Earth Asteroid Scout Flight System

The Near Earth Asteroid Scout flight mission is set to launch on the maiden voyage of the Space Launch System as a secondary payload. The spacecraft will be jettisoned in cis-lunar space and embark on an ambitious 2.5 year mission to image an asteroid. The spacecraft is uniquely equipped with an 85m2 solar sail as the main propulsion system. The monolithic sail system is designed to package within a 6U volume for launch and then deploy during flight. The NEA Scout team has presented in the past to the International Symposium on Solar Sailing topics related to the engineering development unit and design efforts to achieve flight hardware build. This paper will focus on the lessons learned from building and testing the NEA Scout flight system. Focus will be on the mechanical, software, and electrical interfaces as well as preparation for subsystem environmental tests, including thermal vacuum. Due to the unique design of the spacecraft, the solar sail subsystem was required to be located in the center of the spacecraft. This requirement lead to design challenges such as designing and accommodating critical cable harnesses to run through the center of the sail subsystem, packaging and deployment design of the sail subsystem, and integrated testing efforts through an avionics test bed to verify and validate a complete system architecture

Firm Size Effects on Venture Capital Syndication: The Role of Resources and Transaction Costs

The present paper examines firm size effects on the decision of venture capital firms to participate in a venture capital investment syndication network. The authors submit that firm size effects in venture capital syndication are dependent on resource acquisition motives and transaction cost considerations. Analysis of 317 venture capital firms in 6 European countries reveals a curve linear relationship between firm size and venture capital syndication participation. We also find positive and negative moderating effects of firm size. The implication of our findings is that there are both advantages and disadvantages in syndicated investment for the smaller and larger venture capitalist

A field study of team working in a new human supervisory control system

This paper presents a case study of an investigation into team behaviour in an energy distribution company. The main aim was to investigate the impact of major changes in the company on system performance, comprising human and technical elements. A socio-technical systems approach was adopted. There were main differences between the teams investigated in the study: the time of year each control room was studied (i.e. summer or winter),the stage of development each team was in (i.e. 10 months), and the team structure (i.e. hierarchical or heterarchical). In all other respects the control rooms were the same: employing the same technology and within the same organization. The main findings were: the teams studied in the winter months were engaged in more `planning’ and `awareness’ type of activities than those studies in the summer months. Newer teams seem to be engaged in more sharing of information than older teams, which maybe indicative of the development process. One of the hierarchical teams was engaged in more `system-driven’ activities than the heterarchical team studied at the same time of year. Finally, in general, the heterarchical team perceived a greater degree of team working culture than its hierarchical counterparts. This applied research project confirms findings from laboratory research and emphasizes the importance of involving ergonomics in the design of team working in human supervisory control

NASA's Near Earth Asteroid Scout Mission Status, History, and Lesson's Learned

No abstract availabl

State-of-the-art in product service-systems

A Product Service-System (PSS) is an integrated combination of products and services. This western concept embraces a service-led competitive strategy, environmental sustainability, and the basis to differentiate from competitors who simply offer lower priced products. This paper aims to report the state-of-the-art of PSS research by presenting a clinical review of literature currently available on this topic. The literature is classified and the major outcomes of each study are addressed and analysed. On this basis, this paper defines the PSS concept, reports on its origin and features, gives examples of applications along with potential benefits and barriers to adoption, summarises available tools and methodologies, and identifies future research challenges

Filter-Based Assay for Escherichia coli in Aqueous Samples Using Bacteriophage-Based Amplification

This paper describes a method to detect the presence of bacteria in aqueous samples, based on the capture of bacteria on a syringe filter, and the infection of targeted bacterial species with a bacteriophage (phage). The use of phage as a reagent provides two opportunities for signal amplification: i) the replication of phage inside a live bacterial host (1000-fold amplification for M13 phage in E. coli K12), and ii) the rapid conversion of a colorless substrate to a colored or fluorescent product by an enzyme that is co-expressed with the phage (in this demonstration β- galactosidase, which has a turnover rate of ~ 600 molecules/second). This method can detect a single colony-forming unit (CFU) of E. coli in one liter of water with an overnight culture-based assay, or 50 CFUs of E. coli in 1 liter of water (or 10 mL of orange juice, or 10 mL of skim milk) in less than four hours with a solution-based assay with visual readout. The solution-based assay does not require specialized equipment or access to a laboratory, and is more rapid than existing tests that are suitable for use at the point of access. This method could be applied to the detection of many different bacteria, in parallel, with bacteriophages that express enzymes not natively expressed in the target bacteria.Chemistry and Chemical Biolog

Thermoelastic Damping in Micro- and Nano-Mechanical Systems

The importance of thermoelastic damping as a fundamental dissipation mechanism for small-scale mechanical resonators is evaluated in light of recent efforts to design high-Q micrometer- and nanometer-scale electro-mechanical systems (MEMS and NEMS). The equations of linear thermoelasticity are used to give a simple derivation for thermoelastic damping of small flexural vibrations in thin beams. It is shown that Zener's well-known approximation by a Lorentzian with a single thermal relaxation time slightly deviates from the exact expression.Comment: 10 pages. Submitted to Phys. Rev.

Tratamiento quirúrgico de hernias perineales en caninos mediante el uso de pericardio equino conservado en glicerina

Las técnicas tradicionales para resolver quirúrgicamente las hernias perineales del perro registran elevada frecuencia de recidivas. El objetivo de este trabajo fue determinar la efectividad de un injerto heterólogo proveniente de pericardio equino conservado en glicerina al 98%, a efectos de reforzar la sutura del diafragma pélvico. Veinte perros fueron divididos en dos grupos: G1 (tratados, n = 15) y G2 (controles, n = 5). Los caninos G2 fueron intervenidos quirúrgicamente según la técnica clásica, en tanto que a los del grupo G1 se les aplicó además el injerto de pericardio equino, fijado por medio de puntos de sutura. Los cambios posquirúrgicos fueron evaluados macroscópicamente y categorizados según la existencia de recidiva. En 2 caninos del grupo G2 (40%) se produjeron recidivas, complicación que no fue verificada en ninguno de los animales del grupo G1, los cuales registraron solamente leves reacciones inflamatorias y fibróticas. Los resultados demuestran que la herniorrafia con utilización de pericardio equino es significativamente más efectiva que la técnica quirúrgica convencional

Utilización de lidocaína en la constipación de caninos

La constipación es una afección de difícil tratamiento debido a la diversidad de etiologías y a la probabilidad de fracaso al aplicar las medidas correctivas clásicas. El objetivo de este trabajo fue investigar la efectividad de un tratamiento alternativo para resolver la constipación del canino,basado en el uso endovenoso del clorhidrato de lidocaína, droga con efectos procinéticos anivel intestinal. Se emplearon diez pacientes de diferente peso, raza y edad, los que fueronsometidos a examen clínico completo y estudios complementarios para confirmar el diagnósticode constipación. Los caninos fueron tratados vía EV con clorhidrato de lidocaína al2%, a dosis de 6 mg/kg de peso vivo (0,3 ml/kg). En todos los casos se restableció la motilidadintestinal; seis animales defecaron a las 12 horas, dos a las 18 horas y los dos restantes alas 24 horas posteriores a la aplicación de la droga. Los resultados indican que el tratamientocon clorhidrato de lidocaína al 2% por vía endovenosa, a dosis de 6 mg/kg de peso vivo, resultóefectivo para el tratamiento de esta patología