A New Model of Opportunity Recognition: Linking Individual Agency, Entrepreneurial Action, and the Innovation Process

The purpose of this study is to explore how individuals go about identifying new business opportunities, also known as opportunity recognition. Opportunity recognition is the first and most critical step in the entrepreneurship and innovation process. Past models of opportunity recognition took a narrow approach, subscribing to a single perspective of opportunity recognition and tended to overemphasize either the person or the process rather than examining all possible mechanisms and their interaction effects. This study has taken a holistic approach, with a focus on both serial entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs, aimed at exploring a range of conditions present in small startups and large organizations. Data findings were distilled down into ten proposition statements and presented in a visual process model of opportunity recognition. A total of 23 variables emerged in the research study, 12 of which were new concepts not identified in previous models. The most salient and profound insight from the study was the importance of reframing the opportunity until the “real opportunity” emerged. This back and forth reframing process occurred in cycles until a clear problem-solution fit was identified. The major contribution of this model is that it expands upon cognition theory by showing how the idea enactment process feeds back into the individual’s thought process, emphasizing the interaction effects between thinking and action. The resulting model follows a clear flow and sequence of events but also illustrates the organic nature of the ideation process and allows for multiple pathways into an innovative idea. This study bridges an important divide between the entrepreneurship and innovation literature and shows how different perspectives in the literature such as creation and discovery, identification and enactment, and active and passive search can coexist. This research provides the foundation from which to operationalize the model and develop training and educational materials for management, consultants, and educators. The study has the potential to help business leaders and aspiring entrepreneurs unlock new market opportunities, navigate a broad mix of innovation tools and techniques, and enhance cognitive skills that are central to the opportunity recognition process. Cultivating this talent is critical to achieving a sustainable competitive advantage and the successful value creation of new ventures

Dynamic effects of Wolbachia on Drosophila Oogenesis and coordination of infection with stem cell niche morphogenesis

Wolbachia are widespread obligate intracellular bacteria that are maternally transmitted and modulate reproduction of their invertebrate host. Mosquitoes transinfected with Wolbachia have reduced capacity for transmitting vector borne diseases and can replace native populations in the field because of a reproductive advantage. The cellular mechanisms of how reproduction is altered by Wolbachia are poorly understood. In this work Wolbachia-induced reproductive changes in the model organism Drosophila were used to pinpoint underlying cellular processes affected by the bacteria. Specifically, egg production (or fecundity) of Wolbachia-infected Drosophila mauritiana was compared to non-infected flies that had been generated by antibiotic treatment of infected flies. Immediately before the fecundity experiment backcrossing of both fly lines ensured an equivalent nuclear genetic background. Initially egg production in Wolbachia-infected flies was increased by 4-fold but in less than 30 generations this changed to a 0.84 fold decrease with a slight advantage for the non-infected line. Additional backcrossing experiments determined that selection on the host nuclear genome is one of the factors underlying this reversion of fecundity gains. Other non-Mendelian factors, such as the microbiota, may also play a role in this rapid change. Wolbachia alterations in egg production were always linked to Wolbachia induced changes in programmed cell death (PCD) in the germarium during oogenesis and germline stem cell (GSC) division. Germline stem cells are maintained and regulated through their interaction with the germline stem cell niche (GSCN). Interestingly, these cells are both frequently infected with Wolbachia and possess a high bacterial titer. A developmental time course revealed the mechanism of how Wolbachia accumulate in the niche cells. The data suggest that the bacteria actually coordinate their replication with the differentiation of the niche cells. Future work on understanding the cellular and molecular basis of Wolbachia - host interaction will not only give insight into novel mechanisms of host manipulation by a pathogen, but will also expand our current understanding of stem cell niche morphogenesis and modulation of stem cell proliferation.2018-06-05T00:00:00

Cells in Space

Discussions and presentations addressed three aspects of cell research in space: the suitability of the cell as a subject in microgravity experiments, the requirements for generic flight hardware to support cell research, and the potential for collaboration between academia, industry, and government to develop these studies in space. Synopses are given for the presentations and follow-on discussions at the conference and papers are presented from which the presentations were based. An Executive Summary outlines the recommendations and conclusions generated at the conference

Fundamental results from microgravity cell experiments with possible commericial applications

Some of the major milestones are presented for studies in cell biology that were conducted by the Soviet Union and the United States in the upper layers of the atmosphere and in outer space for more than thirty-five years. The goals have changed as new knowledge is acquired and the priorities for the use of microgravity have shifted toward basic research and commercial applications. Certain details concerning the impact of microgravity on cell systems is presented. However, it needs to be emphasized that in planning and conducting microgravity experiments, there are some important prerequisites not normally taken into account. Apart from the required background knowledge of previous microgravity and ground-based experiments, the investigator should have the understanding of the hardware as a physical unit, the complete knowledge of its operation, the range of its capabilities and the anticipation of problems that may occur. Moreover, if the production of commercial products in space is to be manifested, data obtained from previous microgravity experiments must be used to optimize the design of flight hardware

Cost-Effective Control of Infectious Disease Outbreaks Accounting for Societal Reaction

Background Studies of cost-effective disease prevention have typically focused on the tradeoff between the cost of disease transmission and the cost of applying control measures. We present a novel approach that also accounts for the cost of social disruptions resulting from the spread of disease. These disruptions, which we call social response, can include heightened anxiety, strain on healthcare infrastructure, economic losses, or violence. Methodology The spread of disease and social response are simulated under several different intervention strategies. The modeled social response depends upon the perceived risk of the disease, the extent of disease spread, and the media involvement. Using Monte Carlo simulation, we estimate the total number of infections and total social response for each strategy. We then identify the strategy that minimizes the expected total cost of the disease, which includes the cost of the disease itself, the cost of control measures, and the cost of social response. Conclusions The model-based simulations suggest that the least-cost disease control strategy depends upon the perceived risk of the disease, as well as media intervention. The most cost-effective solution for diseases with low perceived risk was to implement moderate control measures. For diseases with higher perceived severity, such as SARS or Ebola, the most cost-effective strategy shifted toward intervening earlier in the outbreak, with greater resources. When intervention elicited increased media involvement, it remained important to control high severity diseases quickly. For moderate severity diseases, however, it became most cost-effective to implement no intervention and allow the disease to run its course. Our simulation results imply that, when diseases are perceived as severe, the costs of social response have a significant influence on selecting the most cost-effective strategy.United States. Defense Threat Reduction Agency (Contract HDTRA1-12-C-0061

Active cooling control of the CLEO detector using a hydrocarbon coolant farm

We describe a novel approach to particle-detector cooling in which a modular farm of active coolant-control platforms provides independent and regulated heat removal from four recently upgraded subsystems of the CLEO detector: the ring-imaging Cherenkov detector, the drift chamber, the silicon vertex detector, and the beryllium beam pipe. We report on several aspects of the system: the suitability of using the aliphatic-hydrocarbon solvent PF(TM)-200IG as a heat-transfer fluid, the sensor elements and the mechanical design of the farm platforms, a control system that is founded upon a commercial programmable logic controller employed in industrial process-control applications, and a diagnostic system based on virtual instrumentation. We summarize the system's performance and point out the potential application of the design to future high-energy physics apparatus.Comment: 21 pages, LaTeX, 5 PostScript figures; version accepted for publication in Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research

The influence of the spectral truncation on the simulation of waves in the tropical stratosphere

Convectively triggered waves are the main driver of the tropical stratospheric circulation. In atmospheric models, the model’s resolution limits the length of the simulated wave spectrum. In this study, the authorscompare the tropical tropospheric wave sources, their projection on the wave field in the lower stratosphere, and the circumstances of their upward propagation in the atmospheric model ECHAM6 with three spectral truncations of T63, T127, and T255. The model internally generates the quasi biennial oscillation (QBO),which dominates the variability in the tropical stratosphere. This analysis focuses on two opposite phases of the QBO to account for the influence of the background wind field on the wave filtering. It is shown that, compared to the high-resolution model versions, the T63 version has less convective variability and less wave momentum in the lower stratosphere at wavenumbers larger than 20, well below the version’s truncation limit.In the low-resolution version, the upward propagation of the waves is further hindered by the highly active (relative to the high-resolution versions) horizontal diffusion scheme. However, even in the T255version of ECHAM6, the convective variability is too small compared to TRMM observations at periods shorter than 2 days and wavelengths shorter than 1000 km. Hence, to model a realistic tropical waveactivity, the convective parameterization of the model has to improve to increase the day-to-day precipitation variability

Spatial and temporal variations of aerosols around Beijing in summer 2006: Model evaluation and source apportionment

Regional aerosol model calculations were made using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF)-Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) and WRF-chem models to study spatial and temporal variations of aerosols around Beijing, China, in the summer of 2006, when the Campaigns of Air Quality Research in Beijing and Surrounding Region 2006 (CAREBeijing) intensive campaign was conducted. Model calculations captured temporal variations of primary (such as elemental carbon. (EC)) and secondary (such as sulfate) aerosols observed in and around Beijing. The spatial distributions of aerosol optical depth observed by the MODTS satellite sensors were also reproduced over northeast China. Model calculations showed distinct differences in spatial distributions between primary and secondary aerosols in association with synoptic-scale meteorology. Secondary aerosols increased in air around Beijing on a scale of about 1000 × 1000 km2 under an anticyclonic pressure system. This air mass was transported northward from the high anthropogenic emission area extending south of Beijing with continuous photochemical production. Subsequent cold front passage brought clean air from the north, and polluted air around Beijing was swept to the south of Beijing. This cycle was repeated about once a week and was found to be responsible for observed enhancements/reductions of aerosols at the intensive measurement sites. In contrast to secondary aerosols, the spatial distributions of primary aerosols (EC) reflected those of emissions, resulting in only slight variability despite the changes in synopticscale meteorology. In accordance with these results, source apportionment simulations revealed that primary aerosols around Beijing were controlled by emissions within 100 km around Beijing within the preceding 24 h, while emissions as far as 500 km and within the preceding 3 days were found to affect secondary aerosols. Copyright 2009 by the American Geophysical Union

The performance of RAMS in representing the convective boundary layer structure in a very steep valley

Data from a comprehensive field study in the Riviera Valley of Southern Switzerland are used to investigate convective boundary layer structure in a steep valley and to evaluate wind and temperature fields, convective boundary layer height, and surface sensible heat fluxes as predicted by the mesoscale model RAMS. Current parameterizations of surface and boundary layer processes in RAMS, as well as in other mesoscale models, are based on scaling laws strictly valid only for flat topography and uniform land cover. Model evaluation is required to investigate whether this limits the applicability of RAMS in steep, inhomogeneous terrain. One clear-sky day with light synoptic winds is selected from the field study. Observed temperature structure across and along the valley is nearly homogeneous while wind structure is complex with a wind speed maximum on one side of the valley. Upvalley flows are not purely thermally driven and mechanical effects near the valley entrance also affect the wind structure. RAMS captured many of the observed boundary layer characteristics within the steep valley. The wind field, temperature structure, and convective boundary layer height in the valley are qualitatively simulated by RAMS, but the horizontal temperature structure across and along the valley is less homogeneous in the model than in the observations. The model reproduced the observed net radiation, except around sunset and sunrise when RAMS does not take into account the shadows cast by the surrounding topography. The observed sensible heat fluxes fall within the range of simulated values at grid points surrounding the measurement sites. Some of the scatter between observed and simulated turbulent sensible heat fluxes are due to sub-grid scale effects related to local topograph