Who is the academic entrepreneur? The role of graduate students in the development of university spinoffs

Academic entrepreneurship, the establishment of new companies based on technologies derived from university research, is a well-recognized driver of regional and national economic development. For more than a decade, scholars have conceptualized individual university faculty as the primary agents of academic entrepreneurship. Recent research suggests that graduate students also play a critical role in the establishment and early development of university spinoff companies, but the nature of their involvement through the entrepreneurial process is not yet fully understood. Employing a case study approach, this paper investigates the role of graduate students in early-stage university spinoff companies from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. We find that graduate students play role similar to that of individual faculty entrepreneurs in university spinoffs, both in terms of making the initial establishment decision and in reconfiguring the organization for marketable technology development. We also find that student entrepreneurs face unique challenges involving conflicts with faculty advisors and other students

Multi-modality curative treatment of salivary gland cancer liver metastases with drug-eluting bead chemoembolization, radiofrequency ablation, and surgical resection: a case report

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p>Liver metastases are rare in salivary gland tumors and have been reported only once to be the first manifestation of the disease. They are usually treated with surgical resection of the primary tumor and systemic chemotherapy. Drug-eluting bead chemoembolization has an evolving role in the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma, as well as in the treatment of metastatic disease of the liver. Nevertheless, it has never been used in a patient with salivary gland liver metastases.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>We report a case of a 51-year-old Caucasian Greek woman who presented to our hospital with liver metastases as the first manifestation of an adenoid cystic carcinoma of the left submandibular gland. The liver lesions were deemed inoperable because of their size and multi-focality and proved resistant to systemic chemotherapy. She was curatively treated with a combination of doxorubicin eluting bead (DC Beads) chemoembolization, intra-operative and percutaneous radiofrequency ablation, and radiofrequency-assisted surgical resection. The patient remained disease-free one year after the surgical resection.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>In conclusion, this complex case is an example of inoperable liver metastatic disease from the salivary glands that was refractory to systemic chemotherapy but was curatively treated with a combination of locoregional therapies and surgery. A multi-disciplinary approach and the adoption of modern radiological techniques produced good results after conventional therapies failed and there were no other available treatment modalities.</p

Stable processes of exchange

In this paper we address a long standing gap in economic theory--the gap between claims for the dynamic efficiency of trading in markets, and the findings of formal economic theory, which justify those claims only under restrictive assumptions. We use agent-based methods to study the dynamics of exchange with trading agents who are characterized by several different preference relations. We see that outcomes converge with high probability to Pareto optima in the cases studied, including the well-known example due to Scarf.General equilibrium Agent-based modeling

Awareness set formation model

The awareness set formation model is a spatially explicit computational model that represents a city, with alternatives and households located in the space. The alternatives could represent schools, health-providers, or any option located in a geographic space that the households could choose. The model depicts how households become aware of different options (i.e. how they form their awareness set). The model was implemented using the Netlogo multi-agent programmable modeling environment v.6.0.4

School enrollment model

The School Enrollment Model is a spatially-explicit computational model that depicts a city, with schools and households located within the space. The model represents the Chilean school system, a market-based educational system, where people are free to choose among public, private voucher, or unsubsidized private schools. In the model, households become aware of some schools, apply to schools, switch schools, pass or fail grade levels, and eventually either graduate or dropout. Schools select students, update their tuition, test scores, and other characteristics. The model was implemented using the Netlogo multi-agent programmable modeling environment v.6.0.4. It uses GIS data about schools, areas of the city (blocks or neighborhoods) and city boundaries as an input

konfound: Command to quantify robustness of causal inferences

Statistical methods that quantify the discourse about causal inferences in terms of possible sources of biases are becoming increasingly important to many social-science fields such as public policy, sociology, and education. These methods are also known as “robustness or sensitivity analyses”. A series of recent works (Frank [2000, Sociological Methods and Research 29: 147–194]; Pan and Frank [2003, Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics 28: 315– 337]; Frank and Min [2007, Sociological Methodology 37: 349–392]; and Frank et al. [2013, Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis 35: 437–460]) on robustness analysis extends earlier methods. We implement these recent developments in Stata. In particular, we provide commands to quantify the percent bias necessary to invalidate an inference from a Rubin causal model framework and the robustness of causal inferences in terms of correlations associated with unobserved variables

konfound: Command to quantify robustness of causal inferences

Statistical methods that quantify the discourse about causal inferences in terms of possible sources of biases are becoming increasingly important to many social-science fields such as public policy, sociology, and education. These methods are also known as “robustness or sensitivity analyses”. A series of recent works (Frank [2000, Sociological Methods and Research 29: 147–194]; Pan and Frank [2003, Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics 28: 315– 337]; Frank and Min [2007, Sociological Methodology 37: 349–392]; and Frank et al. [2013, Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis 35: 437–460]) on robustness analysis extends earlier methods. We implement these recent developments in Stata. In particular, we provide commands to quantify the percent bias necessary to invalidate an inference from a Rubin causal model framework and the robustness of causal inferences in terms of correlations associated with unobserved variables