Narrating commercialisation: Swedish university researchers and outreach

This paper is a qualitative study of commercialisation activities in Swedish universities from the perspective of researchers. Our goal is twofold: (i) to elucidate researchers’ understanding of the meaning of concept of commercialisation and (ii) their reasons for engaging in this activity. By providing insight into researchers understanding and rationale for engaging in commercialisation activities, we hope to contribute to deepening understanding of commercialisation and ultimately improving practice. Our findings are that there is a significant amount of activity with respect commercialisation of research taking place within the Swedish universities studied. We found that contrary to the received view which has it that the social sciences and the humanities are also involved in commercialisation activities although researchers in this part of the academy rarely reported themselves as engaging in the commercialisation. We also found that regardless of disciplinary background, firm formation is the aspect of commercialisation to which researchers are most ambivalent.Commercialisation, humanities, social science, firm formation, third stream, outreach

Merle G. Chadbourne Correspondence

Entries include a newspaper obituary clipping and letters of correspondence from the Maine State Library

Postgraduate Spotlights:Using a Community of Inquiry approach to enhance student engagement in geographical higher education

While the majority of pedagogical practice has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, the teaching of geographical research skills has been especially difficult with the loss of fieldwork and practical applications. Furthermore, the move to online teaching has diminished the learning communities in face-to-face classrooms. In an attempt to counteract these issues, this paper reflects on a learning activity in an undergraduate geographical research methods course, ‘Postgraduate Spotlights’ where two postgraduate researchers presented their specialist research methods followed by an interactive question-and-answer session with the undergraduates. We (as postgraduates, undergraduates and teaching staff) found that the open and critical discussion in the workshop fostered a Community of Inquiry that encouraged engagement from students stimulating their curiosity about geographical research methods. Through our discussion, we demonstrate the importance of having postgraduate researchers involved in teaching, as Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs) given their liminal role of researcher-learner. We also emphasise the importance of letting the students lead their own learning, building a Community of Inquiry across academic stages, and creating a constructive dialogue around geographical research methods. While the reproducibility of the workshop face-to-face remains to be seen, this article emphasises the potential for applying such an approach to stimulate free-flowing discussion and ultimately promote a Community of Inquiry

The Hydration Structure at Yttria-Stabilized Cubic Zirconia (110)-Water Interface with Sub-Angstrom Resolution

The interfacial hydration structure of yttria-stabilized cubic zirconia (110) surface in contact with water was determined with ~0.5 Å resolution by high-resolution X-ray reflectivity measurement. The terminal layer shows a reduced electron density compared to the following substrate lattice layers, which indicates there are additional defects generated by metal depletion as well as intrinsic oxygen vacancies, both of which are apparently filled by water species. Above this top surface layer, two additional adsorbed layers are observed forming a characteristic interfacial hydration structure. The first adsorbed layer shows abnormally high density as pure water and likely includes metal species, whereas the second layer consists of pure water. The observed interfacial hydration structure seems responsible for local equilibration of the defective surface in water and eventually regulating the long-term degradation processes. The multitude of water interactions with the zirconia surface results in the complex but highly ordered interfacial structure constituting the reaction front.ope

Time‐dependent antiarrhythmic effects of flecainide on induced atrial fibrillation in horses

Background, Objective: Pharmacological treatment of atrial fibrillation (AF) in horses can be challenging because of low efficacy and adverse effects. Flecainide has been tested with variable efficacy. To test whether the efficacy of flecainide is dependent on AF duration. Animals and Methods: Nine Standardbred mares. Factorial study design. All horses were instrumented with a pacemaker and assigned to a control or an AF group. On day 0, all horses were in sinus rhythm and received 2 mg/kg flecainide IV. Atrial fibrillation subsequently was induced in the AF group by pacemaker stimulation. On days 3, 9, 27, and 55, flecainide was administered to all horses, regardless of heart rhythm. Results: Conclusions and Clinical ImportanceAll horses in AF cardioverted to sinus rhythm on days 3 and 9. On day 27, 5/6 horses cardioverted, whereas only 2/6 cardioverted on day 55. The time from the start of flecainide infusion to cardioversion (range, 3-185min, log transformed) showed linear correlation with the cumulative duration of AF (r(2)=.80, P<.0001). Flecainide induced abnormal QRS complexes in 4/6 AF horses and 1/3 controls. A positive correlation was found between heart rate before flecainide infusion and number of abnormal QRS complexes (0.14, P<.05). One horse suffered from cardiac arrest and died after flecainide infusion. Flecainide is effective for cardioversion of short-term induced AF, but the effect decreases with AF duration. Controlling heart rate may minimize adverse effects caused by flecainide, but the drug should be used with great caution