Spin-outs

The subject of this report is spin-outs in the Netherlands compared to those in the Cambridge area. The differences between the two areas have been found to be fewer than expected. The same type of initiatives are to be found in both areas, and the same type of problems are also encountered in both areas In general it seems that it would be advisable for universities to have spin-out stimulation added to the performance criteria to help the better facilitation of spin-outs.

From Common Framework to measurement and analysis

Chapter 11 of: Deliverable D1.1: Report on Institutions, Social Innovation & System Dynamics from the Perspective of the Marginalised

Financial and monetary innovations for overcoming social exclusion. The financing of generalised education (as instanced in the Netherlands and England). (= Case 2 of: Evidence base of three comprehensive case studies following a common template. A deliverable of the project: “Creating Economic Space for Social Innovation” (CRESSI).

Case 2 of: Evidence base of three comprehensive case studies following a common template. Part of Deliverable D2.1 of the FP-7 Project: CRESSI (613261)

Amyloid and tau in the brain in sporadic Alzheimer's disease: defining the chicken and the egg

In the October 2013 issue of Acta Neuropathologica there were three very interesting articles on: Amyloid or tau: the chicken or the egg? In the first article, David Mann and John Hardy argued that the deposition of aggregated amyloid β (Aβ) protein in the brain is a primary driving force behind the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease with tau pathology following as a consequential or at least a secondary event. In the communication that followed, Braak and Del Tredici presented the contrary argument with accumulation of tau protein as the primary event in sporadic Alzheimer’s disease. Attems and Jellinger questioned the concept of a chicken and egg and suggested that the majority of cases of age-associated dementia are not caused by one single primary pathological mechanism

Comparative evaluation of protective coatings and focused ion beam chemical vapor deposition processes

Dual-beam instruments incorporate both an electron column and an ion column into a single instrument, and therefore allow the chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process to be either ion- or electron-beam assisted. Damage has been observed in the surface layers of specimens in which ion-beam assisted CVD processes have been employed. Cross-section transmission electron microscopy (TEM) has been used to compare (100) Si substrates on which Pt metal lines have been grown by ion- and electron-beam assisted CVD processes. The micrographs show that a 30 keV Ga+ ion beam, a 5 keV ion beam, and a 3 keV electron beam imparts 50 nm, 13 nm, and 3 nm of damage to the Si substrate, respectively. In addition, Au-Pd and Cr sputter coatings were evaluated for the prevention of ion-beam induced surface damage. TEM cross-section specimens revealed that Cr sputter coatings \u3e 30 nm in thickness are sufficient to protect the (100) Si surface from the 30 keV Ga+ ion beam while Au-Pd sputter coatings up to 70 nm in thickness may be discontinuous and, therefore, will not protect surface regions from ion beam damage. (C) 2002 American Vacuum Society

Faces do not capture special attention in children with autism spectrum disorder: a change blindness study

Two experiments investigated attention of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) to faces and objects. In both experiments, children (7- to 15-year-olds) detected the difference between 2 visual scenes. Results in Experiment 1 revealed that typically developing children (n = 16) detected the change in faces faster than in objects, whereas children with ASD (n = 16) were equally fast in detecting changes in faces and objects. These results were replicated in Experiment 2 (n = 16 in children with ASD and 22 in typically developing children), which does not require face recognition skill. Results suggest that children with ASD lack an attentional bias toward others' faces, which could contribute to their atypical social orienting

Visual enhancement of touch and the bodily self

We experience our own body through both touch and vision. We further see that others’ bodies are similar to our own body, but we have no direct experience of touch on others’ bodies. Therefore, relations between vision and touch are important for the sense of self and for mental representation of one’s own body. For example, seeing the hand improves tactile acuity on the hand, compared to seeing a non-hand object. While several studies have demonstrated this visual enhancement of touch (VET) effect, its relation to the ‘bodily self’, or mental representation of one’s own body remains unclear. We examined whether VET is an effect of seeing a hand, or of seeing my hand, using the rubber hand illusion. In this illusion, a prosthetic hand which is brushed synchronously—but not asynchronously—with one’s own hand is felt to actually be one’s hand. Thus, we manipulated whether or not participants felt like they were looking directly at their hand, while holding the actual stimulus they viewed constant. Tactile acuity was measured by having participants judge the orientation of square-wave gratings. Two characteristic effects of VET were observed: (1) cross-modal enhancement from seeing the hand was inversely related to overall tactile acuity, and (2) participants near sensory threshold showed significant improvement following synchronous stroking, compared to asynchronous stroking or no stroking at all. These results demonstrate a clear functional relation between the bodily self and basic tactile perception