Show me the money: the impact of funding on entrepreneurship education at German universities

This article examines the current characteristics of Entrepreneurship Education (EE) at German universities. We first assess the degree of alignment between course objectives and corresponding contents on an individual course level. As a result, we find a low degree of alignment. In the second part of our analysis we show that the German universities in our sample predominantly use internal funds for their EE courses (75%), followed by external state funding (12%) which mostly stems from German federal sources. Moreover, a third of the sample shows a funding mix, with the majority attracting half of their budget from one or two external sources. In the final part of our analysis we assess the implication of the funding type on the design of EE and are able to show characteristic course profiles for two funding types. Overall, this article demonstrates that types of funding are key drivers for EE design, a fact that hitherto has not been accounted for

Product Life Cycle Risk Management

Every new product coming to the market usually brings with a certain amount of doubt concerning the likelihood of its success. In particular, hidden problems and risks which might appear later in the product’s service life could cause producers’ difficulties, costing them a lot of money. This might even result in product phaseout and a consequent loss of the company’s reputation. Hence, it is necessary to manage all product risks. Unfortunately, no comprehensive methodology, managing the entire product life cycle, has been developed so far. This paper presents a new risk management methodology that covers the entire product life cycle. The product life cycle and its management have become a present standard and an important element of the information structure of modern enterprises. A product life cycle comprises several phases; this helps make risk management easier because it is feasible to manage risk for each phase separately. Generally, this phase structure creates a closed and unceasing rotation of risk management tasks and is an important element in universal process improvement. The methodology is focused on prioritizing risks according to the customer’s needs and requirements. It can be applied to a large number of different products and industries

Risk Management to Enhance Performance in the Construction SME Sector; Theory and Case Study

Dynamic changes and increasing competition in global markets have caused changes in the management of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Due to this fact, many SME companies try to implement different methods for strategy and operation management, quality and improvement management, risk management, etc. But the problem is the efficiency and implementation of these methods in the SME company. One way to achieve higher efficiency is the integration of management methods, meaning the combination of performance management with quality, process and risk management. This approach is also recommended in the ISO standards for quality. It was reflected in a new revision of the ISO 9001 standards in the year 2015. Performance can be described by the financial and non-financial key performance indicators (KPI), covering the cost, quality and time indicators that have been implemented in the balanced scorecard framework (BSC). The aim of this chapter is to present a methodological framework, which leads to the integration of the key performance indicators (KPI) in relation to the key risk indicators (KRI), which may affect the KPIs and overall SME performance. This framework combines a process analysis and modelling with risk and qualitative or quantitative risk assessment techniques. The case study describes its practical implementation and the verification of the designed framework. The results of this research will help to build an effective management system for performance and risk management and quality management for the business processes of SMEs

Whole carcass diets: a role for fibre in gastrointestinal health of cheetahs?

This study was undertaken to test the hypothesis that altered podocyte slit protein nephrin distribution is associated with disturbed polarity protein expressions in podocytes from preeclampsia (PE). We examined expressions and distributions of nephrin, podoplanin, polarity protein partitioning defective-3 (PARD-3), and PARD-6 in podocytes from PE. Podocyte cell line (AB 8/13 cells) was used as control. Podocytes were found in all severe PE cases. In contrast, no podocyte was found in the samples from normal pregnancies and mild PE. Compared to control cells, nephrin, PARD-3 and PARD-6 expressions were reduced or lost in podocytes from severe PE. Podoplanin was expressed in podocyte surface membrane on control cells but reduced in podocytes from PE. These findings indicate that loss of slit protein nephrin and polarity protein PARD-3 and PARD-6 on foot processes could explain for podocyte detachment from glomerular basement membrane and lead to podocyte shedding in PE. © The Author(s) 2011.link_to_subscribed_fulltex

Examples of Global and Regional Laws and Policies Relevant to Addressing the Potential Impacts of Climate Change and Ocean Acidification

Laws and policies relevant to the potential impacts of climate change and ocean acidification on marine species and coastal communities appear at the global and regional level, as well as the national level (see Annex 6)

Cholestyramine treatment in two dogs with presumptive bile acid diarrhoea: a case report

Background: In people, bile acid diarrhoea is a prevalent complication of Crohn’s disease and diarrhoea- associated irritable bowel syndrome. Affected patients typically respond to bile acid sequestrants, such as cholestyramine, but human gastroenterologists often fail to recognize bile acid diarrhoea. Consequently, bile acid diarrhoea is regarded as an underrecognized and undertreated condition in human medicine. Due to lack of diagnostic tools, clinical response to bile acid sequestrants is often used to confirm a diagnosis of bile acid diarrhoea in people. Several recent studies have shown that bile acid dysmetabolism also occurs in dogs with chronic enteropathies. It has further been shown that dogs with chronic enteropathies have significantly decreased expression of a bile acid transport protein in the ileum compared to healthy dogs, which correlates with faecal bile acid dysmetabolism. Consequently, in spite of the lack of reports in the literature, bile acid diarrhoea is likely to exist in dogs as well. Case descriptions: Two dogs, an 8-year old Rottweiler and a 4.5-year old Siberian Husky were evaluated for chronic watery diarrhoea. Neither dog responded to dietary trials, probiotics, cyclosporine, faecal microbial transplantations or metronidazole. One of the dogs responded to high daily doses of corticosteroids, which were however associated with unacceptable side effects. The other dog was refractory to all standard treatment protocols, including cyclosporine and corticosteroids. Since none of the dogs responded satisfactorily to standard treatment or modulation of the intestinal microbiome, a suspicion of possible bile acid diarrhoea was raised. Treatment with cholestyramine, a bile acid sequestrant was initiated and resulted in marked improvement of faecal consistency, frequency of defecation and activity level in both dogs. Conclusion: This report presents two dogs with presumed bile acid diarrhoea that were successfully treated with cholestyramine. Therefore, bile acid diarrhoea should be considered as a possible diagnosis in dogs with treatment-refractory chronic diarrhoea. Keywords: Bile acids, Diarrhoea, Dog, CholestyraminePeer reviewe

Spontaneous fluctuations of transition dipole moment orientation in OLED triplet emitters

The efficiency of an organic light-emitting diode (OLED) depends on the microscopic orientation of transition dipole moments of the molecular emitters. The most effective materials used for light generation have threefold symmetry, which prohibit a priori determination of dipole orientation due to the degeneracy of the fundamental transition. Single-molecule spectroscopy reveals that the model triplet emitter tris(2-phenylisoquinoline)iridium(III) (Ir(piq)3) does not behave as a linear dipole, radiating with lower polarization anisotropy than expected. Spontaneous symmetry breaking occurs in the excited state, leading to a random selection of one of the three ligands to form a charge transfer state with the metal. This non-deterministic localization is revealed in switching of the degree of linear polarization of phosphorescence. Polarization scrambling likely raises out-coupling efficiency and should be taken into account when deriving molecular orientation of the guest emitter within the OLED host from ensemble angular emission profiles