Preface to Special Topic: Microfluidics in cell biology and tissue engineering

In this special issue of Biomicrofluidics, a wide variety of applications of microfluidics to tissue engineering and cell biology are presented. The articles illustrate the benefits of using microfluidics for controlling the cellular environment in a precise yet high rate manner using minimum reagents. The topic is very timely and takes a stab at portraying a glimpse of what is to come in this exciting and emerging field of research.     

Preface to Special Topic: Biological microfluidics in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine

In this special issue of Biomicrofluidics, many manifestations of biological microfluidics have been highlighted that have significance to regenerative biology and medicine. The collated articles demonstrate the applicability of these biological microfluidics for studying a wide range of biomedical problems most useful for understanding and shining light on basic biology to those applications relevant to clinical medicine.     

Innovation as co-evolution of scientific and technological networks: exploring tissue engineering

The question of exactly how science is commercialized is an important one. While the social structures of “science” and “technology” are distinctive, recent work suggests that scientific and technological ideas in fact co-evolve. This paper addresses the dynamics of such co-evolution: are scientific networks deeply co-mingled with networks through which technology is created and if so how? It does so in a study of an emerging area of biomedicine—tissue engineering. The research is based on a novel methodology that takes advantage of the fact that an idea is often inscribed in both a patent and paper, thus forming a patent–paper pair. Starting with the pair, it is possible to trace the citation network of patents, papers, inventors and authors, combining traditional bibliometric analysis with in-depth interviews to provide new insights. The results show that for this case there exist distinctive scientific and technological networks. Furthermore, while there is evidence of overlap, it is neither co-publishing nor citation as might be predicted from current literature. Rather co-mingling exists through founding, licensing, consulting and advising. This has implications for our understanding of the processes through which spillovers arise, the way in which commercialization and technology transfer should be structured and for recent debates on conflict of interest in biomedicine.     

Cell-enclosing gelatin-based microcapsule production for tissue engineering using a microfluidic flow-focusing system

Gelatin-based microcapsule production using a microfluidic system and the feasibility of the resultant microcapsules for constructing spherical tissues surrounded by heterogeneous cells were studied. The first cell-encapsulation and subsequent cell-enclosing microparticle encapsulation were achieved using a microfluidic flow-focusing droplet production system. A hollow-core structure of about 150 μm in diameter was developed by incubating the resultant microparticles at 37 °C, which induced thermal melting of the enclosed unmodified gelatin microparticles. Mammalian cells filled the hollow-cores after 4 days of incubation. A cell layer on the cell-enclosing microcapsules was developed by simply suspending the microcapsules in medium containing adherent fibroblast cells. This method may prove useful for the generation of gelatin microcapsules using a microfluidic system for formation of artificial tissue constructs.     

A socio-cognitive approach to innovation

This paper argues that case studies in innovation research at the level of the firm require an explicit model of how people think and act in organisations. The ‘socio-cognitive’ approach which is outlined here combines Weick's social psychological ideas with Teece's characterisation of the firm by its technological knowledge base. It is argued that a cognitive approach accommodates the tacit nature of technological knowledge well, and that artefacts can be considered as cognitive resources. A distinction is made between the social control of production technology (the firm) and of user technology (typically the market). This distinction is used as the basis for conceptualising technological innovation as the creation by individuals within the firm of ‘cognitive ensembles’ composed of cognitive elements drawn from both the technological base of the firm and market conceptions.This focus on the process by which innovation is generated within the firm leads to a brief discussion of previous work on the creative process and the relevance of the socio-cognitive approach to macro-level studies of technological change.     

我国高学历者失业的经济学解释

高学历者失业是近年来在我国社会中凸现的热点经济问题。高学历者失业对社会而言,不仅严重浪费整个社会人力资源,同时也严重遏制社会、企业与个人的人力资本投资积极性。本文立足于现代经济学的失业与人力资本理论,借助人力资本投资—贡献模型对我国高学历者失业及其根源进行深刻剖析;并提出了相应的治理措施。本文研究对于促进我国人力资本投资、高学历者就业及其效率提高都具有非常重要理论与现实意义。     

生产实习如何更好的服务于制药工程人才培养

分析了生产实习在制药工程专业人才培养中的重要作用以及客观存在的问题,并从实习基地建立、师资队伍培养和改善教学管理几方面进行了改进探讨,以切实提高生产实习质量,培养复合型的制药工程人才。     

如何培养土木工程专业学生的经济意识--浅谈工程经济学的数学

根据目前土木工程项目的特点和以及土木工程专业课程设置情况,就如何培养土木工程专业学生的经济意识、完善工程经济学的教学改革、切实解决教学中存在的问题提出了自己的看法,以期培养懂技术、会管理、重经济的具有综合素质的土木工程专业人才.     

A cognitive approach to science policy

Recent work in the social studies of science has emphasized the importance of studying both the social and cognitive aspects of the evolution of scientific specialties and disciplines. This has implications for science policies that aim at the direction of scientific fields toward external goals: the cognitive state and dynamics of the field have to be taken into acount. Such a cognitive approach to science policy has been elaborated by a number of German science scholars. The three-phase model of scientific developments and the finalization thesis of the Starnberg group is discussed, and the policy implications are critically reviewed. A group based in the University of Bielefeld has published case studies designed to trace the role of cognitive factors in explaining the impact of science policy programmes on scientific fields. It turns out that mutual adaptation processes occur in the course of formulating the programmes which reduce conflict and resistance. In conclusion, some perspectives for further work are noted.     

An information-pattern-based approach to novelty detection

In this paper, a new novelty detection approach based on the identification of sentence level information patterns is proposed. First, “novelty” is redefined based on the proposed information patterns, and several different types of information patterns are given corresponding to different types of users’ information needs. Second, a thorough analysis of sentence level information patterns is elaborated using data from the TREC novelty tracks, including sentence lengths, named entities (NEs), and sentence level opinion patterns. Finally, a unified information-pattern-based approach to novelty detection (ip-BAND) is presented for both specific NE topics and more general topics. Experiments on novelty detection on data from the TREC 2002, 2003 and 2004 novelty tracks show that the proposed approach significantly improves the performance of novelty detection in terms of precision at top ranks. Future research directions are suggested.     

Frequency-domain approach to robust PI control

The paper considers the problem of designing PI controllers for industrial processes approximated by a first-order time-delayed model. The suggested frequency-domain approach is based on a normalized open-loop transfer function and makes use of the loci of constant stability margins and other performance indices in the parameter space. In this way, it is possible to evaluate the effects of uncertainties in the process parameters and, thus, control system robustness. Some examples show how the procedure operates.     

A state space approach to elasticity

The two-dimensional, plane stress problem of linear elasticity is analyzed within a state space framework. The medium considered is homogeneous and isotropic. Vlasov's mixed formulation of elasticity is used throughout. The field equations are derived in closed form, thus avoiding Vlasov's intermediate infinite series solution. Finally, all the properties of the transfer matrix are shown to follow directly from embedding the problem into a state space setting.     

A systems-based approach to industry classification

I propose an alternative approach to industry classification that reflects the way in which firms self-organize into industries and sectors. The systems-based approach to industry classification takes the sector as the primary unit of analysis, defines a sector on the basis of similarity in needs to which firms collectively respond, and disaggregates sectors into subsectors and industries on the basis of recursive hierarchical dependency. The result is an approach to industry classification that reflects industry structure, reduces egregious cases of between-class homogeneity and within-class heterogeneity, and accommodates changes in technology. The approach is illustrated in a communications equipment subsector application.