Problem solving and classical genetics: Successful versus unsuccessful performance

Expert-novice problem-solving research is extended in this study to include classical genetics. Eleven undergraduates (novices) and nine graduate students and instructors (experts) were videotaped as they solved moderately complex genetics problems. Detailed analysis of these “think aloud” protocols resulted in 32 common tendencies that could be used to differentiate between successful and unsuccessful problem solvers. Experts perceive a problem as a task requiring analysis and reasoning and they tend to use a knowledge-development (forward-working) approach. They make frequent checks on the correctness of their work, use accurate and detailed bookkeeping procedures, and have a broader range of heuristics to apply to the problem. It is clear that studying problem solving using the expert/novice design requires that the problems be difficult enough to require more than more recall and yet simple enough to allow novices a chance for solution. Applying elementary probability concepts seemed to be the most difficult aspect of many of the genetics problems, even for the experts.     

Mitigation of Blast Effects on Aluminum Foam Protected Masonry Walls

Terrorist attacks using improvised explosive devices (IED) can result in unreinforced ma-sonry (URM) wall collapse. Protecting URM wall from IED attack is very complicated. An effective solution to mitigate blast effects on URM wall is to retrofit URM walls with metallic foam sheets to absorb blast energy. However, mitigation of blast effects on metallic foam protected URM walls is currently in their infancy in the world. In this paper, numerical models are used to simulate the per-formance of aluminum foam protected URM walls subjected to blast loads. A distinctive model, in which mortar and brick units of masonry are discritized individually, is used to model the perform-ance of masonry and the contact between the masonry and steel face-sheet of aluminum foam is modelled using the interface element model. The aluminum foam is modelled by a nonlinear elas-toplastic material model. The material models for masonry, aluminum foam and interface are then coded into a finite element program LS-DYNA3D to perform the numerical calculations of response and damage of aluminum foam protected URM walls under airblast loads. Discussion is made on the effectiveness of the aluminum foam protected system for URM wall against blast loads.     

Resources, capabilities, risk capital and the creation of university spin-out companies

The commercialization of university research has become an increasingly important issue, given concerns regarding licensing and the university's desire to maximize the returns to intellectual property (IP). In this paper, we assess the impact of university resources and routines/capabilities on the creation of spin-out companies. We find that both the number of spin-out companies created and the number of spin-out companies created with equity investment are significantly positively associated with expenditure on intellectual property protection, the business development capabilities of technology transfer offices and the royalty regime of the university. These results highlight the importance not just of resource stocks, but also of developing appropriate capabilities of technology transfer officers in spinning-out companies. The results suggest that universities and policy-makers need to devote attention to the training and recruitment of technology officers with the broad base of commercial skills.