Information, cooperation, and the blurring of boundaries – technology transfer in German and American discourses

The aim of this paper is to examine changing discursive conceptualizations of technology transfer mechanisms for speeding up innovation in Germany and the US since World War II with particular emphasis on universities. According to our analysis, the concepts of technology transfer are getting more and more complex, taking off from a linear model of innovation to a more complex model allowing for networking and entrepreneurial activities of the universities themselves. We suggest that the discourses in both countries can be framed employing three ideal-typical models: the information and documentation model, the cooperation model, and the blurring of boundaries model. In addition to these similarities, we also discuss differences that can be traced back to broader political cultures in which technology transfer is embedded. Both similarities and differences allow for a comparative perspective which is not limited to the countries analyzed here.     

Stellen Hochschultypen differenzielle Entwicklungsmilieus dar?

The German higher education system has three different types of universities. This study aims to investigate the effect of choosing one particular university type on central personality traits (vocational interests, vocational motives and the Big Five). Existing results clearly show that the individual types of universities recruit students with different backgrounds. Whether differential development during and after studies is determined by university type (i.e. socialization effects in a broader sense) or whether it denotes a consequence of pre-existing differences among students of the university types will, for the first time, be examined using propensity-score matching. To do this, data of a large longitudinal study in Baden-Wuerttemberg were used in order to compare 1568 students at traditional universities (Universit?ten), universities of applied sciences (Fachhochschulen), and universities of cooperative education (Berufsakademien) in their second, fourth and sixth year after university entrance examination. Socialisation effects were tested in propensity-score based parallelised sub-samples (N?=?622). Results show that differences between university types can mainly be explained with selection effects and that the effects of attendance at the university types itself were hardly differential.     

Multiple summation inequalities and their application to stability analysis of discrete-time delay systems

This paper is devoted to stability analysis of discrete-time delay systems based on a set of Lyapunov–Krasovskii functionals. New multiple summation inequalities are derived that involve the famous discrete Jensen?s and Wirtinger?s inequalities, as well as the recently presented inequalities for single and double summation in [16]. The present paper aims at showing that the proposed set of sufficient stability conditions can be arranged into a bidirectional hierarchy of LMIs establishing a rigorous theoretical basis for the comparison of conservatism of the investigated methods. Numerical examples illustrate the efficiency of the method.     

Focus of attention and choice of text modality in multimedia learning

The term ‘modality effect’ in multimedia learning means that students learn better from pictures combined with spoken rather than written text. The most prominent explanations refer to the split attention between visual text reading and picture observation which could affect transfer of information into working memory, maintenance of information in working memory or the effective size of working memory. The assumption of a continuous need for split attention is questionable, however. Learners can keep pictorial information in working memory, when they have seen the picture before, especially if they have higher prior knowledge. Instead of suffering from a permanent split attention, learners frequently show tendencies to simply ignore pictures. This suggests guiding learners towards picture analysis by picture-related text paragraphs. We assume that these paragraphs are associated with stronger modality effects than content-related paragraphs, especially if the pictures are new to learners. These assumptions were tested in an experiment with 120 students learning about volcanism from illustrated text consisting of segments each including a content-related paragraph followed by a picture-related paragraph describing the accompanying visualization. Content-related and picture-related paragraphs were presented as visual or auditory texts leading to 2x2 conditions of text presentation. Picture novelty was manipulated by presenting a picture throughout the whole segment or only when the picture-related paragraph was read. As expected, picture-related paragraphs were associated with stronger modality effects than content-related paragraphs if picture novelty is high. The distinction between different kinds of paragraphs seems to be important for the prediction of modality effects.     

Hardness measurement of natural and hybrid turf soccer fields

Understanding the surface hardness of soccer fields is essential to evaluate the risk of injury and also its influence on the playing behavior of soccer players. In this context, newly developed hybrid turf systems have to be tested for their surface hardness with regard to the increased risk of injury on hard sports surfaces. The hardness of a soccer field can be quantitatively measured using an apparatus with a cylindrical weight that is dropped from a defined height. Since this procedure was first used for road construction, there are few studies investigating its use on sports grounds. This has led to inconsistencies in methodology and the absence of evaluation guidelines for classifying the hardness of soccer fields. This paper considers how turf systems (natural turf and hybrid turf) differ in their hardness and how this method can be used for different soccer turf systems. Natural turf systems, stitched turf systems, hybrid turf-bearing layer systems and woven mat systems were investigated. The assessment results from a comparative representation of hardness values of different soccer fields. By comparison, natural turf systems were found to be the softest, while woven mat systems were the hardest. Furthermore, the parameters that might affect the hardness were investigated. The influence of the measured soil parameters decreases with an increasing number of measurements per measuring point. Turf system-specific correlations make it possible to reduce the amount of measurement effort.