Incubators

The CCU and Incubator are habitats under development by SSBRP for gravitational biology research on ISS. They will accommodate multiple specimen types and reside in either Habitat Holding Racks, or the Centrifuge Rotor, which provides selectable gravity levels of up to 2 g. The CCU can support multiple Cell Specimen Chambers, CSCs (18, 9 or 6 CSCs; 3, 10 or 30 mL in volume, respectively). CSCs are temperature controlled from 4-39 degrees C, with heat shock to 45 degrees C. CCU provides automated nutrient supply, magnetic stirring, pH/O2 monitoring, gas supply, specimen lighting, and video microscopy. Sixty sample containers holding up to 2 mL each, stored at 4-39 degrees C, are available for automated cell sampling, subculture, and injection of additives and fixatives. CSCs, sample containers, and fresh/spent media bags are crew-replaceable for long-term experiments. The Incubator provides a 4-45 degrees C controlled environment for life science experiments or storage of experimenta...

The world is changing at an ever increasingly rate. Corporations are in a constant race to optimize cost structures, and reinvest just enough of their profits to maximize shareholder value. The field of entrepreneurship is also rapidly becoming more agile and sophisticated, in areas of web and mobile – with Silicon Valley taking the lead in this development.
Universities play a crucial role as an innovation promoting knowledge hub, and have been improving its function in this role through boundary-expanding initiatives, as they started to take an active role in improving the underlying dynamics of entrepreneurship to achieve stronger economic development.
Private incubators programs like Y Combinator and 500 Startups have with their success in fostering entrepreneurship spurred interest for replicating their value at the university level. Doing a successful startup might seem like daunting task to accomplish, especially considering that once disrupting technologies like the Internet have now reached a mature level – and the expected quality level before launch are continuously reaching new heights.
This report will explain the importance of incubators, and how they facilitate the process of allowing knowledge to be commercialized through entrepreneurship - which creates higher economic growth, as much of this knowledge might never have been commercialized without a surrounding ecosystem.

Keywords
Innovation, Cluster, Knowledge Hub, Knowledge Governance, Incubators, Venture Capital, Entrepreneurship, Social Entrepreneurship, Business Development, Capitalism, Economic Growth

The world is changing at an ever increasingly rate. Corporations are in a constant race to optimize cost structures, and reinvest just enough of their profits to maximize shareholder value. The field of entrepreneurship is also rapidly becoming more agile and sophisticated, in areas of web and mobile – with Silicon Valley taking the lead in this development. But in this extreme rush to become the best, the cheapest, the biggest or the company with the most sought-after brand – we don’t stop and question if all this effort leads to economic growth.
As the economy is struggling, it becomes apparent that we have some fundamental economic structural problems. Yet again, we look towards Entrepreneurship for solutions.
Private incubator programs like Y Combinator and 500 Startups have with their success in fostering entrepreneurship served as inspiration for similar models. Doing a successful startup might seem like daunting task to accomplish, especially considering that once disrupting technologies like the Internet have now reached a mature level – and the necessary preparations to meet expectations before launch are continuously reaching new heights.
This paper seek to explain how accepting institutional capital will eventually lead to a competitive disadvantage for web and mobile internet companies with low capital requirements, and how Networked Social Enterprise Incubators can through innovative cost management, synergies and economies of scale – can lead to greater societal equality and broad economic growth.


Keywords
Incubators, Social Entrepreneurship, Economic Growth, Innovation, Venture Capital, Capitalism, Business Development, Knowledge Hub

To test the hypothesis that a gel mattress is most effective in attenuating mechanical vibration in neonatal transport, we performed a randomized block study of four mattress combinations (none, foam, gel, gel on foam) using mannequins and an ambulance traveling on fixed routes (city, highway). Mechanical vibration was assessed by measuring vertical accelerations at two locations: the forehead of a 2000-gm mannequin and the transport incubator base. From time histories of these accelerations, root mean square (RMS) values and power spectral density functions were calculated. The effect of the mattress on the transmission of vibration was determined from ratios of the RMS values at the two locations. An RMS ratio of < 1.0 indicates attenuation, whereas a ratio of > 1.0 indicates accentuation of vibration. From the power spectral density functions, the natural frequency of the system was determined for each mattress combination in relation to the natural frequencies of the ambulance. To determine the effect of the weight of the mannequin on vibration, additional measurements were performed using a 300-gm mannequin. All the observed RMS ratios were > 1. The highest ratios were observed on the city route in the absence of the gel mattress. The gel mattress, used alone or with the foam mattress, in contrast to foam or no mattress, shifted the natural frequency of the system away from the natural frequencies of the ambulance, avoiding a large amplification of vibration. A decrease in the weight of the mannequin caused the gel mattress to be less effective in attenuating vibration. A gel mattress, used alone or with a foam mattress, results in the least accentuation of vibration, but vibration in ambulance transport is not attenuated by any of the mattress combinations. The hazard of vibration may be particularly relevant when transporting extremely low birth weight neonates. These findings indicate a need for study and design of more effective devices that can reduce the vibratory stress.

Around the optimal incubator air tempera- ture only small spatiotemporal deviations are allowed. However, air speed and air temperature are not uniformly distributed in the total volume of the incubator due to obstruction of the eggs and egg trays. The objectives of this research were (1) to quantify the spatiotemporal gra- dients in temperature and velocity and (2) to develop

Two peaks of embryo mortality have been identified during incubation of chicken eggs (the first and the final phases of incubation), and both are linked to egg turning. Turning in the first week enables proper formation of extra-embryonic membrane and in the final week avoids embryo malpositioning. The hatchability of the eggs, however, may depend on physiological parameters (e.g., hormone levels or gas pressures) that turning may influence to ensure proper embryo development and survival. It is not clear how long turning should continue during this second phase to ensure these conditions, but it is general practice to turn eggs until 18 d. This study describes the effects of turning chicken eggs for different durations during the last days of incubation on embryo physiological parameters that may be linked to embryo survival, hatchability, and broiler posthatch performance. Cobb eggs were incubated for 21 d under standard incubation conditions but with varying turning durations. Eggs were turned until 12, 15, or 18 d and left in a horizontal position until transferred to hatcher baskets on the 19th day. Blood samples from embryos were analyzed for corticosterone at d 15, d 18, internal pipping (IP), and hatch. Triiodothyronine (T3) and thyroxine (T4) were measured at IP and at hatch. Partial pressures of CO2 (pCO2) and O2 (PO2) in the air cell were measured at d 18 and at IP stage. Hatchability of fertile eggs, incubation duration, weights of 1-d-old chicks, chick quality, and their growth potential determined as absolute weight and relative growth (RG) to d 7 were recorded. Corticosterone levels increased in all treatments with embryo age until hatch, but there were no significant differences among treatments. Eggs turned until 18 d had higher pCO2 and lower PO2 at IP than those turned for 12 or 15 d. T3 and T4 were higher at IP in eggs turned for 18 d compared with the other two groups in which T3 and T4 were not different. T3/T4 ratio in 1-d-old chicks was also lower in eggs turned until 18 d. Incubation duration, and weights of 1-d-old chicks were similar for all treatments groups. Hatchability and percentage of high quality chicks were lower for eggs turned for 15 d compared to the 2 other groups, which were not different. However, 7-d-old weights and RG decreased with increasing duration of egg turning. We concluded that although turning until 18 d benefited hatchability and chick quality, it depressed potential posthatch performance of the chick to 7 d of age.

Traditional mussel culture in the Wadden Sea, southern North Sea, is carried out by taking seed mussels of about 1–4 cm shell length from natural beds and transplanting them to permanently water covered sites. Besides the damage done to the natural beds, the ratio of seeded to ...

Governments play a basic role in making policies, programs and instruments that support the development of micro, small and medium enterprises in both developed and developing countries. This paper intends to pinpoint the influencing factors in Technology Business Incubator's effectiveness and their explanatory model. Therefore, among 56 Technology Business Incubators in Iran, 32 active incubators were selected and by stratified random sampling, 528 start-ups were chosen. The validity of research questionnaires was determines by expert consensus, item analysis and factor analysis; and their reliability calculated by Cronbachs' alpha. Data analyses were made through statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS) and linear structural relations (LISREL) soft wares. Both organizational procedures and entrepreneurial behaviors were the meaningful mediators. Organizational procedures with (P < 0.01, β =0.46) was stronger mediator for the improvement of Technology Business ...

The lifespan of an acute brain slice is approximately 6-12 hours, limiting potential experimentation time. We have designed a new recovery incubation system capable of extending their lifespan to more than 36 hours. This system controls the temperature of the incubated artificial cerebral spinal fluid (aCSF) while continuously passing the fluid through a UVC filtration system and simultaneously monitoring temperature and pH. The combination of controlled temperature and UVC filtering maintains bacteria levels in the lag phase and leads to the dramatic extension of the brain slice lifespan. Brain slice viability was validated through electrophysiological recordings as well as live/dead cell assays. This system benefits researchers by monitoring incubation conditions and standardizing this artificial environment. It further provides viable tissue for two experimental days, reducing the time spent preparing brain slices and the number of animals required for research.

The effect of either hot or cool brooding litter temperature on feed consumption, BW, and mortality of broiler chicks that had been exposed to either normal or high temperature during latter stages of incubation was studied in 2 experiments. The duration of experiments 1 and 2 was 14 and 21 d, respectively, with BW and feed consumption determined at 2, 5, 7, and 14 d of age in experiment 1 and at 7, 14, and 21 d of age in experiment 2. High incubator temperature after embryonic d 16 decreased chick feed consumption and BW at all ages in both experiments. Hot brooding litter temperature increased feed consumption at 2 and 5 d in experiment 1 and at 7 d in experiment 2 but decreased feed consumption at 14 and 21 d in experiment 2. Feed consumption was also influenced by the incubation temperature x brooding litter temperature interaction. From 0 to 2 d or 0 to 7 d in experiments 1 and 2, respectively, the highest to lowest feed consumption was exhibited by the normal-hot, high-hot, no...

BioServe Space Technologies, a NASA Research Partnership Center (RPC), has developed and operated various middeck payloads launched on 23 shuttle missions since 1991 in support of commercial space biotechnology projects. Modular cell culture systems are contained within the Commercial Generic Bioprocessing Apparatus (CGBA) suite of flight-qualified hardware, compatible with Space Shuttle, SPACEHAB, Spacelab and International Space Station (ISS) EXPRESS Rack interfaces. As part of the CGBA family, the Isothermal Containment Module (ICM) incubator provides thermal control, data acquisition and experiment manipulation capabilities, including accelerometer launch detection for automated activation and thermal profiling for culture incubation and sample preservation. The ICM can accommodate up to 8 individually controlled temperature zones. Command and telemetry capabilities allow real-time downlink of data and video permitting remote payload operation and ground control synchronization....

Governments play a basic role in making policies, programs and instruments that support the development of micro, small and medium enterprises in both developed and developing countries. This paper intends to pinpoint the influencing factors in Technology Business Incubator’s effectiveness and their explanatory model. Therefore, among 56 Technology Business Incubators in Iran, 32 active incubators were selected and by stratified random sampling, 528 start-ups were chosen. The validity of research questionnaires was determines by expert consensus, item analysis and factor analysis; and their reliability calculated by Cronbachs' alpha. Data analysis was then made through statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS) and linear structural relations (LISREL) soft wares. Both organizational procedures and entrepreneurial behaviors were the meaningful mediators. Organizational procedures with (P < 0.01, β =0.46) was stronger mediator for the improvement of Technology Business ...

Monitoring morphogenetic processes, at high resolution over time, has been a long-standing goal of many developmental cell biologists. It is critical to image cells in their natural environment whenever possible; however, imaging many warm-blooded vertebrates, especially mammals, is problematic. At early stages of development, birds are ideal for imaging, since the avian body plan is very similar to that of mammals. We have devised a culturing technique that allows for the acquisition of high-resolution differential interference contrast and epifluorescence images of developing avian embryos in a 4-D (3-D + time) system. The resulting information, from intact embryos, is derived from an area encompassing several millimeters, at micrometer resolution for up to 30 h.