Fibronectin Adsorption on Osteoconductive Hydroxyapatite and Non-osteoconductive α-alumina

The osteoconductivity mechanism of hydroxyapatite (HAp) has not been elucidated. It is hypothesized that specific proteins adsorb on HAp, promoting its osteoconductivity. To verify this hypothesis, we compared the adsorption behavior of fibronectin (Fn) on HAp powder and on α-alumina (α-Al2O3) powder, a material with no osteoconductivity. More Fn adsorbed on α-Al2O3 than on HAp, irrespective of the Fn concentration, and there was no significant difference in the secondary structure of Fn adsorbed on HAp and α-Al2O3. Further, it is possible that Fn did not adsorb on HAp and α-Al2O3 through the Arg-Gry-Asp motif of Fn. The amount of Fn adsorbed on HAp oriented to the a(b)-axis with very little decrease in carbonate and the adsorbed Fn had a smaller α-helix structure content. The results suggest that the secondary and/or higher-order structure rather than the amount of adsorbed Fn might affect the osteoconductivity of HAp, which might be electrostatically controlled by the crystal face orientation and/or carbonate content of HAp, although this should be confirmed by a cell culture test in the future

日本の産学連携を活用した科学技術・イノベーション政策

Scientific research is a process that generates new knowledge, which can be deployed in the industry to create innovation and become an engine of economic growth. In Japan, the Basic Law on Science and Technology was enacted in 1995, and the system was transformed to create an innovation policy with a view to everything from university research to industrialization.This paper outlines the policies for innovation creation from the 1995 Basic Law on Science and Technology to the 5th Science and Technology Basic Plan, and analyzes the environment surrounding innovation in Japan from data from the NISTEP Science and Technology Indicators 2019 (NISTEP, 2019) and the White Paper on Science and Technology (MEXT, 2019). While there is an upward trend in the joint research budgets of universities and companies and also the number of university-launched ventures, the global share of the number of highly cited papers is on the decline. Improving the research environment and resources in universities was identified as a challenge.If industry-academia collaboration encourages only research that is useful for solving immediate problems with an awareness of practical application and commercialization, a variety of knowledge will not be accumulated in the long term, and this may be a factor that hinders the creation of innovation. The presentation of the Society 5.0 concept in the 5th Science and Technology Basic Plan can be seen as an effort to change the policy stance on innovation by presenting a vision of the future and the direction of research and development rather than the immediate issues.科学研究は新たな知識を生み出すプロセスであり、産業に展開してイノベーションを創出することで経済成長のエンジンとなる。日本では1995年に科学技術基本法が成立し、大学での研究から産業化までを視野に入れたイノベーション政策を打ち出す体制へと変わった。本稿では、1995年の科学技術基本法から、第5期科学技術基本計画までのイノベーション創出に向けた政策を概観し、NISTEP科学技術指標2019(NISTEP,2019)や科学技術白書(MEXT,2019)のデータから日本のイノベーションを取り巻く環境の分析を行った。大学と企業の共同研究予算や大学発ベンチャーの創業数には増加傾向が見られる一方で、高被引用論文数の世界シェアは低下傾向にある。大学における研究環境・資源の改善が課題であることが明らかとなった。実用化・商品化を意識して直近の課題解決に役立つ研究だけを推奨する産学連携では、長期的に多様な知識が蓄積されなくなり、イノベーション創出を妨げる要因にもなりうる。第5期科学技術基本計画においてSociety 5.0の概念が示されたことは、直近の課題ではなく未来のビジョンと研究開発の方向性を示すことで、イノベーションに対する政策のスタンスを変える取組みと考えられる。This research was supported by the JST-RISTEX Science of Science, Technology and Innovation Policy "Star Scientists and Innovation in Japan". and KAKENHI (18H00840)

The Institutional Design for University Knowledge Transfer and Firm Creation

Universities are critical sources of innovation. In many countries, governments are working to introduce innovation policy packages to stimulate university-industry technology transfer (UITT). The Bayh-Dole Act of 1980 in the U.S. encouraged research universities to create Technology Transfer Offices (TTO). Since the Bayh-Dole Act was enacted, the dominant pathway of UITT has been through licensing. However, the challenge is that sometimes new scientific discoveries are not patentable, and licensing arrangements cannot capture the full value of a newly developed technology. In this dissertation, I analyze three other pathways in addition to licensing that enhance the overall impact of innovation. Chapter 2 examines the role of co-authoring academic publications between university and firm researchers. The TTO acts as a gateway to a university, by lowering search costs and enabling newer connections between the university and industry. The TTO also acts as a gatekeeper, asserting the university's intellectual property and seeking to ensure new discoveries are patented before they are published openly. The analytical model is conducted. The model is examined using panel data based on a natural experiment in Japan. Chapter 3 studies the impact of inventor involvement to university-based start-ups. The research is based upon the University of California Start-up Dataset. The effect of inventor involvement on university-based start-ups on their success (survival and exit) is analyzed. The results show that receipt of Stir funding and first sales by product launch mediate the impact of proportion of inventor involvement on survival rate of startups. Having a greater proportion of the inventors' involvement as a founder of a start-up firm increases the likelihood of receiving SBIR funding, and launching a product, which in turn increases the likelihood of survival. Chapter 3 studies the impact of inventor involvement to university- based start-ups. The research is based upon the University of California Start-up Dataset. The effect of inventor involvement on university-based start-ups on their success (survival and exit) is analyzed. The results show that receipt of SBIR funding and first sales by product launch mediate the impact of proportion of inventor involvement on survival rate of startups. Having a greater proportion of the inventors' involvement as a founder of a start-up firm increases the likelihood of receiving SBIR funding, and launching a product, which in turn increases the likelihood of surviva

Robot-Manual Forward-Reserve Allocation Problem

In this paper, we consider the order-picking operations in which orders are picked either by humans or robots. A warehouse is configured with a manual-picking area and a robot-picking area. The robot-picking area is used for the forward-picking area to perform inexpensive picking operations, whereas the manual-picking area is used for the reserve-picking area to replenish the robot-area. We consider the problem to seek which SKUs are picked by human or robot, which SKUs are located by the manual-picking area or the robot-picking area, and how much volume is stored for each SKU in the robot area. The objective is to minimize the sum of the robot-picking cost, the manual-picking cost, and the replenishment cost. We formulate the decision problem as mixed-integer non-linear programming (MINLP). The problem is difficult to solve because it is nonlinear and has a large number of items. We proposed an efficient algorithm to solve the problem based on Lagrange relaxation to exploit the special structure of the problem. We theoretically prove convexity in the decomposed subproblem and derive an analytical solution, allowing efficient evaluation of the lower bound. The algorithm is applied to real-world data from a fashion e-commerce fulfillment center, involving over 15000 SKUs. The proposed method achieves substantial cost savings compared to benchmark policies. In addition, to assess scalability and robustness, the proposed method was evaluated on larger, artificially generated datasets and benchmarked against state-of-the-art metaheuristics. The results demonstrate that our method consistently outperforms these alternatives in both solution quality and computation time

Are public subsidies effective for university spinoffs? Evidence from SBIR awards in the University of California system

This study examines the impact of public subsidies, and specifically, Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) awards on university spinoff companies. Using unique data for a population of University of California spinoffs, we find pronounced differences between companies commercializing digital technologies (software and hard-ware), and those that focus on other product spaces. For digital spinoffs, receiving an SBIR award has a negative impact on raising venture capital and no impact on IPOs, exits or first sales. Conversely, for non-digital firms (e. g., biotechnology, energy), receiving an SBIR award has a positive effect on raising venture capital and per-formance outcomes. We reason that digital technologies are subject to faster cycle times and higher market uncertainty, relative to technological uncertainty. Digital firms may therefore benefit less from subsidies designed to support technology development, and private investors may view the need of digital companies to obtain such subsidies as a negative certification. Our findings inform policy by suggesting that the industrial domain may be an important boundary condition for the effectiveness of SBIR-type subsidies for university spinoffs