Principal Investigators And R D Failure

Failure in R&D efforts are fairly common and with many factors that contribute to the outcome. This book focuses on the role of principal investigators (PIs) in R&D project failures and provides a theoretical model explaining how firm characteristics, including those of the PIs, impact the probability of failure. The theoretical model also serves as a structural form model to motivate the empirical analysis which assesses the probability of failure in small technology-based firms. The author uses data from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program to build a new and informative tool to assess R&D projects and demonstrate the strengths of the theoretical model. The association between PIs and R&D failure not only provides insights that can have a downstream impact to economic growth, but it can also provide policymakers with valuable information to aid decisions in allocating funds for R&D.

Principal Investigator-Led (PI-led) missions are an important element of NASA's space science enterprise. While several NRC studies have considered aspects of PI-led missions in the course of other studies for NASA, issues facing the PI-led missions in general have not been subject to much analysis in those studies. Nevertheless, these issues are raising increasingly important questions for NASA, and it requested the NRC to explore them as they currently affect PI-led missions. Among the issues NASA asked to have examined were those concerning cost and scheduling, the selection process, relationships among PI-led team members, and opportunities for knowledge transfer to new PIs. This report provides a discussion of the evolution and current status of the PIled mission concept, the ways in which certain practices have affected its performance, and the steps that can carry it successfully into the future. The study was done in collaboration with the National Academy of Public Administration.

Principal-investigator (PI) Earth science missions are small, focused science projects involving relatively small spacecraft. The selected PI is responsible for the scientific and programmatic success of the entire project. A particular objective of PI-led missions has been to help develop university-based research capacity. Such missions, however, pose significant challenges that are beyond the capabilities of most universities to manage. To help NASA's Office of Earth Science determine how best to address these, the NRC carried out an assessment of key issues relevant to the success of university-based PI-led Earth observation missions. This report presents the result of that study. In particular, the report provides an analysis of opportunities to enhance such missions and recommendations about whether and, if so, how they should be used to build university-based research capabilities.

This timely book is a road map for defining the care of acute heart failure patients in the short stay or observation unit setting. Produced in collaboration with the Society of Chest Pain Centers, this book provides an understanding of the diverse medical needs and solutions, administrative processes, and regulatory issues necessary for successful management. In an environment of increasing financial consciousness, medical practice is changing drastically. Short stay care is premier among the new specialties that cater to the complex balance of optimizing patient outcomes while minimizing fiscal burdens. The observation unit has proven to be an excellent arena for the care of acute heart failure, replete with opportunities to improve both medical management and quality metrics. Unique to the field, Short Stay Management of Acute Heart Failure, Second Edition is the only book of its kind, providing the medical, regulatory, and economic tools necessary to create and implement successful short stay management protocols and units for the care of the heart failure patient. It is an essential guide for health care professionals and for hospitals and institutions wishing to be recognized as quality heart failure centers as accredited by the Society of Chest Pain Centers.

This issue of Heart Failure Clinics--edited by Dr. Eduardo Bossone--will cover The Right Heart Pulmonary Circulation Unit. Topics include Pathophysiology, Increased Systemic versus Increased Pulmonary Pressures, Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension, Right Heart Pulmonary Circulation Unit in Connective Tissue Disease, Right Heart Pulmonary Circulation Unit in Congenital Heart Diseases, Pulmonary Hypertension and Heart Failure, Right Heart Pulmonary Circulation Unit in Cardiomyopathies and Storage Diseases, Pulmonary Hypertension, Right Heart Pulmonary Circulation Unit at High Altitude, Chronic Thromboembolic Pulmonary Hypertension, Combining Invasive and Non-Invasive Evaluation for the Diagnosis of Pulmonary Hypertension, Imaging the Right Heart Pulmonary Circulation Unit: The Role of Ultrasound, Imaging the Right Heart Pulmonary Circulation Unit: The Role of CT and MRI, Biomarkers in Pulmonary Hypertension, Pulmonary Hypertension Related to Diffuse Parenchymal Lung Disease, Chronic Right Heart Failure, Exercise Training and Rehabilitation in Pulmonary Hypertension, and Right Heart Circulation Unit and Left Heart Valvular Diseases.