ABSTRACT
We analyze the progression of COVID-19 in the United States over a nearly one-year period beginning March 1, 2020 with a novel metric motivated by queueing models, tracking partial-average day-of-event and cumulative probability distributions for events, where events are points in time when new cases and new deaths are reported. The partial average represents the average day of all events preceding a point of time, and is an indicator as to whether the pandemic is accelerating or decelerating in the context of the entire history of the pandemic. The measure supplements traditional metrics, and also enables direct comparisons of case and death histories on a common scale. We also compare methods for estimating actual infections and deaths to assess the timing and dynamics of the pandemic by location. Three example states are graphically compared as functions of date, as well as Hong Kong as an example that experienced a pronounced recent wave of the pandemic. In addition, statistics are compared for all 50 states. Over the period studied, average case day and average death day varied by two to five months among the 50 states, depending on data source, with the earliest averages in New York and surrounding states, as well as Louisiana.
ABSTRACT
Innovation in universities serves many purposes: helping society through technology transfer, building economies, supporting the aspirations of faculty and students to be entrepreneurs or make an impact, and generating revenue. Such outside-focused innovation is complemented by inside innovation, which aims to improve the practices of the university;to better serve society through education, research, and clinical care;and to remain competitive in the face of changes in technology and society. In this paper, we investigate how university innovators- represented by the Fellows of the National Academy of Inventors-are supported in outside innovation and how Fellows view university culture's support for inside innovation to improve university practices. Our survey received responses from 339 Fellows. Inventors indicated that they were helped in various ways and not just through traditional patenting and licensing. Help in creating a start-up, promotion of inventions in the media, and the consideration of inventions in promotion and appraisal contributed the most to their satisfaction, whereas royalty distributions had no significant effect on satisfaction. Overall, respondents were only mildly satisfied with institutional support for innovation as well as the pace of innovation at their institutions. While respondents generally agreed that their institutions were receptive to implementing faculty ideas, they were less likely to agree that their institutions were willing to take risks or try approaches not used by peers. Most respondents did not indicate that faculty satisfaction was a top-three institutional priority for innovation. They also were unlikely to indicate that disruption in education, research, or clinical care was a top institutional priority