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innovation DAILY

Here we highlight selected innovation related articles from around the world on a daily basis.  These articles related to innovation and funding for innovative companies, and best practices for innovation based economic development.

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This is one of the most difficult questions CEOs of all ages ask themselves. Our Vistage Chair constantly asks the CEOs in our group, “Are the people who got you to this level in your business, going to be the ones who get you to the next one? What do you need to do differently? And how can you go about doing it?

Stomachs start to tense. Sweat breaks out in the room. Questions that immediately rise to the surface include:

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The Rise of Robotics for Physical Therapy - Venture Capital Dispatch - WSJ

A person who has suffered from a stroke or spinal-cord injury might need to use crutches or a wheelchair as they gradually regain lost motion through physical therapy.

But these patients could see drastically different effects strapping on a robotic bodysuit or a bionic limb and walking around like Iron Man as they heal. And such digital hardware has the potential to make them recover faster, as well.

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How To Create Meaningful Work Relationships While Working From Home | Co.Exist | ideas + impact

With more and more of our professional and social lives moving online, telecommuting is fast becoming the rule rather than the exception in the workplace. Earlier this year, Marissa Mayer took a lot of heat for banning Yahoo’s employees from working remotely, and now other companies are beginning to follow suit. Is this some sort of fascist, oppressive backlash against a more modern and progressive way of doing business? I dare to say that Mayer was onto something--face time helps us build far more meaningful relationships than chats and phone calls. But there are ways to create meaningful, professional relationships when space and time get in the way.

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Are your mental meanderings a must-have feature of your cranial life or a bug in your skull system?

Peter Killeen, the psychologist who explained to us the neurophysiological step-by-step to mental wandering, asked as much in a recent paper.

We tend to hold a wandering mind as a silly, if not bad thing, long-associated with creative types: Thales, the pre-Socratic philosopher, is said to have to been "so eager to know what was going on in heaven that he could not see what was before his feet" and had a habit of falling into wells. Any super thinky people you know have probably done the same.

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IF BIG BROTHER IS KEEPING AN EYE ON YOU, YOU'LL WORK HARDER, RIGHT? LET'S CUT THROUGH THE DOUBLESPEAK. 

A dash of humor, a dose of music, and a smidge of meditation have all been linked with increased productivity?

How about surveillance?

That's the case--at least in one buzz-generating study regarding workers at "casual dining" restaurants.

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From Health Plan Week - Venture capital is rushing into the health care IT sector, with 2013 looking like the biggest investment year since 2000 as investors seek to meet insurers’ demand for new data-analytics tools ahead of health insurance exchanges starting up in 2014 and related reform law market changes...

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The following answers are provided by the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, the YEC recently launched #StartupLab, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses via live video chats, an expert content library and email lessons.

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If you’re trying to start a new company Ed Bizari wants to help.

Bizari has been the Rochester area’s entrepreneur-in-residence since June 1 for Launch NY, a nonprofit organization with the mission of creating jobs by providing assistance, free of charge, to new companies in 27 upstate New York counties.

“I’m one of the four entrepreneurs in residence. We’re the ones out in the field dealing directly with the companies. I find them, reach out to them, suggest that we talk and see if we can add any kind of value with mentoring, potential financing,” Bizari said.

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An entrepreneur always falls prey to the ugly baby syndrome but ironically, if one has to succeed, he or she has to. A startup is an entrepreneur’s baby and any finger pointed towards the baby is like a stab at the heart. Yes, feedback is crucial and one should be open-minded about taking in criticism but how does one cope when the entire flow seems to be against you? When you feel like a lone ranger wading through the tides?

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When you look around, it’s easy to see that most people are not really happy with their situation. The majority of them, wake up everyday and do things they don’t particularly enjoy. There’s no sense of fulfilment in what they do and they feel stuck. Since they don’t control their own time and income, they can’t really do what they want and wished there was a better way to earn a living doing something they enjoy.

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Everyone thinks they need one, everyone really wants one and we all struggle when it comes to getting one. I'm talking about mentors.

Subconsciously, when we think of mentors we immediately think of mentorship, which seems formal and distant. It's complicated by the fact that good mentors are most likely to be busy people, consumed with building their business or company. While mentors might like to take time out of their schedule to check-in with you, it might be hard to pin down an hour for an in-person conversation each week and that can be discouraging.

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Expect to wait about four years for Ohio State University to free itself from several years mired at the bottom of the Big Ten in the annual survey of revenue from licensing deals for technology.

But when it starts moving, it should move big, says Brian Cummings, OSU’s vice president of technology commercialization. For many years, Ohio State structured simple deals with not much revenue, such as by taking a one-time payout instead of royalties, he said. Since his 2011 arrival, new licensing deals set up to generate income will take an average of five years for the money to start flowing in.

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Perfecting a basketball shot takes constant practice and analysis — and a coach telling you what you are doing wrong.

Soon, your sleeve could do that for you.

California-based Vibrado has developed a sleeve with accelerometers on the bicep, forearm and hand. These sensors work together to track your arm movements and compare it to the ideal arm movements for various shots.

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By the time things enter the realm of legend, it can be difficult to divine what was true. To tell what actually happened.

"Action Park."

If you grew up near Northern New Jersey, the chances are pretty strong that the mere sight of those words is flooding your brain with feelings of dread, doom and possibly the memories of at least a few scars.

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Khan Academy founder and executive director Salman Khan wants to democratize education so anyone, anywhere can get a great education.

Today, Khan had to settle for Denver. But it’s safe to say he accomplished his mission.

Khan gave the keynote speech for the annual Colorado Innovation Network Summit, a gathering of the Mile High State’s political and corporate leaders. The event will continue tomorrow, but it’s hard to envision anyone topping Khan’s lively and insightful speech.

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Watching your favourite sports team suffer defeat can turn you into an unhealthy eater, unless you step back and remember what’s important to you.

The thrill of seeing your sports team enter the field on a Sunday night, the anticipation and hope of victory and the nail-biting jostling for supremacy all incite passion in sports fans. Jerseys are worn, scarfs and flags waved and camaraderie is shared. Jubilation or sadness meet victory or defeat and Monday dawns, the night before wears off. Or does it?

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Mini brain: An organoid derived from stem cells contains different brain regions. Green shows neurons and pink/red shows neuronal stem cells.

Scientists at the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology in Vienna, Austria, have grown three-dimensional human brain tissues from stem cells. The tissues form discrete structures that are seen in the developing brain.

The Vienna researchers found that immature brain cells derived from stem cells self-organize into brain-like tissues in the right culture conditions. The “cerebral organoids,” as the researchers call them, grew to about four millimeters in size and could survive as long as 10 months. For decades, scientists have been able to take cells from animals including humans and grow them in a petri dish, but for the most part this has been done in two dimensions, with the cells grown in a thin layer in petri dishes. But in recent years, researchers have advanced tissue culture techniques so that three-dimensional brain tissue can grow in the lab. The new report from the Austrian team demonstrates that allowing immature brain cells to self-organize yields some of the largest and most complex lab-grown brain tissue, with distinct subregions and signs of functional neurons.

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Sundays aren’t just for rest and recuperation. When used wisely, they’re actually the perfect way to start your week with a bang. Mondays often feel like a catch-up day from the weekend. There’s usually a full inbox and things that need your immediate attention as soon as you walk into the office. 

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