Deep Transitions: A mixed methods study of the historical evolution of mass production

Industrial societies contain a range of socio-technical systems fulfilling functions such as the provision of energy, food, mobility, housing, healthcare, finance and communications. The recent Deep Transitions (DT) framework outlines a series of propositions on how the multi-system co-evolution over 250 years of these systems has contributed to several current social and ecological crises. Drawing on evolutionary institutionalism, the DT framework places a special emphasis on the concepts of ‘rules’ and ‘meta-rules’ as coordination mechanisms within and across socio-technical systems. In this paper, we employ a mixed-method approach to provide an empirical assessment of the propositions of the DT framework. We focus on the historical evolution of mass production from the 18th century to the present. Combining a qualitative narrative based on a synthesis of secondary historical literature with a quantitative text mining-based analysis of the corpus of Scientific American (1845–2019), we map the emergence and alignment of rules underpinning mass production. Our study concludes by reflecting on important methodological lessons for the application of text mining techniques to examine large-scale and long-term socio-technical dynamics

Diet Influence on Sperm Quality, Fertility, and Reproductive Behavior in Karakul of Botoșani Rams

This study aims to analyze the influence of an improved diet with vitamins and minerals (VM) on the live weight, body condition, quality of sperm, behavior, and fertility of rams. The biological material comprised two groups of rams (L1—control and L2—VM supplemented), each consisting of 15 individuals. After a complete one-year cycle, they received different dietary treatments at the beginning of the preparation for the reproduction period. Although in the onset of the mounting period (SM), no significant differences were observed for live weight (p > 0.05), providing supplemental feeding of a VM complex allowed a better capitalization of body reserves, and, consequently, the rams’ groups differed significantly by the end of mating season (FM), for live weight (+4.1%; p p p p p p p p < 0.001) on mating behavior, on the gestation installation (+11.2%) and on the number of obtained lambs (+14.0%), as well as on the key economic indicators (+13.8% incomes per ram)