Academic team formation as evolving hypergraphs

This paper quantitatively explores the social and socio-semantic patterns of constitution of academic collaboration teams. To this end, we broadly underline two critical features of social networks of knowledge-based collaboration: first, they essentially consist of group-level interactions which call for team-centered approaches. Formally, this induces the use of hypergraphs and n-adic interactions, rather than traditional dyadic frameworks of interaction such as graphs, binding only pairs of agents. Second, we advocate the joint consideration of structural and semantic features, as collaborations are allegedly constrained by both of them. Considering these provisions, we propose a framework which principally enables us to empirically test a series of hypotheses related to academic team formation patterns. In particular, we exhibit and characterize the influence of an implicit group structure driving recurrent team formation processes. On the whole, innovative production does not appear to be correlated with more original teams, while a polarization appears between groups composed of experts only or non-experts only, altogether corresponding to collectives with a high rate of repeated interactions

Developing theories and tools for resisting degeneration with the Worker Cooperatives' Network of Athens

Avoiding degeneration is a classic –empirically under-researched– challenge that cooperatives face in their pursuit of remaining democratic and economically viable. This thesis –driven by pragmatism and abduction– aimed to explore in-depth and support actively the attempts of radical worker cooperatives to (better) resist degeneration. To this end, a processual analysis of resisting degeneration with the Worker Cooperatives' Network of Athens (WCNA) served as a starting point for better making sense of the interrelated challenges involved. The analysis was also supplemented by a closer examination of the internal workings of two of its members. Based upon such a rare, dynamic account of cooperative movement generation and maintenance, I arrived at a more holistic conceptualization of degeneration and highlighted the self-fulfilling nature of overly pessimistic laws of degeneration. Meanwhile, a series of interventions by the researcher took place to promote consensual forms of democracy the reception of which resulted in a better understanding of the complex nature of degeneration and the need for more systemic actions/solutions. Moreover, a key finding was that for organizational systems of (coalitions of) radical cooperatives to be more viable, the humanist aspirations of co-operators should be taken far more into consideration. Finally, building upon the yearlong presence of the author in the field, the action research technique and similar cases of resisting degeneration in literature, guidelines/tools/recommendations for (collective) management and cooperative development were crafted and theory was developed that better explains empirical material

Geometry shapes evolution of early multicellularity

Organisms have increased in complexity through a series of major evolutionary transitions, in which formerly autonomous entities become parts of a novel higher-level entity. One intriguing feature of the higher-level entity after some major transitions is a division of reproductive labor among its lower-level units. Although it can have clear benefits once established, it is unknown how such reproductive division of labor originates. We consider a recent evolution experiment on the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a unique platform to address the issue of reproductive differentiation during an evolutionary transition in individuality. In the experiment, independent yeast lineages evolved a multicellular "snowflake-like'' cluster form in response to gravity selection. Shortly after the evolution of clusters, the yeast evolved higher rates of cell death. While cell death enables clusters to split apart and form new groups, it also reduces their performance in the face of gravity selection. To understand the selective value of increased cell death, we create a mathematical model of the cellular arrangement within snowflake yeast clusters. The model reveals that the mechanism of cell death and the geometry of the snowflake interact in complex, evolutionarily important ways. We find that the organization of snowflake yeast imposes powerful limitations on the available space for new cell growth. By dying more frequently, cells in clusters avoid encountering space limitations, and, paradoxically, reach higher numbers. In addition, selection for particular group sizes can explain the increased rate of apoptosis both in terms of total cell number and total numbers of collectives. Thus, by considering the geometry of a primitive multicellular organism we can gain insight into the initial emergence of reproductive division of labor during an evolutionary transition in individuality.Comment: 7 figure

Коммуникативное пространство «композитор – исполнитель» как важный фактор создания современной музыкальной интерпретации

At the beginning of the third millennium the necessity of integration of approaches, the points of viewis represented by various forms of knowledge of life, judgment of integrity of the world in the presence of diverse forms of its manifestations is more and more felt. One of such “points” is music and musical creativity which accumulate natural and space, biological, social and spiritual essence of the person acts. The subject of this article is the tasks rising before the performer of music of composers- contemporaries and determined by direct creative interaction of the composer and the performer. Modern music has the listener who is characterized by it’s interest not only to new trends and names in art, but also to identity of the performer. The question “how” becomes as important as “what”. The musical composition, created as a result of cultural communication of the author and the performer, ceases to be the author’s monologue broadcast by the performer. The composition becomes an artifact of joint creativityВ начале третьего тысячелетия все более ощущается необходимость интеграции подходов, точек зрения, репрезентируемых различными формами познания бытия, осмысления целостности мира при наличии многообразных форм его проявлений. Как представляется, одной из таких «точек» выступает музыка и музыкальное творчество, в которых аккумулируются природно-космические, биологические, социальные и духовные сущности человека. Предметом данной статьи являются задачи, встающие перед исполнителем музыки композиторов- современников и определяемые непосредственным творческим взаимодействием композитора и исполнителя. Современная музыка имеет своего слушателя, который характеризуется интересом не только к новым веяниям и именам в искусстве, но и к индивидуальности исполнителя. Вопрос «как» встает не менее остро, чем «что». Музыкальная композиция, созданная в результате культурной коммуникации автора и исполнителя, перестает быть авторским монологом, транслируемым исполнителем. Сочинение становится артефактом совместного творчеств

Symbiotic Cell Differentiation and Cooperative Growth in Multicellular Aggregates

As cells grow and divide under a given environment, they become crowded and resources are limited, as seen in bacterial biofilms and multicellular aggregates. These cells often show strong interactions through exchanging chemicals, as in quorum sensing, to achieve mutualism. Here, to achieve stable division of labor, three properties are required. First, isogenous cells differentiate into several types. Second, this aggregate of distinct cell types shows better growth than that of isolated cells, by achieving division of labor. Third, this cell aggregate is robust in the number distribution of differentiated cell types. We here address how cells acquire the ability of cell differentiation and division of labor simultaneously, which is also connected with the robustness of a cell society. For this purpose, we developed a dynamical-systems model of cells consisting of chemical components with intracellular catalytic reaction dynamics. The reactions convert external nutrients into internal components for cellular growth, and the divided cells interact via chemical diffusion. We found that cells sharing an identical catalytic network spontaneously differentiate via induction from cell-cell interactions, and then achieve division of labor, enabling a higher growth rate than that in the unicellular case. This symbiotic differentiation emerged for a class of reaction networks with limited resources and strong cell-cell interactions. Then, robustness in the cell type distribution was achieved, while instability of collective growth could emerge even among the cooperative cells when the internal reserves of products were dominant. The present mechanism is simple and general as a natural result of interacting cells with resource limitation, and is consistent with the observed behaviors and forms of several aggregates of unicellular organisms.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figure

Public policies and food security and family farming networks: contributions to the construction of effectiveness indicators.

This work presents a methodology for investigating the performance of public politics regarding food security networks formed in Brazilian municipalities aimed at increasing income and employment in familiar farming. These programs need to further develop the methodologies used for studying their efficiency so that they can reach a new stage in the improvement and use of management tools thereby achieving beteer results of social inclusion and/or food security. This paper constitutes a first effort to bring together indicators for the evaluation of the efficiency of public politicies