Early views on monetary policy: The Neapolitan debate on the theory of exchange

I wish to thank an anonymous referee for helpful comments and sug-gestions. An earlier version of this article was published, in Italian, in Alle origini del pensier

A collaborative research process studying fruit availibility and seed dispersal within an indigenous community in the Middle Caquetá River region, Colombian Amazon

The objective of this paper is to present a collaborative research process between the Nonuya indigenous community and western scientists whilst studying fruit production patterns and the role of animals in the spatial distribution patterns of terra firme rain forest tree species in the Colombian Amazon. The process is presented in four stages: initially with a distant relationship between western scientists and indigenous people, with little exchange of knowledge, which progressed into a collaborative research relationship involving a high exchange of knowledge. The first stage consisted of the indigenous people's participation an exclusively scientific research project on natural sciences, as passive fieldwork guides. The second stage occurred when the guide became a fieldwork assistant and received training and expertise in scientific methodologies for data collection. The relationship between western scientists and indigenous people developed into the ability to have frequent debates and discussions over observations, findings, and interpretations. In the third stage, the indigenous fieldwork assistant proposed his own research, wherein he combined both scientific methodologies, and dialogue with elders in order to obtain information. During the fourth stage of the process, high quality information, relevant to the needs of both the western scientists and indigenous people was generated. This collaborative research process allowed the exchange of experiences, methodologies, and learning, leading to a better understanding of tropical rainforests. In this paper, the implications of this experience for future studies with the indigenous communities are discussed

Cambridge as a place in economics

Cambridge as a geographical reference often crops up in the characterisation of the economic theories and approaches that developed in Cambridge (UK) between the 1920s and the 1960s with the contribution of economists who did not always share the same interests, background or attitudes, but who all lived and worked – for considerable periods of time – in that particular corner of the world. In order to reconstruct the Cambridge of those years and explore the space it represented for economics we have selected a group of economists and a span of time – essentially between the two wars, with a few encroachments in the years following on the death of Keynes. Cambridge was not only a place, but also a play of magnetic forces, drawing together and driving apart, where ideas emerged from an environment formed through intense human and professional relations, a well defined cultural tradition and a way of its own of organising work and study. We present the dramatis personae and the background to their actions, and consider the characteristics of intellectual and personal communication on the basis of which we are led to define the Cambridge economists examined more as a `group' than a school

Multifeatural shape processing in rats engaged in invariant visual object recognition

The ability to recognize objects despite substantial variation in their appearance (e.g., because of position or size changes) represents such a formidable computational feat that it is widely assumed to be unique to primates. Such an assumption has restricted the investigation of its neuronal underpinnings to primate studies, which allow only a limited range of experimental approaches. In recent years, the increasingly powerful array of optical and molecular tools that has become available in rodents has spurred a renewed interest for rodent models of visual functions. However, evidence of primate-like visual object processing in rodents is still very limited and controversial. Here we show that rats are capable of an advanced recognition strategy, which relies on extracting the most informative object features across the variety of viewing conditions the animals may face. Rat visual strategy was uncovered by applying an image masking method that revealed the features used by the animals to discriminate two objects across a range of sizes, positions, in-depth, and in-plane rotations. Noticeably, rat recognition relied on a combination of multiple features that were mostly preserved across the transformations the objects underwent, and largely overlapped with the features that a simulated ideal observer deemed optimal to accomplish the discrimination task. These results indicate that rats are able to process and efficiently use shape information, in a way that is largely tolerant to variation in object appearance. This suggests that their visual system may serve as a powerful model to study the neuronal substrates of object recognition

Sesquiterpenoids in subtribe Centaureinae (Cass.) Dumort (tribe Cardueae, Asteraceae): distribution, 13C-NMR spectral data and biological properties

Asteraceae Bercht. & J. Presl is one of the biggest and most economically important plant families. The taxonomy and phylogeny of Asteraceae is rather complex and according to the latest and most reliable taxonomic classification of Panero & Funk, based on the analysis of nine chloroplast regions, the family is divided into 12 subfamilies and 35 tribes. One of the largest tribes of Asteraceae is Cardueae Cass. with four subtribes (Carlininae, Echinopinae, Carduinae and Centaureinae) and more than 2500 species. Susanna & Garcia-Jacas have organized the genera of Centaureinae (about 800 species) into seven informal groups, which recent molecular studies have confirmed: 1. Basal genera; 2. Volutaria group; 3. Rhaponticum group; 4. Serratula group; 5. Carthamus group; 6. Crocodylium group; 7. Centaurea group. This review summarizes reports on sesquiterpenoids from the Centaureinae subtribe of the Asteraceae family, as well as the 13C NMR spectral data described in the literature. It further reviews studies concerning the biological activities of these metabolites. For this work, literature data on sesquiterpenes from the Centaureinae subtribe were retrieved with the help of the SciFinder database and other similar data banks. All entries from 1958 until the end of 2011 were considered. This review is addressed to scientists working in the metabolomics field such as chemists, botanists, etc., the spectroscopic data reported make this work a good tool for structural elucidation, the biological section gives useful information to those who wish to study the structure activity relationships

Hacia un análisis bibliométrico de la literatura bibliométrica

ResumenGeneralmente pensamos en la investigación como una herramienta para aproximarnos  a la realidad. Para la bibliometría a la investigación no es la herramineta; es el objetivo mismo del estudio

Utility of ElastPQ point-shear wave elastography in the work-up of patients with primary sclerosing cholangitis

Background & Aims: Liver stiffness measurement (LSM) and spleen stiffness measurement (SSM) have been shown to be useful tools for assessing the risk of fibrosis and portal hypertension, respectively. However, data on the accuracy of LSM and SSM measured by point-shear wave elastography (pSWE) in patients affected by primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) are still lacking. Thus, we aimed to prospectively assess their performance in a cohort of patients with PSC. Methods: We determined the correlation between LSM assessed by a pSWE technique (ElastPQ) and by FibroScan-transient elastography (F-TE). Furthermore, we used receiver-operating characteristic curves and area under the curves (AUROC) to evaluate the performance of LSM by ElastPQ for the staging of fibrosis, using F-TE as a reference standard, and the performance of LSM and SSM by ElastPQ in predicting the presence of oesophageal varices (OVs). Results: One hundred and fifty-two patients with PSC (93 males [61.2%], mean age 46 ± 16 years) were prospectively recruited. ElastPQ and F-TE LSMs were available for all patients, while ElastPQ SSM was available in 109 (72%) patients of whom 35 underwent upper gastrointestinal endoscopy within 1 year of the ultrasound assessment. ElastPQ LSM showed an excellent correlation with F-TE (p <0.001, Spearman's 0.93; Lin's 0.86) and a good diagnostic accuracy for fibrosis staging along all stages of liver fibrosis (AUROCs 0.96, 0.97, 0.97 and 0.99 for fibrosis stages F≥1, F≥2, F≥3 and F=4, respectively), using F-TE as a surrogate of histological fibrosis. ElastPQ SSM showed a good diagnostic performance in predicting the presence of OVs at endoscopy. Conclusions: LSM and SSM by ElastPQ can be used as accurate tools for liver fibrosis risk assessment and fibrosis staging, as well as for predicting the presence of OVs in the work-up of patients with PSC. Impact and implications: Liver and spleen stiffness measurement (LSM and SSM, respectively) by ElastPQ point-shear wave elastography in patients with primary sclerosing cholangitis represent reliable and reproducible tools for non-invasively staging the severity of liver disease and stratifying patients according to their risk of developing liver-related outcomes. In particular, LSM shows good accuracy for staging liver fibrosis and therefore detecting those patients at high risk of having compensated advanced chronic liver disease who require close monitoring. SSM seems to be promising to detect the risk of portal hypertension and therefore of oesophageal varices, enabling the triaging of patients who really need to undergo a screening endoscopy

Bibliometric analysis of economic topics in oncology

Análisis descriptivo de la literatura biomédica indexada en Medline entre 2001 y 2010 sobre temas relacionados con aspectos económicos del cáncer. Metodología: Se realizaron búsquedas en la base de datos Medline a través de GoPubMed. La estrategia de búsqueda fue: ("Neoplasms"[Majr] AND ("Costs and Cost Analysis"[Majr] OR "Economics"[Majr] OR "economics"[Subheading])) AND Journal Article[ptyp] AND "2001:2010"[dp]. Se identificaron, entre otras variables, número de publicaciones por año, tipos de cáncer estudiados, revistas, países de publicación y porcentaje de publicaciones sobre temas económicos relacionadas al total de publicaciones en cáncer. Resultados: Se recuperaron 5 886 referencias que tratan sobre aspectos económicos del cáncer. La tendencia fue al incremento del número de publicaciones, con un crecimiento en diez años de 86%. Se identificaron 1 309 revistas diferentes, Cáncer con 190 publicaciones fue la revista con más publicaciones, seguida de Journal of Clinical Oncology con 135 y Pharmacoeconomics con 76 referencias. Estados Unidos fue el país más productivo con 2 453 publicaciones (41,6%); Colombia con 8 publicaciones, fue el tercer país latinoamericano. Los cánceres más investigados fueron seno, con 1 239; colorrectal con 753; pulmón con 516, cérvix con 477, y próstata con 403.Conclusiones: El número de publicaciones sobre literatura económica del cáncer ha crecido sostenidamente durante el periodo estudiado. Los países desarrollados son líderes en la producción científica en este campo.Descriptive analysis of the biomedical literature indexed in Medline between 2001 and 2010 on topics related to the economics of cancer. Methodology: The Medline database was searched through GoPubMed. The search strategy was: ("Neoplasms" [Majr] AND ("Costs and cost analysis" [Majr] OR "Economics" [Majr] OR "economics" [Subheading])) AND Journal article [ptyp] AND " 2001: 2010 "[dp]. Among other variables, the number of publications per year, types of cancer studied, journals, countries of publication and percentage of publications on economic issues related to the total number of publications on cancer were identified. Results: 5,886 references that deal with the economics of cancer were retrieved. The trend was to increase the number of publications, with a growth in ten years of 86%. 1,309 different journals were identified, Cancer with 190 publications was the journal with the most publications, followed by the Journal of Clinical Oncology with 135 and Pharmacoeconomics with 76 references. The United States was the most productive country with 2,453 publications (41.6%); Colombia, with 8 publications, was the third Latin American country. The most investigated cancers were breast, with 1,239; colorectal with 753; lung with 516, cervix with 477, and prostate with 403. Conclusions: The number of publications on cancer economics literature has grown steadily during the period studied. Developed countries are leaders in scientific production in this field