Politically Correct Science: Why Johnny Can’t Read Scientific Creationism

The playing field is far from level in the contest between Evolutionism and Scientific Creationism. Science faculty with ambitions to move up to larger universities are unlikely to assign readings in Creation Science. Scientists who express doubts about Evolutionism are punished for straying from orthodoxy. Scientific publishers are generally unwilling to accept manuscripts from Creationist researchers and theorists. Secular review sources either neglect Creationist works altogether or are so uniformly hostile and dismissive that they are not useful for separating the wheat from the chaff. Unless librarians muster the integrity and professional diligence to collect robustly in Scientific Creationism, a monolithic Evolutionist siege will succeed

Advances in functional neuroanatomy: a review of combined DTI and fMRI studies in healthy younger and older adults.

Structural connections between brain regions are thought to influence neural processing within those regions. It follows that alterations to the quality of structural connections should influence the magnitude of neural activity. The quality of structural connections may also be expected to differentially influence activity in directly versus indirectly connected brain regions. To test these predictions, we reviewed studies that combined diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in younger and older adults. By surveying studies that examined relationships between DTI measures of white matter integrity and fMRI measures of neural activity, we identified variables that accounted for variability in these relationships. Results revealed that relationships between white matter integrity and neural activity varied with (1) aging (i.e., positive and negative DTI-fMRI relationships in younger and older adults, respectively) and (2) spatial proximity of the neural measures (i.e., positive and negative DTI-fMRI relationships when neural measures were extracted from adjacent and non-adjacent brain regions, respectively). Together, the studies reviewed here provided support for both of our predictions

Horizontal Product Differentiation in Auctions and Multilateral Negotiations

We experimentally compare first-price auctions and multilateral negotiations after introducing horizontal product differentiation into a standard procurement setting. The two institutions yield the buyer the same surplus, a difference from prior findings with homogeneous products that results from differentiation’s influence on the sellers’ pricing behavior. In particular, we find that introducing product differentiation intensifies price competition among the sellers in some treatments, and has no effect in others, which contrasts with the conventional wisdom that product differentiation softens competition.

Controlling Soil-Borne Diseases in Ohio Nurseries

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Graphene-WS2_2 heterostructures for tunable spin injection and spin transport

We report the first measurements of spin injection in to graphene through a 20 nm thick tungsten disulphide (WS$_2$) layer, along with a modified spin relaxation time ({\tau}s) in graphene in the WS$_2$ environment, via spin-valve and Hanle spin-precession measurements, respectively. First, during the spin-injection into graphene through a WS$_2$-graphene interface, we can tune the interface resistance at different current bias and modify the spin injection efficiency, in a correlation with the conductivity-mismatch theory. Temperature assisted tunneling is identified as a dominant mechanism for the charge transport across the interface. Second, we measure the spin transport in graphene, underneath the WS$_2$ crystal and observe a significant reduction in the {\tau}s down to 17 ps in graphene in the WS$_2$ covered region, compared to that in its pristine state. The reduced {\tau}s indicates the WS$_2$-proximity induced additional dephasing of the spins in graphene.Comment: 7 Pages, 6 figure

Support for farmers' cooperatives: EU synthesis and comparative analysis report: policy measures

In order to foster the competitiveness of the food supply chain, the European Commission is committed to promote and facilitate the restructuring and consolidation of the agricultural sector by encouraging the creation of voluntary agricultural producer organisations. To support the policy making process DG Agriculture and Rural Development has launched a large study, “Support for Farmers’ Cooperatives (SFC)”, that will provide insights on successful cooperatives and producer organisations as well as on effective support measures for these organisations. These insights can be used by farmers themselves, in setting up and strengthening their collective organisation, and by the European Commission in its effort to encourage the creation of agricultural producer organisations in the EU. Within the framework of the SFC project this EU synthesis and comparative analysis report - Policy Measures has been written. Data collection for this report has been done in the summer of 2011. In addition to this report, the SFC-project has delivered 27 country reports, a report on policies for cooperatives in non-EU OECD countries, 8 sector reports, 5 other EU synthesis and comparative analysis reports, 33 case studies, a report on cluster analysis, and a final report

Go West Young Man: Self-selection and Endogenous Property Rights

If, as Hume argues, property is a self-referring custom of a group of people, then property rights depend on how that group forms and orders itself. In this paper we investigate how people construct a convention for property in an experiment in which groups of self-selected individuals can migrate between three geographically separate regions. We find that the absence of property rights clearly decreases wealth in our environment and that interest in establishing property rights is a key determinant of the decision to migrate to a new region. Theft is nearly eliminated among migrants, resulting in strong growth, and non-migrants remain in poverty. Thus, self-selection, through the decision to migrate, to form more cooperative groups is essential for establishing property rights.experimental economics, property rights, migration and exit

Traces of prior art. An analysis of non-patent references found in patent documents.

Research in the area of innovation has pointed out the relevance of conceiving innovation as processes in which a multitude of actors and a variety of interactions play a role. Integrative notions like (national) innovations systems, (techno-scientific) networks, or the triple helix metaphor, have been widely accepted as relevant to grasp the complexities entailed. This development highlights the need for indicators that mirror the dynamics involved. This contribution presents an in-depth examination of the role of 'Non-Patent references', found in patents. After examining the occurrence of these references in the USPTO and EPO patent systems, the precise nature of these references is delineated by means of a systematic content analysis of two samples of non-patent references (n=10.000). Our observations reveal the relevance of 'non-patent references' for developing indicators to depict the proximity of technological and scientific developments. Application areas, limitations and directions for future research are discussed.Academic investors; Field; Industry; Knowledge; Knowlegde interactions; Research; University-industry relations; Working; Area; Innovation; Processes; Innovations; Systems; Networks; Triple-helix; Complexity; Indicators; Dynamics; Patents;