Cross-over, thresholds, and interactions between science and technology: a tentative simplified model and initial notes about statistics from 120 countries

The hypothesis of this paper is the existence of thresholds of scientific production that must be overcome to trigger new channels of interactions between the scientific and technological infrastructure. As the development process evolves, new interactions are initiated. The interactions between science and technology become stronger and more pervasive, reaching at last the mutual feedbacks and the virtuous circles typical of developed economies. Using statistics of patents (USPTO) and scientific papers (ISI) for 120 countries (for 1974, 192, 1990 and 1998), this paper investigates the relationship between the scientific infrastructure and the technological production.science and technology; economic developmentR&D; Brazil

Spin Hall effect due to intersubband-induced spin-orbit interaction in symmetric quantum wells

We investigate the intrinsic spin Hall effect in two-dimensional electron gases in quantum wells with two subbands, where a new intersubband-induced spin-orbit coupling is operative. The bulk spin Hall conductivity $\sigma^z_{xy}$ is calculated in the ballistic limit within the standard Kubo formalism in the presence of a magnetic field $B$ and is found to remain finite in the B=0 limit, as long as only the lowest subband is occupied. Our calculated $\sigma^z_{xy}$ exhibits a nonmonotonic behavior and can change its sign as the Fermi energy (the carrier areal density $n_{2D}$) is varied between the subband edges. We determine the magnitude of $\sigma^z_{xy}$ for realistic InSb quantum wells by performing a self-consistent calculation of the intersubband-induced spin-orbit coupling.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figure

Characterizing neuromorphologic alterations with additive shape functionals

The complexity of a neuronal cell shape is known to be related to its function. Specifically, among other indicators, a decreased complexity in the dendritic trees of cortical pyramidal neurons has been associated with mental retardation. In this paper we develop a procedure to address the characterization of morphological changes induced in cultured neurons by over-expressing a gene involved in mental retardation. Measures associated with the multiscale connectivity, an additive image functional, are found to give a reasonable separation criterion between two categories of cells. One category consists of a control group and two transfected groups of neurons, and the other, a class of cat ganglionary cells. The reported framework also identified a trend towards lower complexity in one of the transfected groups. Such results establish the suggested measures as an effective descriptors of cell shape

The curse of technological race: the red queen effect

Economic prosperity is tied to scientific development, i.e., there is a strong correlation between science, technology and the wealth of nations. We collected data from scientific and technological production of 183 countries of the last thirty years (1974 to 2003) and applied a super-paramagnetic clustering technique on them, finding nations divided in three regimes, distinguished by the interactions between the agents of their National Systems of Innovation (NSI). The identification of these groups allows us to define the dynamical behavior of the thresholds, that grow exponentially and whose growth rate we have calculated. We show that for the period 1974-2003 the threshold between the immature and the developed NSIs increases by an annual rate of 6.6% (per capita). We identify clearly a "Red Queen Effect". Finally we show that the transitions between the regimes are discontinuous, represented by a structural breakthrough. Therefore, the prerequisite to move from regime I to regime II, and then to regime III are structural changes within NSIs.national systems of innovation; super-paramagnetic clustering technique; moving thresholds

Plurality Voting: the statistical laws of democracy in Brazil

We explore the statistical laws behind the plurality voting system by investigating the election results for mayor held in Brazil in 2004. Our analysis indicate that the vote partition among mayor candidates of the same city tends to be "polarized" between two candidates, a phenomenon that can be closely described by means of a simple fragmentation model. Complex concepts like "government continuity" and "useful vote" can be identified and even statistically quantified through our approach.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Matrices of science and technology interactions: implications for development

Scientific and other non-patent references (NPRs) in patents are important tools to analyze interactions between science and technology. This paper organizes a database with 514,894 USPTO patents granted globally in 1974, 1982, 1990, 1998 and 2006. There are 165,762 patents with at least one reference to science and engineering (S&E) literature, and there are 1,375,503 references. In 2006 there are 83 countries with USPTO patent citing S&E literature. Through a lexical analysis 71.1% of this S&E literature is classified by S&E fields. These data underscore the elaboration of global and national tri-dimensional matrices (by OST technological domains, ISI science and engineering fields and number of references). Descriptive statistics investigate how science and technology linkages differ over time across countries and across levels of development. This paper highlights how the existence (or not) of a pattern of structured growth differentiates mature and immature systems of innovation.science and technology linkages, stages of economic development, systems of innovation

Modeling economic growth fuelled by science and technology

This paper suggests a simulation model to investigate how science and technology fuel economic growth. This model is built upon a synthesis of technological capabilities represented by national innovation systems. This paper gathers data of papers and patents for 183 countries between 1999 and 2003, GDP and population for 2003. These data show a strong correlation between science, technology and income. Three simulation exercises are performed. Feeding our algorithm with data for population, patents and scientific papers, we obtain the world income distribution (R=0.99). These results support our conjecture on the role of science and technology as a source of the wealth of nations.simulation models; systems of innovation; economic growth

Inter-industry analysis of the impacts and attitudes of a chat versus human representative

Technology disruptions are known to keep on changing the way people interact with brands thus contributing to experiences that may or may not lead to better events if companies don’t invest on understanding the critical pain points in the consumer journey. The aim of this dissertation is to understand the impacts that the implementation of a chat has on the user and compare this effect with the outcome that traditional agents have for similar situations, leading to an observation if there are differences when satisfying a need through digital or physical instruments. Other objects of research include investigating which are the drivers that lead to a better consumer experience through chat coupled with understanding which are the attributes that makes the software unique from all other platforms and which retract the acceptance. To finish, it is studied which are the current attitudes towards the inevitable diffusion of chatbots. It was possible to conclude that for low involvement situations chat leads to underperforming valuations of loyalty, that the drivers of a satisfying experience are focused on the outcome whereas to foster loyalty it additionally needs to transmit sincerity, that the value added of this channel is its convenience and communication style although the impersonality and technical difficulties may repeal users and the sample is not yet comfortable with the upcoming of chatbots.As disrupções tecnológicas levam a que as pessoas mudem a maneira como interagem com as marcas, contribuindo para melhores ou piores experiências dependendo se as empresas investem em perceber os pontos críticos na jornada do consumidor. O objetivo desta dissertação é de perceber os impactos que a implementação de um chat tem e comparar este efeito com o resultado que os agentes tradicionais têm em situações similares, levando a perceber se existem diferenças na satisfação de uma necessidade através de meios digitais ou físicos. Outros objetos de pesquisa incluem investigar quais os fatores que levam a uma melhor experiência no chat, juntamente com a compreensão de quais os atributos que tornam o software único face a outras plataformas e também quais retraem a sua aceitação. Para terminar, é também analisado as atitudes atuais face à difusão dos chatbots. Foi possível concluir que para situações de baixo envolvimento o chat leva a avaliações inferiores de lealdade, que a avaliação de uma experiência satisfatória é focada somente no resultado providenciado, mas para gerar lealdade é necessária também sinceridade, que o valor adicional deste canal é a conveniência e o estilo de comunicação apesar de a impessoalidade e dificuldades técnicas poderem repelir os utilizadores e a amostra não se encontra ainda confortável com a iminente chegada dos chatbots

Classism and dehumanization in chronic pain: a qualitative study of nurses inferences about women of different socio-economic status

Objectives: Class-based dehumanization in health is poorly investigated. Beliefs about social class are often shared across cultures, with people of lower socio-economic status (SES) being typically dehumanized. This study specifically examined how nurses’ perceptions of pain patients’ SES were associated with (more or less) dehumanizing inferences about their pain and different treatment recommendations. Design: Sequential mixed methods including Similitude Analysis (statistical analysis of qualitative data) and a Thematic Analysis. Fifty female nurses watched short videos of two white women of different SES (low vs. middle) and similar levels of pain behaviours. Afterwards, nurses were asked to complete (1) a Free Association Task (associating characteristics and a profession to the women) and (2) a Story-Completion Task (writing a story describing women's lives, pain, and recommending treatments). Data were analysed with Similitude and Thematic Analysis. Results: The women's SES was recognized, linked to distinct professions, and associated with distinct inferences. The middle-SES woman was depicted with both Uniquely Human (e.g., autonomous) and Human Nature (e.g., communicative) traits, positive future prospects, and competence to self-manage pain. The low-SES woman was associated with Human Nature traits (hard-working) but denied Uniquely Human traits associated with competence; she was imagined as passive towards pain, with poor future prospects and referred to psychoeducation. Conclusion: Findings reveal the role of class-based cultural belief systems in pain care, showing how nurses’ recognition of low SES is associated with dehumanizing inferences and recommendations, which may contribute to reproducing pain care disparities. Theoretical implications of these findings for social and health psychology are drawn. Statement of contribution What is already known on the subject? • Psychosocial research on health and pain care disparities has paid more attention to the role of race/racism and gender/sexism than the role of social class/classism; Belief systems about social class are shared across cultures; people from lower SES are often dehumanized by being denied competence, civility, and self-determination; Class-based dehumanization may influence the relational and technical aspects of clinical encounters but little is still known about these processes. What does this study add? Drawing upon a mixed-methods approach, this study provides novel findings on class-based dehumanization inferences made by female nurses on female chronic pain patients; Nurses perceived the lower SES patient with fewer Uniquely Human traits, that is, less competent, with more pain-related disability, and recommended her more psychoeducation. Class-based dehumanization processes may contribute to reproducing pain care disparities and may prove to be important targets for intervention development.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio