832 research outputs found

    The Citation Field of Evolutionary Economics

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    Evolutionary economics has developed into an academic field of its own, institutionalized around, amongst others, the Journal of Evolutionary Economics (JEE). This paper analyzes the way and extent to which evolutionary economics has become an interdisciplinary journal, as its aim was: a journal that is indispensable in the exchange of expert knowledge on topics and using approaches that relate naturally with it. Analyzing citation data for the relevant academic field for the Journal of Evolutionary Economics, we use insights from scientometrics and social network analysis to find that, indeed, the JEE is a central player in this interdisciplinary field aiming mostly at understanding technological and regional dynamics. It does not, however, link firmly with the natural sciences (including biology) nor to management sciences, entrepreneurship, and organization studies. Another journal that could be perceived to have evolutionary acumen, the Journal of Economic Issues, does relate to heterodox economics journals and is relatively more involved in discussing issues of firm and industry organization. The JEE seems most keen to develop theoretical insights

    Adaptation and Validation of the ICU Mobility Scale in Spain

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    Objetivo: adaptar la ICU Mobility Scale (IMS) al ĂĄmbito de las unidades de cuidados intensivos (UCI) de España y evaluar las propiedades mĂ©tricas de la IMS versiĂłn española (IMS-Es). MĂ©todo: estudio descriptivo de carĂĄcter mĂ©trico desarrollado en dos fases. Fase 1: adaptaciĂłn al español de la IMS mediante equipo de enfermeras y fisioterapeutas (traducciĂłn, piloto, retrotraducciĂłn y acuerdo). Fase 2: anĂĄlisis de propiedades mĂ©tricas (validez convergente, divergente y predictiva, fiabilidad interobservador, sensibilidad y diferencia mĂ­nima importante) de la IMS-Es. Se registraron caracterĂ­sticas de los pacientes (Barthel, Charlson, IMC, sexo), nivel de sedaciĂłn/agitaciĂłn (RASS), estancias en UCI y hospital, supervivencia, calidad de vida (SF-12), debilidad muscular (MRC-SS) y movilidad (IMS-Es) en los pacientes del estudio multicĂ©ntrico nacional MOviPre. Resultados: tras obtener la IMS-Es, se implementĂł en 645 pacientes de 80UCI españolas entre abril y junio de 2017. Validez convergente: moderada correlaciĂłn entre IMS-Es y MRC-SS (r=0,389; p<0,001) y comparaciĂłn significativa entre grupos con y sin debilidad adquirida en la UCI (p<0,001). Validez divergente: no correlaciĂłn entre IMS-Es e IMC (r [IC95%]: −0,112 [−0,232 a 0,011]), peso (r [IC95%]: −0,098 [−0,219 a 0,026]), Charlson (r [IC95%]: −0,122 [−0,242 a 0,001]) y Barthel (r [IC95%]: −0,037 [−0,160 a 0,087]) y sin diferencias entre sexos (p=0,587) ni categorĂ­as de IMC (p=0,412). Validez predictiva: moderadas y significativas correlaciones con estancia en hospital post-UCI (r [IC95%]: −0,442 [−0,502 a −0,377]) y componente fĂ­sico del SF-12 (PCS) (r [IC95%]: 0,318 [0,063 a 0,534]); pacientes sin movilizaciĂłn activa en UCI mayor riesgo de mortalidad hospitalaria (OR [IC95%]: 3,769 [1,428 a 9,947]). Fiabilidad interobservador: muy buena concordancia entre enfermeras (CCI [IC95%]: 0,987 [0,983 a 0,990]) y entre enfermera-fisioterapeuta (CCI [IC95%]: 0,963 [0,948 a 0,974]). Sensibilidad al cambio: efecto pequeño al alta de UCI (d=0,273) y moderado a los 3meses del alta hospitalaria (d=0,709). Diferencia mĂ­nima importante: punto de corte de la diferencia de 2puntos, sensibilidad del 91,1% y especificidad del 100,0%. Conclusiones: la IMS-Es es Ăștil, vĂĄlida y fiable para ser implementada por enfermeras de UCI y por fisioterapeutas al valorar la movilidad de los pacientes crĂ­ticos

    Exploring local knowledge and perceptions on zoonoses among pastoralists in northern and eastern Tanzania

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    Background: Zoonoses account for the most commonly reported emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases in Sub-Saharan Africa. However, there is limited knowledge on how pastoral communities perceive zoonoses in relation to their livelihoods, culture and their wider ecology. This study was carried out to explore local knowledge and perceptions on zoonoses among pastoralists in Tanzania. Methodology and principal findings: This study involved pastoralists in Ngorongoro district in northern Tanzania and Kibaha and Bagamoyo districts in eastern Tanzania. Qualitative methods of focus group discussions, participatory epidemiology and interviews were used. A total of 223 people were involved in the study. Among the pastoralists, there was no specific term in their local language that describes zoonosis. Pastoralists from northern Tanzania possessed a higher understanding on the existence of a number of zoonoses than their eastern districts' counterparts. Understanding of zoonoses could be categorized into two broad groups: a local syndromic framework, whereby specific symptoms of a particular illness in humans concurred with symptoms in animals, and the biomedical framework, where a case definition is supported by diagnostic tests. Some pastoralists understand the possibility of some infections that could cross over to humans from animals but harm from these are generally tolerated and are not considered as threats. A number of social and cultural practices aimed at maintaining specific cultural functions including social cohesion and rites of passage involve animal products, which present zoonotic risk. Conclusions: These findings show how zoonoses are locally understood, and how epidemiology and biomedicine are shaping pastoralists perceptions to zoonoses. Evidence is needed to understand better the true burden and impact of zoonoses in these communities. More studies are needed that seek to clarify the common understanding of zoonoses that could be used to guide effective and locally relevant interventions. Such studies should consider in their approaches the pastoralists' wider social, cultural and economic set up

    Entrepreneurial sons, patriarchy and the Colonels' experiment in Thessaly, rural Greece

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    Existing studies within the field of institutional entrepreneurship explore how entrepreneurs influence change in economic institutions. This paper turns the attention of scholarly inquiry on the antecedents of deinstitutionalization and more specifically, the influence of entrepreneurship in shaping social institutions such as patriarchy. The paper draws from the findings of ethnographic work in two Greek lowland village communities during the military Dictatorship (1967–1974). Paradoxically this era associated with the spread of mechanization, cheap credit, revaluation of labour and clear means-ends relations, signalled entrepreneurial sons’ individuated dissent and activism who were now able to question the Patriarch’s authority, recognize opportunities and act as unintentional agents of deinstitutionalization. A ‘different’ model of institutional change is presented here, where politics intersects with entrepreneurs, in changing social institutions. This model discusses the external drivers of institutional atrophy and how handling dissensus (and its varieties over historical time) is instrumental in enabling institutional entrepreneurship

    Sociological and Communication-Theoretical Perspectives on the Commercialization of the Sciences

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    Both self-organization and organization are important for the further development of the sciences: the two dynamics condition and enable each other. Commercial and public considerations can interact and "interpenetrate" in historical organization; different codes of communication are then "recombined." However, self-organization in the symbolically generalized codes of communication can be expected to operate at the global level. The Triple Helix model allows for both a neo-institutional appreciation in terms of historical networks of university-industry-government relations and a neo-evolutionary interpretation in terms of three functions: (i) novelty production, (i) wealth generation, and (iii) political control. Using this model, one can appreciate both subdynamics. The mutual information in three dimensions enables us to measure the trade-off between organization and self-organization as a possible synergy. The question of optimization between commercial and public interests in the different sciences can thus be made empirical.Comment: Science & Education (forthcoming

    Optogenetic control of Drosophila using a red-shifted channelrhodopsin reveals experience-dependent influences on courtship

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    Optogenetics allows the manipulation of neural activity in freely moving animals with millisecond precision, but its application in Drosophila melanogaster has been limited. Here we show that a recently described red activatable channelrhodopsin (ReaChR) permits control of complex behavior in freely moving adult flies, at wavelengths that are not thought to interfere with normal visual function. This tool affords the opportunity to control neural activity over a broad dynamic range of stimulation intensities. Using time-resolved activation, we show that the neural control of male courtship song can be separated into (i) probabilistic, persistent and (ii) deterministic, command-like components. The former, but not the latter, neurons are subject to functional modulation by social experience, which supports the idea that they constitute a locus of state-dependent influence. This separation is not evident using thermogenetic tools, a result underscoring the importance of temporally precise control of neuronal activation in the functional dissection of neural circuits in Drosophila

    An Inhibitory Sex Pheromone Tastes Bitter for Drosophila Males

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    Sexual behavior requires animals to distinguish between the sexes and to respond appropriately to each of them. In Drosophila melanogaster, as in many insects, cuticular hydrocarbons are thought to be involved in sex recognition and in mating behavior, but there is no direct neuronal evidence of their pheromonal effect. Using behavioral and electrophysiological measures of responses to natural and synthetic compounds, we show that Z-7-tricosene, a Drosophila male cuticular hydrocarbon, acts as a sex pheromone and inhibits male-male courtship. These data provide the first direct demonstration that an insect cuticular hydrocarbon is detected as a sex pheromone. Intriguingly, we show that a particular type of gustatory neurons of the labial palps respond both to Z-7-tricosene and to bitter stimuli. Cross-adaptation between Z-7-tricosene and bitter stimuli further indicates that these two very different substances are processed by the same neural pathways. Furthermore, the two substances induced similar behavioral responses both in courtship and feeding tests. We conclude that the inhibitory pheromone tastes bitter to the fly

    A conceptual framework for invasion in microbial communities

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    There is a growing interest in controlling-promoting or avoiding-the invasion of microbial communities by new community members. Resource availability and community structure have been reported as determinants of invasion success. However, most invasion studies do not adhere to a coherent and consistent terminology nor always include rigorous interpretations of the processes behind invasion. Therefore, we suggest that a consistent set of definitions and a rigorous conceptual framework are needed. We define invasion in a microbial community as the establishment of an alien microbial type in a resident community and argue how simple criteria to define aliens, residents, and alien establishment can be applied for a wide variety of communities. In addition, we suggest an adoption of the community ecology framework advanced by Vellend (2010) to clarify potential determinants of invasion. This framework identifies four fundamental processes that control community dynamics: dispersal, selection, drift and diversification. While selection has received ample attention in microbial community invasion research, the three other processes are often overlooked. Here, we elaborate on the relevance of all four processes and conclude that invasion experiments should be designed to elucidate the role of dispersal, drift and diversification, in order to obtain a complete picture of invasion as a community process

    Search for high-mass resonances decaying to dilepton final states in pp collisions at s√=7 TeV with the ATLAS detector

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    The ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider is used to search for high-mass resonances decaying to an electron-positron pair or a muon-antimuon pair. The search is sensitive to heavy neutral Zâ€Č gauge bosons, Randall-Sundrum gravitons, Z * bosons, techni-mesons, Kaluza-Klein Z/Îł bosons, and bosons predicted by Torsion models. Results are presented based on an analysis of pp collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.9 fb−1 in the e + e − channel and 5.0 fb−1 in the ÎŒ + ÎŒ −channel. A Z â€Č boson with Standard Model-like couplings is excluded at 95 % confidence level for masses below 2.22 TeV. A Randall-Sundrum graviton with coupling k/MPl=0.1 is excluded at 95 % confidence level for masses below 2.16 TeV. Limits on the other models are also presented, including Technicolor and Minimal Zâ€Č Models
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