Can processes make relationships work? The Triple Helix between structure and action

This contribution seeks to explore how complex adaptive theory can be applied at the conceptual level to unpack Triple Helix models. We use two cases to examine this issue – the Finnish Strategic Centres for Science, Technology & Innovation (SHOKs) and the Canadian Business-led Networks of Centres of Excellence (BL-NCE). Both types of centres are organisational structures that aspire to be business-led, with a considerable portion of their activities driven by (industrial) users’ interests and requirements. Reflecting on the centres’ activities along three dimensions – knowledge generation, consensus building and innovation – we contend that conceptualising the Triple Helix from a process perspective will improve the dialogue between stakeholders and shareholders

Regulation of retinal pigment epithelial cell phenotype by Annexin A8

The retinoic acid derivative fenretinide (FR) is capable of transdifferentiating cultured retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells towards a neuronal-like phenotype, but the underlying mechanisms are not understood. To identify genes involved in this process we performed a microarray analysis of RPE cells pre- and post-FR treatment, and observed a marked down-regulation of AnnexinA8 (AnxA8) in transdifferentiated cells. To determine whether AnxA8 plays a role in maintaining RPE cell phenotype we directly manipulated AnxA8 expression in cultured and primary RPE cells using siRNA-mediated gene suppression, and over-expression of AnxA8-GFP in conjunction with exposure to FR. Treatment of RPE cells with AnxA8 siRNA recapitulated exposure to FR, with cell cycle arrest, neuronal transdifferentiation, and concomitant up-regulation of the neuronal markers calretinin and calbindin, as assessed by real-time PCR and immunofluorescence. In contrast, AnxA8 transient over-expression in ARPE-19 cells prevented FR-induced differentiation. Ectopic expression of AnxA8 in AnxA8-depleted cells led to decreased neuronal marker staining, and normal cell growth as judged by phosphohistone H3 staining, cell counting and cleaved caspase-3 levels. These data show that down-regulation of AnxA8 is both necessary and sufficient for neuronal transdifferentiation of RPE cells and reveal an essential role for AnxA8 as a key regulator of RPE phenotype

The art of being human : a project for general philosophy of science

Throughout the medieval and modern periods, in various sacred and secular guises, the unification of all forms of knowledge under the rubric of ‘science’ has been taken as the prerogative of humanity as a species. However, as our sense of species privilege has been called increasingly into question, so too has the very salience of ‘humanity’ and ‘science’ as general categories, let alone ones that might bear some essential relationship to each other. After showing how the ascendant Stanford School in the philosophy of science has contributed to this joint demystification of ‘humanity’ and ‘science’, I proceed on a more positive note to a conceptual framework for making sense of science as the art of being human. My understanding of ‘science’ is indebted to the red thread that runs from Christian theology through the Scientific Revolution and Enlightenment to the Humboldtian revival of the university as the site for the synthesis of knowledge as the culmination of self-development. Especially salient to this idea is science‘s epistemic capacity to manage modality (i.e. to determine the conditions under which possibilities can be actualised) and its political capacity to organize humanity into projects of universal concern. However, the challenge facing such an ideal in the twentyfirst century is that the predicate ‘human’ may be projected in three quite distinct ways, governed by what I call ‘ecological’, ‘biomedical’ and ‘cybernetic’ interests. Which one of these future humanities would claim today’s humans as proper ancestors and could these futures co-habit the same world thus become two important questions that general philosophy of science will need to address in the coming years

The expression levels of three raft-associated molecules in cultivated vascular cells are dependent on culture conditions

Relaying a signal across the plasma membrane requires functional connections between the partner molecules. Membrane microdomains or lipid rafts provide an environment in which such specific interactions can take place. The integrity of these sites is often taken for granted when signalling pathways are investigated in cell culture. However, it is well known that smooth muscle and endothelial cells undergo cytoskeletal rearrangements during monolayer culturing. Likewise affected - and with potentially important consequences for signalling events - is the organization of the plasma membrane. The expression levels of three raft markers were massively upregulated, and raft-associated 5′-nucleotidase activity increased in conventional monolayer cultures as compared with a spheroidal coculture model, shown to promote the differentiation of endothelial cells. Our data point to a shift of raft components in monolayer cultures and demonstrate potential advantages of the spheroid coculture system for investigation of raft-mediated signalling events in endothelial cell

Bound States and the Special Composition Question

The Special Composition Question asks under what conditions a plurality of objects form another, composite object. We propose a condition grounded in our scientific knowledge of physical reality, the essence of which is that objects form a composite object when and only when they are in a bound state – whence our Bound State Proposal. We provide a variety of reasons in favour of a mereological theory that accommodates our Proposal. We consider but reject another proposal, which is quantum-physical in nature: the Entanglement Proposal. We close by responding to Teller’s ‘Suit Objection’

On the Dialectics of Global Governance in the Twenty-first Century : A Polanyian Double Movement?

Following decades of economic globalisation and market-oriented reforms across the world, Karl Polanyi’s double movement has been invoked not only to explain what is happening but also to give reasons for being hopeful about a different future. Some have suggested a pendulum model of history: a swing from markets to society leading, in the next phase, to a swing from society to markets, and so on. The double movement can also be understood dialectically as a description of an irreversible historical development following its own inner laws or schemes of development. Going beyond a thesis – antithesis – synthesis pattern, I maintain that conceptions and schemes drawn from dialectics, and especially dialectical critical realism, can provide better geo-historical hypotheses for explaining past changes and for building scenarios about possible future changes. I analyse political economy contradictions and tendencies, and focus on normative rationality, to assess substantial claims about rational tendential directionality of world history. I argue that democratic global Keynesianism would enable processes of decommodification and new syntheses concerning the market/social nexus. A learning process towards qualitatively higher levels of reflexivity can help develop global transformative agency. Existing contradictions can be resolved by means of rational collective actions and building more adequate common institutions. These collective actions are likely to involve new forms of political agency such as world political parties.Peer reviewe

Fredkin Gates for Finite-valued Reversible and Conservative Logics

The basic principles and results of Conservative Logic introduced by Fredkin and Toffoli on the basis of a seminal paper of Landauer are extended to d-valued logics, with a special attention to three-valued logics. Different approaches to d-valued logics are examined in order to determine some possible universal sets of logic primitives. In particular, we consider the typical connectives of Lukasiewicz and Godel logics, as well as Chang's MV-algebras. As a result, some possible three-valued and d-valued universal gates are described which realize a functionally complete set of fundamental connectives.Comment: 57 pages, 10 figures, 16 tables, 2 diagram

Quantum Computer with Mixed States and Four-Valued Logic

In this paper we discuss a model of quantum computer in which a state is an operator of density matrix and gates are general quantum operations, not necessarily unitary. A mixed state (operator of density matrix) of n two-level quantum systems is considered as an element of 4^n-dimensional operator Hilbert space (Liouville space). It allows to use a quantum computer model with four-valued logic. The gates of this model are general superoperators which act on n-ququat state. Ququat is a quantum state in a four-dimensional (operator) Hilbert space. Unitary two-valued logic gates and quantum operations for an n-qubit open system are considered as four-valued logic gates acting on n-ququat. We discuss properties of quantum four-valued logic gates. In the paper we study universality for quantum four-valued logic gates.Comment: 17 page

The ‘Galilean Style in Science’ and the Inconsistency of Linguistic Theorising

Chomsky’s principle of epistemological tolerance says that in theoretical linguistics contradictions between the data and the hypotheses may be temporarily tolerated in order to protect the explanatory power of the theory. The paper raises the following problem: What kinds of contradictions may be tolerated between the data and the hypotheses in theoretical linguistics? First a model of paraconsistent logic is introduced which differentiates between week and strong contradiction. As a second step, a case study is carried out which exemplifies that the principle of epistemological tolerance may be interpreted as the tolerance of week contradiction. The third step of the argumentation focuses on another case study which exemplifies that the principle of epistemological tolerance must not be interpreted as the tolerance of strong contradiction. The reason for the latter insight is the unreliability and the uncertainty of introspective data. From this finding the author draws the conclusion that it is the integration of different data types that may lead to the improvement of current theoretical linguistics and that the integration of different data types requires a novel methodology which, for the time being, is not available