Fair competition: The engine of economic development

This paper questions the existing notion of competition prevalent in economic theory. It is shown that the prevalent idea of competition is incompatible with economic development. Fair competition, this paper argues, ought to be understood in context. The paper ends by providing some preliminary suggestions to economists and policy makers on how to understand competition.Competition; Economic development; Classical economics; Indian economy

Spirituality and Leadership

The language of leadership is becoming increasingly spiritualized. Terms more often found in the sanctuary are now being applied to the leadership domain. Without a clear understanding of each, confusion results. This research explored the common boundaries between spirituality and leadership. Ten persons with leadership experiences were interviewed with regard to what relationships existed between their leadership and their spirituality. There were five women and five men in the study who also reflected diverse ethnic and spiritual perspectives. The researcher used a qualitative interview methodology. Each person was given the chance to review and edit the transcript of the interview. This led to their most fully developed thoughts on the subject. The findings of the study indicate that there is a significant relationship between a person\u27s spiritual journey and one\u27s leadership experiences. This relationship is sometimes nurtured intentionally, and other times is part of the background assumptions of the individual. While spirituality does not guarantee a more effective leadership, there is a mutually enhancing relationship between a person\u27s spiritual journey and his or her leadership moments. Intentional spiritual development does seem to enhance the character of the reflection that is necessary to success in the leadership process. This research concludes that a leader\u27s awareness is the key to understanding the relationship between that persons\u27s spirituality and leadership. It proposes a descriptive model that identifies areas of awareness. The categories of awareness are: intentional awareness, reflective awareness and non-awareness. The area between intentional awareness and non-awareness is described as the area of background assumptions. The area between non-awareness and reflective awareness is represented by unreflected interactions. Spirituality enhances leadership in decision making, vision formation, attitude towards others in the leadership process, personal reflection and commitment to the cause. Leadership experiences were found to have a humbling effect which tempered the person\u27s spirituality. All persons in this study, whether religious or not, demonstrated a profound spirituality in unique and diverse ways

Barriers and facilitators to HPV vaccination in primary care practices: A mixed methods study using the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research

Abstract Background In the United States, the effective, safe huma papilloma virus (HPV) vaccine is underused and opportunities to prevent cancer continue to be missed. National guidelines recommend completing the 2–3 dose HPV vaccine series by age 13, well before exposure to the sexually transmitted virus. Accurate characterization of the facilitators and barriers to full implementation of HPV vaccine recommendations in the primary care setting could inform effective implementation strategies. Methods We used the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR) to systematically investigate and characterize factors that influence HPV vaccine use in 10 primary care practices (16 providers) using a concurrent mixed methods design. The CFIR was used to guide collection and analysis of qualitative data collected through in-person semi-structured interviews with the primary care providers. We analyzed HPV vaccine use with data abstracted from medical charts. Constructs that most strongly influenced vaccine use were identified by integrating the qualitative and quantitative data. Results Of the 72 CFIR constructs assessed, seven strongly distinguished and seven weakly distinguished between providers with higher versus lower HPV vaccine coverage. The majority of strongly distinguishing constructs were facilitators and were related to characteristics of the providers (knowledge and beliefs; self-efficacy; readiness for change), their perception of the intervention (relative advantage of vaccinating younger vs. older adolescents), and their process to deliver the vaccine (executing). Additional weakly distinguishing constructs that were facilitators were from outer setting (peer pressure; financial incentives), inner setting (networks and communications and readiness for implementation) and process (planning; engaging, and reflecting and evaluating). Two strongly distinguishing constructs were barriers to use, one from the intervention (adaptability of the age of initiation) and the other from outer setting (patient needs and resources). Conclusions Using CFIR to systematically examine the use of this vaccine in independent primary care practices enabled us to identify facilitators and barriers at the provider, interpersonal and practice level that need to be addressed in future efforts to increase vaccine use in such settings. Our findings suggest that implementation strategies that target the provider and help them to address multi-level barriers to HPV vaccine use merit further investigation

Intravascular migration of contraceptive implants: two more cases

Cases: In addition to previously published case reports, further cases of intravascular migration of contraceptive implants have been identified from an information request to two national adverse reaction spontaneous reporting systems. We report on two new cases of insertion into the venous system with subsequent embolism to a pulmonary artery. Conclusion: Incorporating barium sulfate into the implant has facilitated diagnosis of these very rare adverse events with the initial diagnosis of embolism to the pulmonary arterial tree made by chest X-ray. Removal of an implant from a segmental branch of a pulmonary artery is technically challenging and not without risks. Unsuccessful removal appears to be preceded by a delay in diagnosis leading to endothelialization of the implant in the pulmonary arterial wall. Implications: Subdermal placement of contraceptive implants over the anterior surface of the biceps rather than in the sulcus between them biceps and triceps may negate this rare but reported risk

Inbreeding depression in red deer calves

BACKGROUND Understanding the fitness consequences of inbreeding is of major importance for evolutionary and conservation biology. However, there are few studies using pedigree-based estimates of inbreeding or investigating the influence of environment and age variation on inbreeding depression in natural populations. Here we investigated the consequences of variation in inbreeding coefficient for three juvenile traits, birth date, birth weight and first year survival, in a wild population of red deer, considering both calf and mother's inbreeding coefficient. We also tested whether inbreeding depression varied with environmental conditions and maternal age. RESULTS We detected non-zero inbreeding coefficients for 22% of individuals with both parents and at least one grandparent known (increasing to 42% if the dataset was restricted to those with four known grandparents). Inbreeding depression was evident for birth weight and first year survival but not for birth date: the first year survival of offspring with an inbreeding coefficient of 0.25 was reduced by 77% compared to offspring with an inbreeding coefficient of zero. However, it was independent of measures of environmental variation and maternal age. The effect of inbreeding on birth weight appeared to be driven by highly inbred individuals (F = 0.25). On the other hand first year survival showed strong inbreeding depression that was not solely driven by individuals with the highest inbreeding coefficients, corresponding to an estimate of 4.35 lethal equivalents. CONCLUSIONS These results represent a rare demonstration of inbreeding depression using pedigree-based estimates in a wild mammal population and highlight the potential strength of effects on key components of fitness.This research was supported by a NERC grant to LEBK, JMP and THCB, NERC and BBSRC fellowships to DHN and a Royal Society fellowship to LEBK

Sediment and fluvial particulate carbon flux from an eroding peatland catchment

Erosion and the associated loss of carbon is a major environmental concern in many peatlands and remains difficult to accurately quantify beyond the plot scale. Erosion was measured in an upland blanket peatland catchment (0.017 km2) in northern England using Structure‐from‐Motion (SfM) photogrammetry, sediment traps and stream sediment sampling at different spatial scales. A net median topographic change of –27 mm yr–1 was recorded by SfM over the 12‐month monitoring period for the entire surveyed area (598 m2). Within the entire surveyed area there were six nested catchments where both SfM and sediment traps were used to measure erosion. Substantial amounts of peat were captured in sediment traps during summer storm events after two months of dry weather where desiccation of the peat surface occurred. The magnitude of topographic change for the six nested catchments determined by SfM (mean value: 5.3 mm, standard deviation: 5.2 mm) was very different to the areal average derived from sediment traps (mean value: –0.3 mm, standard deviation: 0.1 mm). Thus direct interpolation of peat erosion from local net topographic change into sediment yield at the catchment outlet appears problematic. Peat loss measured at the hillslope scale was not representative of that at the catchment scale. Stream sediment sampling at the outlet of the research catchment (0.017 km2) suggested that the yields of suspended sediment and particulate organic carbon were 926.3 t km–2 yr–1 and 340.9 t km–2 yr–1 respectively, with highest losses occurring during the autumn. Both freeze–thaw during winter and desiccation during long periods of dry weather in spring and summer were identified as important peat weathering processes during the study. Such weathering was a key enabler of subsequent fluvial peat loss from the catchment

Transcriptomes of parents identify parenting strategies and sexual conflict in a subsocial beetle

This work was funded by UK NERC grants to M.G.R. and A.J.M. an NERC studentship to D.J.P. the University of Georgia and a US NSF grant to A.J.M. and M.G.R.Parenting in the burying beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides is complex and, unusually, the sex and number of parents that can be present is flexible. Such flexibility is expected to involve specialized behaviour by the two sexes under biparental conditions. Here, we show that offspring fare equally well regardless of the sex or number of parents present. Comparing transcriptomes, we find a largely overlapping set of differentially expressed genes in both uniparental and biparental females and in uniparental males including vitellogenin, associated with reproduction, and takeout, influencing sex-specific mating and feeding behaviour. Gene expression in biparental males is similar to that in non-caring states. Thus, being ‘biparental’ in N. vespilloides describes the family social organization rather than the number of directly parenting individuals. There was no specialization; instead, in biparental families, direct male parental care appears to be limited with female behaviour unchanged. This should lead to strong sexual conflict.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe