The genetics of obesity and the metabolic syndrome

In this review, we discuss the genetic architecture of obesity and the metabolic syndrome, highlighting recent advances in identifying genetic variants and loci responsible for a portion of the variation in components of the metabolic syndrome, namely, adiposity traits, serum HDL and triglycerides, blood pressure, and glycemic traits. We focus particularly on recent progress from large-scale genome-wide association studies (GWAS), by detailing their successes and how lessons learned can pave the way for future discovery. Results from recent GWAS coalesce with earlier work suggesting numerous interconnections between obesity and the metabolic syndrome, developed through several potentially pleiotropic effects. We detail recent work by way of a case study on the cadherin 13 gene and its relation with adiponectin in the HyperGEN and the Framingham Heart Studies, and its association with obesity and the metabolic syndrome. We provide also a gene network analysis of recent variants related to obesity and metabolic syndrome discovered through genome-wide association studies, and 4 gene networks based on searching the NCBI database

Constraint rule-based programming of norms for electronic institutions

Peer reviewedPostprin

Co-evolution, opportunity seeking and institutional change: Entrepreneurship and the Indian telecommunications industry 1923-2009

"This is an Author's Original Manuscript of an article submitted for consideration in Business History [copyright Taylor & Francis]; Business History is available online at http://www.tandfonline.com/." 10.1080/00076791.2012.687538In this paper, we demonstrate the importance for entrepreneurship of historical contexts and processes, and the co-evolution of institutions, practices, discourses and cultural norms. Drawing on discourse and institutional theories, we develop a model of the entrepreneurial field, and apply this in analysing the rise to global prominence of the Indian telecommunications industry. We draw on entrepreneurial life histories to show how various discourses and discursive processes ultimately worked to generate change and the creation of new business opportunities. We propose that entrepreneurship involves more than individual acts of business creation, but also implies collective endeavours to shape the future direction of the entrepreneurial field

Power, norms and institutional change in the European Union: the protection of the free movement of goods

How do institutions of the European Union change? Using an institutionalist approach, this article highlights the interplay between power, cognitive limits, and the normative order that underpins institutional settings and assesses their impact upon the process of institutional change. Empirical evidence from recent attempts to reinforce the protection of the free movement of goods in the EU suggests that, under conditions of uncertainty, actors with ambiguous preferences assess attempts at institutional change on the basis of the historically defined normative order which holds a given institutional structure together. Hence, path dependent and incremental change occurs even when more ambitious and functionally superior proposals are on offer

Social Entrepreneurship and Broader Theories: Shedding New Light on the “Bigger Picture”

This article documents the results of a research workshop bringing together six perspectives on social entrepreneurship. The idea was to challenge existing concepts of the economy, the firm, and entrepreneurship in order to shed new light on social entrepreneurship and on our existing theoretical frameworks. The first two contributions use a macro-perspective and discuss the notion of adaptive societies and the tragedies of disharmonization, respectively. Taking a management perspective, the next two focus on the limits of conventional assumptions in management theory, particularly human capital theory and resource-based view. The final two contributions follow an entrepreneurship perspective highlighting the usefulness of mobilization theory and the business model lens to social entrepreneurship. Despite this diversity, all contributions share the fact that they challenge narrow definitions of the unit of analysis in social entrepreneurship; they illustrate the aspect of social embeddedness, and they argue for an open-but-disciplined diversity of theories in social entrepreneurship research

Wirtschaftliche Entwicklung und Demokratie: ist Demokratie ein Wohlstandsmotor oder ein Wohlstandsprodukt?

Economically highly developed countries are mostly democratic. But does this association constitute a causal relationship according to which democracy is a determinant of economic development? Or is it, conversely, economic development that paves the way for democratization? This paper gives an overview of the recent empirical literature that has dealt with this question. The empirical evidence raises doubts about the existence of any direct causation. However, there seem to be indirect causal mechanisms. Democracies seem to implement better conditions for the accumulation of human capital, in particular in terms of a rule of law. On the other hand do democracies not simply arise as consequence of economic development, but because of an adequate social environment with little inequality, that may be associated with economic well-being

The Norm Implementation Problem in Normative Multi-Agent Systems

Abstract. The norm implementation problem consists in how to see to it that the agents in a system comply with the norms specified for that system by the system designer. It is part of the more general problem of how to synthesize or create norms for multi-agent systems, by, for example, highlighting the choice between regimentation and enforcement, or the punishment associated with a norm violation. In this paper we discuss how various ways to implement norms in a multi-agent system can be distinguished in a formal game-theoretic framework. In particular, we show how different types of norm implementation can all be uniformly specified and verified as types of transformations of extensive games. We introduce the notion of retarded preconditions to implement norms, and we illustrate the framework and the various ways to implement norms in the blocks world environment

Phenomenology of the Lense-Thirring effect in the Solar System

Recent years have seen increasing efforts to directly measure some aspects of the general relativistic gravitomagnetic interaction in several astronomical scenarios in the solar system. After briefly overviewing the concept of gravitomagnetism from a theoretical point of view, we review the performed or proposed attempts to detect the Lense-Thirring effect affecting the orbital motions of natural and artificial bodies in the gravitational fields of the Sun, Earth, Mars and Jupiter. In particular, we will focus on the evaluation of the impact of several sources of systematic uncertainties of dynamical origin to realistically elucidate the present and future perspectives in directly measuring such an elusive relativistic effect.Comment: LaTex, 51 pages, 14 figures, 22 tables. Invited review, to appear in Astrophysics and Space Science (ApSS). Some uncited references in the text now correctly quoted. One reference added. A footnote adde

Sickonomics : Diagnoses and remedies

Original article can be found at: http://www.tandfonline.com/ Copyright Taylor & FrancisIn their recent analysis of the alleged decay in modern economics, Ben Fine and Dimitris Milonakis claim to find its source and origin in the "marginal revolution" of the 1870s. They argue that this development led to "methodological individualism" and the detachment of economics from society and history. I contest their account of the marginal revolution and of the role of Alfred Marshall among others. They also fail to provide an adequate definition of methodological individualism. I suggest that neoclassical economics adopted a denuded concept of the social rather than removing these factors entirely. No such removal is possible in principle. It is also mistaken to depict neoclassical economics as the science of prices and the market. In truth, neoclassical economics fails to capture the true nature of markets. I consider some sketch an alternative explanation of the sickness of modern economics, which focuses on institutional developments since World War II.Peer reviewe