Exaptation, Degeneracy and Innovation

In innovation processes, exaptations are innovation-development processes through which an initial attribution of new functionality to existing artifacts leads to new artifacts and eventually new markets. In this article I focus on the theoretical foundations of these processes, proposing a theoretical framework to analyze them. The essay provides a contribution in the following two directions: • a discussion of the different levels of organization through which exaptations emerge in a market system; • an analysis of the complex links between exaptation and degeneracy (a many-tomany rather than one-to-one map between structure and function). Using this theoretical framework, I focus on the need for an analysis of the consequences of exaptations, arguing that exaptations may contribute to emerging degeneracy, which, in turn, may trigger further exaptations. In market systems one form of degeneracy is the coexistence of many structurally different artifacts providing at least in part the same functionality. I present historical examples that suggest that degeneracy increases the complexity of the system: the attribution of functionality previously provided by existing artifacts to new artifacts potentially able to provide them in a new way is a significant process giving raise to new artifacts and new marketsInnovation; Exaptation; Degeneracy; Adaptation;

Exaptation and emerging degeneracy in innovation processes

In socio-economic innovation processes, exaptations emerge from processes through which an initial attribution of new functionalities to existing artifacts or organizations leads to new artifacts and eventually to new markets. In this paper, I argue that exaptation may generate degeneracy, defined as the property according to which structurally different elements provide overlapping functionalities. I propose a theoretical framework to analyze exaptation–degeneracy processes and use two case studies to show that exaptation can generate new artifacts providing functionalities similar to those provided by existing structurally different ones. This paper is intended to provide a contribution to an exaptation–degeneracy perspective in innovation theor

The implications of the concept of exaptation for a theory of economic change

The term exaptation, coined by Gould and Vrba, refers to those characters that are useful for survival but that were not selected for this purpose. In this paper I will focus on the notion of exaptation in socio economic systems and on its implications for a theory of economic change. In socio-economic systems, an exaptation is the result of a process through which the initial attribution of new functionalities to existing socio-economic entities (agents, artifacts, social institutions) leads to new entities and new relationships between entities. The notion of exaptation forces to examine the processes of change in socio-economic systems in terms of an interaction-based ontology that I will provide, following the complexity theory of innovation. I will use this ontology to highlight how processes of economic change can be analysed in terms of emergent phenomena and in particular in terms of the emergence of new specific functionalities and qualitatively new entities and relationships. I will refer these processes to the relationships between agent and artifacts, and to the organization of the economy and society. This second type of process of emergence will be examined with reference to the changing characteristics and functions of the division of labour emerging from the historical processes of interaction between quantitative and qualitative changes of production relations. I will conclude that economic change cannot be analysed in terms of a mere recombination of existing things or in terms of selection-variation mechanisms. It must be analysed through the dynamic historical process by which “a new thing leads to another”. In these processes of transformation the causality links are themselves the results of processes in which ex ante potential causality links can be transformed into different (and new) effective (or actual) causality links

Investimenti, consumi e occupazione. Capacità produttiva, domanda effettiva e distribuzione del reddito nel lungo periodo

In this essay, the theoretical background represented by the classical theory of income distribution and the Keynesian principle of effective demand extended to the long term is used as a guide to identify the problems that the change in productive capacity raises on the long-term relationship between investment, consumption and employment. This theoretical perspective moves away from the neo-kaleckian growth theory, according to which the equilibrium between savings and investment in the-long term is warranted by changes in the steady state degree of capacity utilization. The essay aims to draw attention to the view that the adjustment of productive capacity to expected demand implies a qualitative change in productive capacity, which is transformed by the producers to acquire the means of production, skills and organization necessary to produce new and existing goods and services in a new way. In particular, the essay focuses on the possible long-term effects arising from feedbacks of this transformation of the productive capacity on employment growth, consumption, production and income. In this theoretical perspective, the essay discusses the relationships between investments, effective demand and productive capacity, and the relationship between changes in productive capacity and labor productivity . In the last part of the essay, a system of relations between investment, consumption and employment is estimate for the United States and Italy for the period 1960-2013. The results suggest that in our contemporary economies decelerative forces are at work. These forces can essentially be attributed to the reduction in the use of labor per unit of production and to the effects of such a reduction on income and employment growth. The essay concludes with the formulation of some specific hypotheses for a broader empirical analysis, currently underway, of the relationship between investment, consumption and employment

Produzione, investimenti e produttività. Rendimenti crescenti e cambiamento strutturale nell’industria manifatturiera americana (1960-1994)

L’articolo esamina la relazione cross-industry fra produzione, investimenti e produttività nell’industria manifatturiera americana, disaggregata a 4-digit, nel periodo 1960-94. I risultati empirici sono valutati tenendo conto che 8 industrie a forte crescita della produttività e tasso di crescita medio del prezzo negativo influenzano le relazioni esaminate. Un’analisi per serie temporali condotta su un sottoinsieme di industrie conferma i risultati cross-industry. Dall’analisi empirica è emerso che non è possibile osservare una forte relazione diretta fra investimenti e produttività in presenza di rendimenti crescenti in virtù dei quali all'aumentare del prodotto aumenta sia il prodotto per addetto sia il prodotto per unità di capitale impiegato. Per questo stesso motivo, le differenze interindustriali nei tassi di crescita della produttività risultano simultaneamente associate, positivamente, con la crescita del prodotto e, negativamente, con quella degli investimenti. Guardando ai rendimenti crescenti in termini degli effetti dell'aumento della divisione del lavoro nei suoi molti aspetti, l’articolo suggerisce che la crescita della produttività può essere ricondotta al prevalere degli effetti derivanti dallo sviluppo delle capacità tecnologiche e organizzative realizzabili nell’attività produttiva in quanto tale (JEL E22, L60, O40)

Agents and artefacts in the emerging electric vehicle space

After COP 21, the targets for reducing CO2 emissions have boosted the commitment of governments and companies to developing alternative technologies for the mobility of people and goods. Electric vehicles are at the heart of this transformation, which is profoundly affecting the characteristics of agents and artefacts. The aim of the paper is to identify the relevant domains of this transformation, and to identify what characterises the space of the agents and artefacts of the electric vehicle and their interactions, as oriented by the public policies promoted by the various countries. The paper presents the results of a multidimensional textual analysis of the news published in English by electrive.com, a daily newsletter covering a wide range of relevant information on developments in electric transport in Europe and beyond. These results are a preliminary step for the analysis of the social, economic, organisational and technological changes related to sustainable mobility.After COP 21, the targets for reducing CO2 emissions have boosted the commitment of governments and companies to developing alternative technologies for the mobility of people and goods. Electric vehicles are at the heart of this transformation, which is profoundly affecting the characteristics of agents and artefacts. The aim of the paper is to identify the relevant domains of this transformation, and to identify what characterises the space of the agents and artefacts of the electric vehicle and their interactions, as oriented by the public policies promoted by the various countries. The paper presents the results of a multidimensional textual analysis of the news published in English by electrive.com, a daily newsletter covering a wide range of relevant information on developments in electric transport in Europe and beyond. These results are a preliminary step for the analysis of the social, economic, organisational and technological changes related to sustainable mobility

ACO2 homozygous missense mutation associated with complicated Hereditary spastic paraplegia

Objective: To identify the clinical characteristics and genetic etiology of a family affected with hereditary spastic paraplegia (HSP). Methods: Clinical, genetic, and functional analyses involving genome-wide linkage coupled to whole-exome sequencing in a consanguineous family with complicated HSP. Results: A homozygous missense mutation was identified in the ACO2 gene (c.1240T>G p.Phe414Val) that segregated with HSP complicated by intellectual disability and microcephaly. Lymphoblastoid cell lines of homozygous carrier patients revealed significantly decreased activity of the mitochondrial aconitase enzyme and defective mitochondrial respiration. ACO2 encodes mitochondrial aconitase, an essential enzyme in the Krebs cycle. Recessive mutations in this gene have been previously associated with cerebellar ataxia. Conclusions: Our findings nominate ACO2 as a disease-causing gene for autosomal recessive complicated HSP and provide further support for the central role of mitochondrial defects in the pathogenesis of HSP

Broadening the phenotype of TARDBP mutations: the TARDBP Ala382Thr mutation and Parkinson’s disease in Sardinia

Mutations in the TARDBP gene are a cause of autosomal dominant amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and of frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD), but they have not been found so far in patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD). A founder TARDBP mutation (p.Ala382Thr) was recently identified as the cause of ~30% of ALS cases in Sardinia, a Mediterranean genetic isolate. We studied 327 consecutive Sardinian patients with clinically diagnosed PD (88 familial, 239 sporadic) and 578 Sardinian controls. One family with FTLD and parkinsonism was also included. The p.Ala382Thr heterozygous mutation was detected in eight unrelated PD patients (2.5%). The three patients from the FTLD/parkinsonism family also carried this mutation. Within the control group, there were three heterozygous mutation carriers. During follow-up, one of these individuals developed motoneuron disease and another, a rapidly progressive dementia; the third remains healthy at the age of 79 but two close relatives developed motoneuron disease and dementia. The eight PD patients carrying the p.Ala382Thr mutation had all sporadic disease presentation. Their average onset age was 70.0 years (SD 9.4, range 51–79), which is later but not significantly different from that of the patients who did not carry this mutation. In conclusion, we expand the clinical spectrum associated with TARDBP mutations to FTLD with parkinsonism without motoneuron disease and to clinically definite PD. The TDP-43 protein might be directly involved in a broader neurodegenerative spectrum, including not only motoneuron disease and FTLD but also PD

Dopaminergic Neuronal Imaging in Genetic Parkinson's Disease: Insights into Pathogenesis

Objectives:To compare the dopaminergic neuronal imaging features of different subtypes of genetic Parkinson's Disease.Methods:A retrospective study of genetic Parkinson's diseases cases in which DaTSCAN (123I-FP-CIT) had been performed. Specific non-displaceable binding was calculated for bilateral caudate and putamen for each case. The right:left asymmetry index and striatal asymmetry index was calculated.Results:Scans were available from 37 cases of monogenetic Parkinson's disease (7 glucocerebrosidase (GBA) mutations, 8 alpha-synuclein, 3 LRRK2, 7 PINK1, 12 Parkin). The asymmetry of radioligand uptake for Parkinson's disease with GBA or LRRK2 mutations was greater than that for Parkinson's disease with alpha synuclein, PINK1 or Parkin mutations.Conclusions:The asymmetry of radioligand uptake in Parkinsons disease associated with GBA or LRRK2 mutations suggests that interactions with additional genetic or environmental factors may be associated with dopaminergic neuronal loss