2,278 research outputs found
Economic Credit in Renaissance Florence
What were the social and institutional factors that led to, and reinforced, the
precocious emergence of Florentine commercial capitalism,3 especially in the domain of
international merchant-banking? The dominant stream of answers, emphasized by
economic historians and by economists, focuses on the invention in late-medieval and
Renaissance Italy of a variety of innovative business techniques – bills of exchange,
double-entry bookkeeping, partnership contracts, commercial courts. If these impressive
organizational inventions are interpreted as facets of a broader rise of impersonal market
rationality, then a tension emerges in Florentine, and indeed in European, historiography
between economic historians and the work of social and political historians, who
emphasize the deeply personalistic – mainly familial and clientelist – character of social
relationships of the period. But were early-capitalist business techniques really the
leading edge of a breakthrough of the market from its traditional social shackles, as the
master narrative of modernization would have it? Or instead were economic relations in
the market embedded in, and hence reflective of, trends in the surrounding social and political networks of the time, as anthropologically and sociologically oriented economic
historians like Karl Polanyi4 have argued? Renaissance Florentine businessmen were not
only businessmen, after all, they were also fathers, neighbors, politicians, friends and
enemies, and patrons of the arts. But what implications, if any, did this overlap in roles
have for the organization and operation of economic markets?
In this article, we address these historical questions through both statistical and
textual analyses of Florentine commercial credit in the early Quattrocento. Our
conclusion will be that commercial credits among Florentine companies were indeed
highly correlated with a wide range of non-economic, social relationships among the
partners of these companies. Correlations between economic and social relations were
highest in the merchant-banking pinnacle of the Florentine economy – precisely in the
industries where reliance upon advanced capitalist business techniques was greatest. New capitalist business techniques thus did not displace the oligarchic social networks of the time, but rather built upon and formalized these relationships into markets. In particular,
family and neighborhood provided strong ‘traditionalist’ foundations to Renaissance
Florentine credit markets. But then republicanism, especially in the institutional form of its elected city council, provided the political scaffolding for personalistic social networks (and thus the economic credit networks built upon them) topologically to ‘open out’ toward expansive liquidity and growth, instead of to close inward into cliques and corruption. Three mechanisms for this institutional impact of republicanism on the
emergence of credit markets are discussed: public certification of reputation (onore)
through co-optative elections, and both performative and network incorporations of
carefully filtered newcomers into relatively open elites5 of merchant-politicians
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Inhibition of adenovirus serotype 14 infection by octadecyloxyethyl esters of (S)-[(3-hydroxy-2-phosphonomethoxy)propyl]- nucleosides in vitro.
On September 22, 2008, a physician on Prince of Wales Island, Alaska, notified the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services (ADHSS) of an unusually high number of adult patients with recently diagnosed pneumonia (n = 10), including three persons who required hospitalization and one who died. ADHSS and CDC conducted an investigation to determine the cause and distribution of the outbreak, identify risk factors for hospitalization, and implement control measures. This report summarizes the results of that investigation, which found that the outbreak was caused by adenovirus 14 (Ad14), an emerging adenovirus serotype in the United States that is associated with a higher rate of severe illness compared with other adenoviruses. Among the 46 cases identified in the outbreak from September 1 through October 27, 2008, the most frequently observed characteristics included the following: male (70%), Alaska Native (61%), underlying pulmonary disease (44%), aged > or = 65 years (26%), and current smoker (48%). Patients aged > or = 65 years had a fivefold increased risk for hospitalization. The most commonly reported symptoms were cough (100%), shortness of breath (87%), and fever (74%). Of the 11 hospitalized patients, three required intensive care, and one required mechanical ventilation. One death was reported. Ad14 isolates obtained during the outbreak were identical genetically to those in recent community-acquired outbreaks in the United States which suggests the emergence of a new, and possibly more virulent Ad14 variant. Clinicians should consider Ad14 infection in the differential diagnosis for patients with community-acquired pneumonia, particularly when unexplained clusters of severe respiratory infections are detected
Essential role for proteinase-activated receptor-2 in arthritis
Using physiological, pharmacological, and gene disruption approaches, we demonstrate that proteinase-activated receptor-2 (PAR-2) plays a pivotal role in mediating chronic inflammation. Using an adjuvant monoarthritis model of chronic inflammation, joint swelling was substantially inhibited in PAR-2-deficient mice, being reduced by more than fourfold compared with wild-type mice, with virtually no histological evidence of joint damage. Mice heterozygous for PAR-2 gene disruption showed an intermediate phenotype. PAR-2 expression, normally limited to endothelial cells in small arterioles, was substantially upregulated 2 weeks after induction of inflammation, both in synovium and in other periarticular tissues. PAR-2 agonists showed potent proinflammatory effects as intra-articular injection of ASKH95, a novel synthetic PAR-2 agonist, induced prolonged joint swelling and synovial hyperemia. Given the absence of the chronic inflammatory response in the PAR-2-deficient mice, our findings demonstrate a key role for PAR-2 in mediating chronic inflammation, thereby identifying a novel and important therapeutic target for the management of chronic inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis
Fluctuations in viscous fingering
Our experiments on viscous (Saffman-Taylor) fingering in Hele-Shaw channels
reveal finger width fluctuations that were not observed in previous
experiments, which had lower aspect ratios and higher capillary numbers Ca.
These fluctuations intermittently narrow the finger from its expected width.
The magnitude of these fluctuations is described by a power law, Ca^{-0.64},
which holds for all aspect ratios studied up to the onset of tip instabilities.
Further, for large aspect ratios, the mean finger width exhibits a maximum as
Ca is decreased instead of the predicted monotonic increase.Comment: Revised introduction, smoothed transitions in paper body, and added a
few additional minor results. (Figures unchanged.) 4 pages, 3 figures.
Submitted to PRE Rapi
The Effect of Kipping on the Performance of a Pull-up
The high prevalence of obesity and sedentary lifestyle contribute to the growing burden of health care costs, incidence of disease, and mortality, making a lifestyle that includes regular physical activity increasingly important. Low intensity resistance training has been studied as a possible intervention to increase physical activity in inactive individuals. To determine the effects of a weighted vest treatment (WV) on steady state VO2, O2 deficit, VO2max, body mass index (BMI), and resting blood pressure (RBP). Fourteen college age women participated in a 4 week trial and completed both pre and posttest evaluations. These evaluations included a submaximal exercise bout, a maximal graded exercise test, determination of BMI, and measurement of RBP. Seven participants wore a weighted vest, fitted with 10% of their body weight, during normal daily activities for a minimum of 10 hours a day, 5 days each week. The remaining 7 participants served as a control group. ANCOVAs, with pretest measures serving as the covariates, were conducted to determine the effect of WV on posttest responses. Mean (sd) pre-test O2 deficit values were 0.64 (0.18) and 0.68 (0.18) for the control and WV groups, respectively. Mean (sd) post-test O2 deficit values were 0.62 (0.15) and 0.38 (0.17) for the control and WV groups, respectively. Results of the ANCOVA revealed a significant effect of WV on O2 deficit with O2 deficit values being lower following WV (F(1,11) = 7.30, p = 0.02). Further, WV accounted for about 40% of the change observed in posttest O2 deficit values (ηp2 = 0.40). However, no significant effect of WV was seen on steady state VO2, VO2 max, BMI, or RBP. WV resulted in lower O2 deficit values suggesting that it could elicit training effects related to improved aerobic function. Possible explanations for the lack of effects on other variables could be related to the limitations imposed by the relatively small sample size and trial length. Future studies designed with larger sample sizes and longer trial periods might prove more effective in evaluating the effect of WV on eliciting health related benefits
Slotted Aircraft Wing
An aircraft wing includes a leading airfoil element and a trailing airfoil element. At least one slot is defined by the wing during at least one transonic condition of the wing. The slot may either extend spanwise along only a portion of the wingspan, or it may extend spanwise along the entire wingspan. In either case, the slot allows a portion of the air flowing along the lower surface of the leading airfoil element to split and flow over the upper surface of the trailing airfoil element so as to achieve a performance improvement in the transonic condition
The First Substellar Subdwarf? Discovery of a Metal-poor L Dwarf with Halo Kinematics
We present the discovery of the first L-type subdwarf, 2MASS
J05325346+8246465. This object exhibits enhanced collision-induced H
absorption, resulting in blue NIR colors (). In
addition, strong hydride bands in the red optical and NIR, weak TiO absorption,
and an optical/J-band spectral morphology similar to the L7 DENIS 02051159AB
imply a cool, metal-deficient atmosphere. We find that 2MASS 0532+8246 has both
a high proper motion, = 2\farcs60\pm0\farcs15 yr, and a
substantial radial velocity, km s, and its
probable proximity to the Sun (d = 10--30 pc) is consistent with halo
membership. Comparison to subsolar-metallicity evolutionary models strongly
suggests that 2MASS 0532+8246 is substellar, with a mass of 0.077 M
0.085 M_{\sun} for ages 10--15 Gyr and metallicities Z_{\sun}. The discovery of this object clearly indicates that star
formation occurred below the Hydrogen burning mass limit at early times,
consistent with prior results indicating a flat or slightly rising mass
function for the lowest-mass stellar subdwarfs. Furthermore, 2MASS 0532+8246
serves as a prototype for a new spectral class of subdwarfs, additional
examples of which could be found in NIR proper motion surveys.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures, accepted to Ap
Protocol for a systematic review to identify and weight the indicators of risk of asthma exacerbations in children aged 5-12 years
No abstract available
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