Implications of external validity for research on polycentric and complex adaptive systems

Much recent research has examined the implications of policy analysis for complex adaptive social-ecological systems. System complexity comes from both the natural environment as well as complex institutional arrangements that humans use to manage and regulate such systems. Such research has systematically investigated how the interaction of a host of variables relate to some evaluation criteria. Many scholars argue that a deep understanding of the social-ecological systems, however, comes at the expense of externally valid inferences to other systems. In this paper I argue that having a nuanced understanding of the social-ecological system actually helps one to understand which types of policy domains an analysis might be generalized. --Complex Adaptive Systems,External Validity,Polycentric Systems

Electrocardiography in idiopathic hypercalcaemia and other cation disorders of childhood

Electrocardiograms of 100 healthy infants aged from 2 weeks to 12 months were recorded and analysed in order to provide standard measurements for comparison with those made in electrocardiograms of infants suffering from idiopathic hypercalcaemia and other disorders of cation balance. The conclusions of this investigation may he summarized as follows:- 1. The heart rate falls as age increases. The rate lay between 207 and 102 per minute in this series. 2. The P wave, PR interval, QRS complex and T wave lengthen as age increases, independently of heart rate. 3. The PR interval, QRS complex and T wave lengthen as the heart rate falls, independently of age. 4. The ST segment shortens as age increases, and lengthens as the heart rate falls. 5. The QT interval lengthens as the heart rate falls. The influence of heart rate is so profound that it is necessary to apply a correction to the measured QT interval to permit comparisons between QT intervals recorded at different heart rates. The corrected QT interval is referred to as the QTc value. 6. Time intervals in this series of healthy infants have the following minimum and maximum values: P wave = 0.04-0.08 second; T wave = 0.09-0.15 second; PR interval = 0.08-0.14 second; ST segment = 0.05-0.11 second; QRS complex = 0.05-0.08 second; QT interval = 0.21-0.29 second; QTc value = 0.36-0.42. Electrocardiograms of 25 patients with idiopathic hypercalcaemia were recorded. Certain features were compared with those of healthy subjects, and with those of 3 newborn infants with hypercalcaemia caused by the injection of calcium gluconate during replacement transfusion. The conclusions of this investigation may be summarized as follows:- 1 . Newborn infants with hypercalcaemia have a shortened ST segment and a decrease in the QTc value. 2. In patients with idiopathic hypercalcaemia, hypercalcaemia is accompanied by a shortened ST segment, but not by a decrease in the QTc value because of the undue length of the T wave. The QTc value cannot therefore be used to give an indication of the serum calcium level. 3 . In idiopathic hypercalcaemia the contour of the ST-T complex is often abnormal with a prominent broad flat-topped T wave, which is not directly related to the level of serum calcium. 4. The abnormal contour of the ST-T complex in idiopathic hypercalcaemia may reflect interference with myocardial activity either by a heart lesion caused by vitamin D, or by the action of a chemical substance associated with it. An animal experiment was conducted in order to gain information concerning heart lesions caused by vitamin D. Vitamin and vitamin D[3] were each given to 9 young rabbits and there were 9 controls. A study was made of the pathological changes in the heart and aorta. The conclusions of this investigation may be summarized as follows:- 1. Aortic lesions, found in every rabbit given vitamin D, are accepted as evidence of the toxicity of the doses given. 2. Of the heart lesions caused by vitamin D, lesions immediately subjacent to the endocardium apparently occur most frequently, focal lesions of the myocardium less frequently and coronary artery lesions least frequently. 3. Vitamin D[2] is at least as toxic to the heart as vitamin D[3] and may be more so. 4. It was not found possible to assess the prognosis of these heart lesions, and their ultimate effect, if any, on heart function, but myocardial and coronary artery lesions such as these could account for the electrocardiographic changes in idiopathic hypercalcaemia. 5. Myocardial and coronary artery lesions are unlikely to be caused by the usual prophylactic doses of vitamin D unless the vitamin were to exert a cumulative effect by such a mechanism as has been postulated in idiopathic hypercalcaemia of infancy. 6. Detailed histological examination of the heart of infants dying in the course of idiopathic hypercalcaemia is an important requirement

Giving in Illinois, 2015

Illinois is home to over 5,200 grantmaking foundations spanning all types—independent or family, corporate, community, and operating—sizes, and issue areas. The community includes many foundations that only give locally or within the state, as well as those that fund nationally and even internationally. The following analysis provides an overview of the scale and composition of the Illinois foundation community and an examination of how Illinois foundations have fared relative to U.S. foundations in general over the past decade

Community-driven reconstruction in Colombia: An experimental study of collective action beyond program beneficiaries

Increased community cooperation is an important objective of Community-Driven Reconstruction (CDR) programs in post-conflict settings. While these programs typically work with a limited group of beneficiaries, little is known about the potential community impact beyond these beneficiaries. To investigate this, we empirically analyze how cooperative behavior develops in a lab-in-the-field experiment with mixed groups of CDR program beneficiaries and nonbeneficiaries, organized in 42 municipalities in Colombia with active CDR programs. In the experiment, we use two rounds of a binary public goods game with a communication stage between both rounds. The experimental data are complemented with information on pre-existing social proximity among the participants and whether they have participated in a CDR program. We find that cooperation increases after communication, and that it correlates positively with the proportion of cooperators before communication. This peer effect is mainly driven by the cooperative behavior of CDR program beneficiaries while the influence of non-beneficiaries is limited

In-context Interference in Chat-based Large Language Models

Large language models (LLMs) have had a huge impact on society due to their impressive capabilities and vast knowledge of the world. Various applications and tools have been created that allow users to interact with these models in a black-box scenario. However, one limitation of this scenario is that users cannot modify the internal knowledge of the model, and the only way to add or modify internal knowledge is by explicitly mentioning it to the model during the current interaction. This learning process is called in-context training, and it refers to training that is confined to the user's current session or context. In-context learning has significant applications, but also has limitations that are seldom studied. In this paper, we present a study that shows how the model can suffer from interference between information that continually flows in the context, causing it to forget previously learned knowledge, which can reduce the model's performance. Along with showing the problem, we propose an evaluation benchmark based on the bAbI dataset

Catalysis of the Oxygen Reduction Reaction on Bimetallic PtCu Nanostructures

Poster Division: Engineering, Math, and Physical Sciences: 1st Place (The Ohio State University Edward F. Hayes Graduate Research Forum)We describe the design and synthesis of Pt-Cu electrocatalysts with well-defined, tunable morphology and composition. Electron microscopy and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface analysis indicate our catalysts have extremely high porosity, which acts to maximize mass transport, increase active surface area, and minimize the overall precious metal content. Production of these catalysts is quite facile and begins with synthesis of a porous Cu substrate, formed by etching Al from a Cu-Al alloy. The porous Cu substrate is then coated with a Pt layer via galvanic replacement with K2PtCl4. Growth of the Pt layer is manipulated by time, temperature, concentration of K2PtCl4, and convection rate during galvanic replacement. Data from inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) confirm multiple Pt loadings have been achieved via the galvanic replacement process. The Pt layer was found to enhance the oxygen reduction activity 30%-75% relative to the current state-of-the-art Pt/C catalyst and act as a barrier towards corrosion of the Cu understructure. The high ORR activity obtained indicates that high catalytic activity could potentially be achieved from fine-tuning this technique for other bimetallic Pt-based catalysts.A one-year embargo was granted for this item

Trust in Private and Common Property Experiments

We report the results from a series of experiments designed to investigate behavior in two settings that are frequently posited in the policy literature as generating different outcomes: private property and common property. The experimental settings closely parallel earlier experimental studies of the investment or trust game. The primary research question relates to the effect of the initial allocation of property rights on the level of trust that subjects will extend to others with whom they are linked. We find that assigning the initial endowments as common property of each of N pairs of a first mover and second mover leads to marginally greater cooperation or trust than when the initial endowments are fully owned by the two individual movers as their, respective, private property. Subjectsâ?? decisions are also shown to be correlated with attitudes toward trust and fairness that are measured in post-experiment questionnaires.

Determinants of Residential Water Conservation: The Case of Salt Lake City Utah

This study evaluates the effectiveness of demand-side water conservation policies in Salt Lake City, Utah for the years 1999 to 2002. We add to the existing residential water demand literature by exploring panel estim ation techniques with disaggregated household level data. Alternative policies used to induce water conservation are di scussed based on estimates of demand schedule parameters. We find that public conservation .campaigns have had negli gible impacts on the city\u27s water use. There have been, however, statistically significant reductions in consumption due to price changes despite minimal price increases. Our findings should enable local and state policymakers to better assess the tradeoffs of alternative conservation programs