Innovation as an Emerging System Property: An Agent Based Simulation Model

The paper elaborates the notion of innovation as an emerging property of complex system dynamics and presents an agent-based simulation model (ABM) of an economy where systemic knowledge interactions among heterogeneous agents are crucial for the recombinant generation of new technological knowledge and the introduction of innovations. In this approach the organization of the system plays a crucial role in assessing the chances of individual firms to actually introduce innovations because it qualifies the access to external knowledge, an indispensable input, together with internal learning and research activities, into the recombinant generation of new knowledge. The introduction of innovations is analyzed as the result of systemic knowledge interactions among myopic agents that are credited with an extended procedural rationality that includes forms of creative reaction. The creative reaction of agents may lead to the introduction of productivity enhancing innovations. This takes place only when the structural, organizational and institutional characteristics of the system are such that agents, reacting to out-of-equilibrium conditions, can actually take advantage of external knowledge available within the innovation system into which they are embedded to generate new technological knowledge. The ABM enables one to explore effects of alternative organizational features of the systems, namely different configurations of the intellectual property right regimes and different architectural configurations of the regional structure into which knowledge interactions take place, on the rates of introduction of technological innovations. The results of the ABM suggest that the dissemination of knowledge favors the emergence of creative reactions and hence faster rates of introduction of technological innovations.Complex System Dynamics, Innovation, Emergent Property, Technological Knowledge, Intellectual Property Rights, Knowledge Dissemination

Traditional knowledge in the approach to sustainability: Making sense of Bhutanese gross national happiness and Buen Vivir in Bolivian constitution

In the past few decades, due to the global environmental crisis humanity is facing, a sudden growth in environmental policies and sustainability strategies has been registered. This article discusses two of such policies, namely that of Gross National Happiness (GNH) in the Himalayan country of Bhutan and the inclusion of the concept of Buen Vivir (BV) in the Bolivian Constitution, through a critical analysis - based on political ecology approaches - of their implementation within state policy and their wider implications within the global discourse on the so-called “sustainable development” paradox. This paper highlights the role that the aforementioned policies might play in the path to decolonisation, seeing as how they draw inspiration from their own local contexts and values instead of those provided by the Global North, more specifically focusing on their ancestral and traditional knowledge to supposedly guide the countries’ policy-making process. Although several points of criticism are identified in both policies, innovativeness is detected in their potential to offer alternative views on human wellbeing, both for global southern and global northern contexts, as their original intent would be to remarkably operate outside of the Western framework of development based on Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and economic growth. GNH appears to be mostly oriented toward supporting political national budget discussion and allocation, while BV acts at a higher level (constitutional), thus also inspiring overall politics

Trésors de la Terre

Science et art réunis pour informer, séduire L’exposition Trésors de la Terre, présentée dans l’aile droite de la Galerie de minéralogie et de géologie au Jardin des Plantes de Paris, offre une approche à la fois scientifique et esthétique du monde des minéraux. Les quelque six cents spécimens minéralogiques présentés, allant de cristaux géants aux gemmes de la Couronne de France, reflètent sa diversité, sa complexité et sa richesse artistique. S’appuyant sur des minéraux bruts très variés, s..

Combined antiretroviral therapy reduces hyperimmunoglobulinemia in HIV-1 infected children

Objective: To evaluate the effect of combined antiretroviral therapy on serum immunoglobulin (Ig) levels in HIV-1 perinatally infected children. Methods: Data from 1250 children recorded by the Italian Register for HIV Infection in Children from 1985 to 2002 were analysed. Since Ig levels physiologically vary with age, differences at different age periods were evaluated as differences in z-scores calculated using means and standard deviations of normal population for each age period. Combined antiretroviral therapy has become widespread in Italy since 1996, thus differences in Ig z-scores between the periods 1985-1995 and 1996-2002 were analysed. Data according to type of therapeutic regimen were also analysed. Results: Between the two periods 1985-1995 and 1996-2002, significant (P < 0.0001) decreases in IgG (6.29 ± 4.72 versus 4.44 ± 4.33), IgM (9.25 ± 13.32 versus 5.61 ± 7.93), and IgA (10.25 ± 15.68 versus 6.48 ± 11.56) z-scores, together with a parallel significant (P < 0.0001) increase in CD4 T-lymphocyte percentages, were found. These decreases were confirmed regardless of whether the children were receiving intravenous Ig or not. Ig z-scores were significantly higher in children receiving mono-therapy than in those receiving double-combined therapy (IgC, P < 0.0001; IgM, P = 0.003; IgA, P = 0.031) and in the latter children than in those receiving three or more drugs (P < 0.0001 for all z-scores). Ig z-scores correlated inversely with CD4 T-lymphocyte percentages and, directly, with viral loads. Conclusions: Our data show that in HIV-1 infected children combined antiretroviral therapy leads to reduction of hyperimmunoglobulinemia which parallels restoration of CD4 T-lymphocyte percentage and viral load decrease, which it turn probably reflects improved B-lymphocyte functions. © 2004 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins

La correspondance entre Henri Hureau de Sénarmont et Quintino Sella - The Correspondence between Henri Hureau de Sénarmont and Quintino Sella

The unpublished correspondence between Henri Hureau de Sénarmont (1808-1862) and his student at the École des Mines (Paris) Quintino Sella (1827-1884) is reported and briefly noted. Their epistolary extends between 1852 and 1858 and consist of 31 letters, of which only 10 are addressed by Sella to his master Sénarmont. As well as illustrating the scientific characteristics of the two mineralogists, it offers a panorama of the academic environment of that period in Europe. The published documents are available in the archives of the Fondazione Sella (Biella), except seven letters of Sella that belongs to Mr. Christophe Dubois. In particular, Sénarmont improved optical microscopy by introducing new accessories and pioneered modern optical studies of minerals.The unpublished correspondence between Henri Hureau de Sénarmont (1808-1862) and his student at the École des Mines (Paris) Quintino Sella (1827-1884) is reported and briefly noted. Their epistolary extends between 1852 and 1858 and consist of 31 letters, of which only 10 are addressed by Sella to his master Sénarmont. As well as illustrating the scientific characteristics of the two mineralogists, it offers a panorama of the academic environment of that period in Europe. The published documents are available in the archives of the Fondazione Sella (Biella), except seven letters of Sella that belongs to Mr. Christophe Dubois. In particular, Sénarmont improved optical microscopy by introducing new accessories and pioneered modern optical studies of minerals

La correspondance entre Auguste Daubrée et Quintino Sella - The correspondence between Auguste Daubrée and Quintino Sella

The article reports the 66 letters that make up the correspondence between A. Daubrée and Q. Sella. The letters written by Daubrée (38) and by Sella (28) are kept at the Fondazione Sella o.n.l.u.s.(Biella) and the library of the Institut de France (Paris), respectively. The topics are mainly related to positions of president, in the order, of the Institut de France (Daubrée) and of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, which Sella reorganized after Rome became the capital of Italy in 1871. In particular, Sella, to enhance the scientific role of Italy, supports Italian candidates worthy of becoming members of the Institut. At the same time Sella, who had to abandon his promising crystallographic research in favour of politics but aspires to be elected member of the Académie des Sciences himself, highlights his relationship with the international mineralogical community and his promotion of the Italian scientific activity

Innovation as an Emerging System Property: an Agent Based Model.

The paper elaborates the notion of innovation as an emerging property of complex system dynamics and presents an agent-based model of an economy where systemic knowledge interactions among heterogeneous agents are crucial for the generation of new technological knowledge and the introduction of innovations. In this approach external knowledge is an indispensable input,together with internal learning and research activities, into the generation of new knowledge. The introduction of innovations is analyzed as the result of systemic interactions among myopic agents that are credited with an extended procedural rationality that includes forms of creative reaction. The creative reaction of agents may lead to the introduction of productivity enhancing innovations. This takes place only when the structural and institutional characteristics of the system are such that agents, reacting to out-of equilibrium conditions, can actually take advantage of external knowledge available within the innovation system into which they are embedded. Building upon agentbased simulation techniques the paper explores the effects that alternative configurations of the intellectual property right regimes play in assessing the chances to generate new technological knowledge and shows how the different architectural configurations of the structure into which knowledge interactions take place affect the rates of introduction of technological innovations. The results of the simulation model suggest that the dissemination of knowledge favors the emergence of creative reactions and hence faster rates of introduction of technological innovations.

Novodneprite (AuPb3), anyuiite [Au(Pb, Sb)2] and gold micro- and nano-inclusions within plastically deformed mantle-derived olivine from the Lherz peridotite (Pyrenees, France): a HRTEM–AEM–EELS study

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