A gyenge hazai innovációs teljesítmény intézményi magyarázatához. Vitaírás a nemzetközi innovációs versenyben való részvétel akadályairól (Towards an institutional explanation of the country's weak innovation performance)

Miért van a magyar gazdaság hasonlóan kritikus helyzetben, mint a rendszerváltást megelőző időkben? Miért nem sikerül az eladósodást megállítani, a gazdaságot konszolidálni, és fenntartható növekedési pályára állítani? Ennek közvetlen okát a szerzők a fejlődés féloldalasságában és a duális gazdasági szerkezetben látják. A piacgazdasági intézmények bevezetése ugyanis nem járt együtt az egész gazdaságot (vagy legalábbis annak nagy részét) átfogó, a tudásvezérelt információgazdaság felé mutató, gyors fejlődéssel. Számos indikátor azt jelzi, hogy az ország lemaradt a nemzetközi innovációs versenyben. Az innovációk elégtelensége azonban nem véletlen, nem exogén adottság, hanem a formális piaci intézmények mögött meghúzódó valós intézményi berendezkedéssel, a gazdaságban ténylegesen észlelhető magatartásmintákkal magyarázható. A piacgazdasági intézmények és jogi keretek, amelyek elvileg lehetőséget adnak az erőforrásokhoz való szabad és nyílt hozzáférésre, csak részben töltődtek meg tartalommal. Az országban még mindig meglehetősen korlátozott a sikeres belépés lehetősége a piaci és a politikai arénába, azaz a magyar társadalom - a north-i terminológiával élve - "korlátozott hozzáférésre alapozott társadalomként" írható le. Az a tény, hogy a piaci szereplők esélyei az államhoz és intézményeihez fűződő kapcsolatoktól függően nagyban különböznek egymástól, és a gazdasági szereplők rendszerszerűen használják e kapcsolatokat járadékszerzésre, lefojtja az innovációt, és újra és újra megakasztja a fejlődést. / === / Why is Hungary's economy still in a critical state similar to the one before the change of system? Why is the indebtedness not being halted, the economy consolidated or vital structural reforms performed? The authors see the direct cause in lopsided development and a dual economic structure. The introduction of market economic institutions was not followed by rapid, overall development towards a knowledge-led, information economy. Several indicators show how Hungary has fallen behind in competition for international innovation. The inadequacy is not a fortuitous, exogenous attribute, but explicable in terms of a real institutional setup underlying the formal market institutions, and of actual behaviour patterns found in the economy. Only in part has substance been gained by the institutions and legal frames of a market economy that theoretically would provide free and open access to resources. The scope for successful entry into the market or political arena remains very narrow, so that in Douglass North's terms, Hungary's is still "a society based on restricted access." Innovation is stifled and development repeatedly impeded by the fact that market players' chances differ widely depending on their connections with the state and its institutions and such connections are used regularly in rent-seeking.

Helyhez kötött kapcsolatok. Egy társadalmi kapcsolathálókon alapuló magyarázat a földrajzi munkamegosztás kialakulására = Ties of locality. An explanation of the development of the geographical division of labour based on social networks

A „földrajzi munkamegosztás” vagy „elhelyezkedés probléma” arra a kérdésre utal, miért alakulnak ki egy-egy gazdasági tevékenységre szakosodott földrajzi egységek, regionális gazdasági rendszerek. A hagyományos közgazdasági megközelítések a területek racionálisan kalkulálható komparatív előnyeit, a nyersanyagok vagy a piac közelségét, infrastrukturális adottságokat, útfüggőséget stb. szokták hangsúlyozni. A tanulmány szerzője a társadalmi kapcsolatok jelentőségét emeli ki, azt sugallja, hogy a területi specializálódás az egymással kapcsolatban álló, hasonlóan specializálódott többi szereplő nyomására alakul ki. A hipotézist két külföldön végzett eset tanulmány tapasztalatai alapján járja körül. ______________________ The question of "regional economic systems", "geographical division of labour" or "location problem" has an important literature. Economic approaches emphasize the rationally calculated advantages of the specialized industrial areas: the benefit of the exploitation of discovered resources, more cooperative relations, etc. The paper stresses the role of social networks in the location problem: economically specialized areas formed because of the suggestions and tips of connected enterprises, cooperative partners. The hypothesis is based on the experiences of two case studies, made in a Peruvian rural area and a Mexican modern industrial area.

Solving the mystery of Guanxi-a sociological explanation of social exchange and social networking in Guanxi practice

Guanxi, loosely defined as "inter-personal relations" or "personal connections," is one of the key socio-cultural concepts in understanding Chinese society. This thesis presented a theoretical examination of the Chinese socio-cultural concept of guanxi. By using a broad survey of the available literature, this thesis established the following points: Social structures shape and define the development of guanxi practice in Chinese society. Guanxi relationships are based on the social exchange of gifts and favors in dyadic or multi-stranded social networks. While following the general rules of reciprocity found in social exchange, guanxi exchange is also governed by the internalized social norms such as mianzi (face) and renqing (humanized obligation underpinned by human sentiment). Guanxi relationships are also network-oriented, featuring ties based on familiarity and mutual trust, and characterized by an interplay between expressiveness and instrumentalism.

Passive Acoustics: A Multifaceted Tool for Marine Mammal Conservation

Marine mammals exploit the efficiency of sound propagation in the marine environment for essential activities like communication and navigation. For this reason, passive acoustics has particularly high potential for marine mammal studies, especially those aimed at population management and conservation. Despite the rapid realization of this potential through a growing number of studies, much crucial information remains unknown or poorly understood. This research attempts to address two key knowledge gaps, using the well-studied bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) as a model species, and underwater acoustic recordings collected on four fixed autonomous sensors deployed at multiple locations in Sarasota Bay, Florida, between September 2012 and August 2013. Underwater noise can hinder dolphin communication. The ability of these animals to overcome this obstacle was examined using recorded noise and dolphin whistles. I found that bottlenose dolphins are able to compensate for increased noise in their environment using a wide range of strategies employed in a singular fashion or in various combinations, depending on the frequency content of the noise, noise source, and time of day. These strategies include modifying whistle frequency characteristics, increasing whistle duration, and increasing whistle redundancy. Recordings were also used to evaluate the performance of six recently developed passive acoustic abundance estimation methods, by comparing their results to the true abundance of animals, obtained via a census conducted within the same area and time period. The methods employed were broadly divided into two categories – those involving direct counts of animals, and those involving counts of cues (signature whistles). The animal-based methods were traditional capture-recapture, spatially explicit capture-recapture (SECR), and an approach that blends the “snapshot” method and mark-recapture distance sampling, referred to here as (SMRDS). The cue-based methods were conventional distance sampling (CDS), an acoustic modeling approach involving the use of the passive sonar equation, and SECR. In the latter approach, detection probability was modelled as a function of sound transmission loss, rather than the Euclidean distance typically used. Of these methods, while SMRDS produced the most accurate estimate, SECR demonstrated the greatest potential for broad applicability to other species and locations, with minimal to no auxiliary data, such as distance from sound source to detector(s), which is often difficult to obtain. This was especially true when this method was compared to traditional capture-recapture results, which greatly underestimated abundance, despite attempts to account for major unmodelled heterogeneity. Furthermore, the incorporation of non-Euclidean distance significantly improved model accuracy. The acoustic modelling approach performed similarly to CDS, but both methods also strongly underestimated abundance. In particular, CDS proved to be inefficient. This approach requires at least 3 sensors for localization at a single point. It was also difficult to obtain accurate distances, and the sample size was greatly reduced by the failure to detect some whistles on all three recorders. As a result, this approach is not recommended for marine mammal abundance estimation when few recorders are available, or in high sound attenuation environments with relatively low sample sizes. It is hoped that these results lead to more informed management decisions, and therefore, more effective species conservation.

Explanation, Dialogue and Default Logic

La distinción entre argumentación y explicación es una tarea complicada pero necesaria por diversas razones. Una de ellas es la necesidad de incorporar la explicación en un movimiento del diálogo como resultado de una obligación dialéctica. Se propusieron distintos sistemas de diálogo que exploran la distinción enfatizando aspectos pragmáticos. En el presente trabajo me ocupo de aspectos estructurales de la explicación analizados en el marco de la lógica por defecto que permite caracterizar ciertas objeciones en el diálogo. Asimismo, considero que la versión operacional de la lógica por defecto constituye una aproximaciónadecuada en la construcción de la explicación y en la representación de la instancia de diálogo en el intercambio dialéctico

Sustained effectiveness of a multifaceted intervention to reduce potentially inappropriate prescribing in older patients in primary care (OPTI-SCRIPT study)

Background: Potentially inappropriate prescribing (PIP) is common in older people in primary care and can result in increased morbidity, adverse drug events and hospitalisations. We previously demonstrated the success of a multifaceted intervention in decreasing PIP in primary care in a cluster randomised controlled trial (RCT).
Objective: We sought to determine whether the improvement in PIP in the short term was sustained at 1-year follow-up.
Methods: A cluster RCT was conducted with 21 GP practices and 196 patients (aged ≥70) with PIP in Irish primary care. Intervention participants received a complex multifaceted intervention incorporating academic detailing, medicine review with web-based pharmaceutical treatment algorithms that provide recommended alternative treatment options, and tailored patient information leaflets. Control practices delivered usual care and received simple, patient-level PIP feedback. Primary outcomes were the proportion of patients with PIP and the mean number of potentially inappropriate prescriptions at 1-year follow-up. Intention-to-treat analysis using random effects regression was used.
Results: All 21 GP practices and 186 (95 %) patients were followed up. We found that at 1-year follow-up, the significant reduction in the odds of PIP exposure achieved during the intervention was sustained after its discontinuation (adjusted OR 0.28, 95 % CI 0.11 to 0.76, P = 0.01). Intervention participants had significantly lower odds of having a potentially inappropriate proton pump inhibitor compared to controls (adjusted OR 0.40, 95 % CI 0.17 to 0.94, P = 0.04).
Conclusion: The significant reduction in the odds of PIP achieved during the intervention was sustained after its discontinuation. These results indicate that improvements in prescribing quality can be maintained over time.

Leave it to the Amateurs: A Career Development Explanation of Political Inexperience among Members of the Canadian Parliament:MA Thesis

In many advanced democracies, political scientists have lamented the rise of professional politicians as a challenge to the effective representation of diverse electorates. In contrast, their relative absence from Canadian federal politics gives rise to concerns over high levels of political amateurism among Canadian MPs. This study, thus, seeks to account for the numerical weakness of individuals with an occupational background in politics in the Canadian Parliament. It utilizes both individual-level quantitative data on MPs serving between the 35th and 41st Parliaments, inclusive, as well as material from qualitative interviews with over seventy former MPs. Conceptualizing the field of politics as a career in itself, and drawing on career development theory, the study finds that at the key stages of establishing, maintaining, and disengaging from a federal political career, there are specific challenges that are not significantly ameliorated by the possession of professional experience in politics itself. Professional politicians, therefore, have no major advantage over those with non-political occupational backgrounds in their career development. Furthermore, by acknowledging the existence of different types of professional politician, it finds that those whose primary occupational background was in politics itself to be in a distinct minority, but the extent of political amateurism is challenged by a much larger minority of MPs whose primary occupation was non-political but who still possess some secondary or electoral experience prior to entering Parliament.

Counting Crime: an explanation of falling crime rates

The current crime decrease is defying traditional criminological theories such as those espoused by Bonger (1916) who researched the relationship between crime and economic conditions and stated that when unemployment rises so does crime. In both the USA and the UK crime has dropped dramatically while unemployment has risen. Both the USA and the UK have been in a deep recession since 2008 but the crime rate has decreased dramatically in both countries. Over the past 20 years it has halved in England and Wales. So how do we explain this phenomenon? Crime is down across the West but more so in Britain (see Figure 1). In England and Wales crime has decreased by 8% in a single year (2013). Vandalism is down by 14% and burglaries and vehicle crime by 11%. The murder rate in the UK is at its lowest since 1978; in 2013, 540 people were killed. Some less serious offences are vanishing too; antisocial behaviour has fallen from just under 4million incidents in 2007-08 to 2.4million. (The Economist 20/4/13). According to the most recent annual results from the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW), crime is at its lowest level since the survey began in 1981; the most recent annual figures from the survey, Latest figures from the CSEW show there were an estimated 7.3 million incidents of crime against households and resident adults (aged 16 and over) in England and Wales for the year ending March 2014. This represents a 14% decrease compared with the previous year’s survey, and is the lowest estimate since the survey began in 1981.

eLearning in the context of a one-year postgraduate course in macroscopy in pathology: benefits of a multifaceted and pluripotent concept

Performing Macroscopy in Pathology implies to plan and implement methods of selection, description and collection of biological material from human organs and tissues, actively contributing to the clinical pathology analysis by preparing macroscopic report and the collection and identification of fragments, according to the standardized protocols and recognizing the criteria internationally established for determining the prognosis. The Macroscopy in Pathology course is a full year program with theoretical and pratical components taught by Pathologists. It is divided by organ/system surgical pathology into weekly modules and includes a practical "hands-on" component in Pathology Departments. The students are 50 biomedical scientists aged from 22 to 50 years old from all across the country that want to acquire competences in macroscopy. A blended learning strategy was used in order to: give students the opportunity to attend from distance; support the contents, lessons and the interaction with colleagues and teachers; facilitate the formative/summative assessment.

An explanation of consumer trust recovery in a food retailer

An organization trusted by consumers enjoys a number of benefits. Unfortunately, instances of trust-damaging events involving organizations happen often. Damaged consumer trust in an organization has numerous negative consequences for the organization and for consumers. Currently, there is a paucity of theory about consumer trust recovery. So, understanding why and how consumer trust recovery occurs is timely, and theoretically and practically relevant. However, the findings from this study suggest that we need to distinguish between two kinds of consumer trust recovery. The first (I call it unconscious consumer trust recovery) refers to trust recovery that occurs without the consumer being fully conscious of it. In other words, a consumer is aware of their damaged trust during the scandal, but is not aware that their trust in the organization has improved. The consumer does not think about his or her recovered trust, just as they did not think about their level of trust before the scandal. The consumer trust is habitual. The second (I call it conscious consumer trust recovery) refers to an improvement in damaged trust where the consumer is fully conscious of their trust recovery. In other words, in conscious trust recovery the consumer is aware that the scandal damaged their trust in the organization. Also, after the scandal, in contrast to unconscious trust recovery, in conscious trust recovery the consumer is also fully aware that he trusts the organization as much or more than during the scandal. My aim is to inductively develop a theory explaining each type of consumer trust recovery. To do so, I use Charmazian grounded theory methodology, because this methodology is developed for theory-building from data and is aligned with the philosophical underpinnings of this study. The empirical context for this study is the meat adulteration scandal (“the horse meat scandal”) in 2013 in the UK. I collect and analyse empirical data about both types of trust recovery in an organization from 31 consumers that experienced both types. My analysis shows that when consumers perceive the scandal as less important, they experience unconscious trust recovery. This happens because the reduced importance of the scandal leads to a shift in consumers’ attention, which in turn leads to their inattentiveness to the scandal. Consumer inattentiveness is an immediate antecedent of unconscious trust recovery. Conscious consumer trust recovery occurs because consumers see cues indicating to them that the food retailer has improved product control systems, which in turn leads to consumer perceptions of the organization’s renewed ability. Consumer perception of renewed ability is an immediate antecedent of their conscious trust recovery. My findings lead me to make three main theoretical contributions to the theory of trust recovery in general and to consumer trust recovery in particular. The first contribution lies in showing that there are two types of consumer trust recovery in an organization, not one, as previously conceptualised, and that the same consumers can experience both types. The second contribution is a theory of unconscious consumer trust recovery in an organization that involves three concepts: consumers’ perceived importance of the scandal, consumers’ shift of attention, and consumer inattentiveness. The third contribution is the finding that conscious recovery of consumer trust occurs even when existing theory of trust recovery would predict that it would not. This study can help managers aiming to repair consumer trust in an organization by identifying a set of antecedents and underlying mechanisms that can guide such trust repair.

Dysautonomia: an Explanation for the Medically Unexplained?

Objective: To identify dysautonomia as a collection of conditions with variable presentation that may be mistaken for medically unexplained symptoms. Methods: Case series. Results: Tilt table testing and 24 h electrocardiographic monitoring provided useful diagnostic tools to confirm the diagnosis. Conclusion: A greater awareness and recognition of the disorders that result from dysautonomia and recognition of the disability that results from these disorders will improve patients’ quality of life.

A Multifaceted Study of Scedosporium boydii Cell Wall Changes during Germination and Identification of GPI-Anchored Proteins

International audience

Sauvegarde et valorisation du patrimoine culturel immatériel du Sénègal: projet de création d'un écomusée des pratiques divinatoires et curatives

7 RESUME/ABSTRACT Au Sénégal, il existe des pratiques culturelles et cultuelles, séculaires que l’on retrouve au niveau de toutes les composantes ethnolinguistiques. Une donnée qui nous interpelle, chacun en ce qui nous concerne, et nous invite à repenser le devenir de nos spécificités et particularités culturelles face aux assauts répétés et multiformes de la modernité. La caractéristique qui entoure les rites et rituels est le plus souvent sujette à plusieurs formes d’interprétations fantaisistes et parfois dévalorisantes. Force est de reconnaître que le recours à la médecine moderne ne saurait pleinement répondre à ce besoin de tranquillité et de sérénité mystique qui habite chaque africain en général et chaque sénégalais en particulier. Il s’agit ici, pour l’africain et en ce qui nous concerne le sénégalais, de trouver une tranquillité psychologique et une assurance symbolique propres à créer les conditions d’une guérison physique et/ou morale. En ce sens que l’emprise du modernise ne peut aucunement influer totalement sur cette croyance ancestrale que bon nombre de sénégalais, et pas des moindres, ont en l’endroit de ces pratiques. Une prédisposition culturelle sous-tendue par des préoccupations cultuelles qui font l’objet d’une communion agissante entre les différents membres des communautés. Une prise de conscience qui se manifeste à travers des cérémonies ponctuellement organisées et présidées par des prêtres et prêtresses. Notre présente étude participe de la recherche d’un juste équilibre spirituel et temporel apte à offrir une possibilité de concilier les aspects traditionnels des spécificités culturelles de nos composantes ethnolinguistiques avec ce qui constitue les contraintes et exigences de la modernité. Il reste certes évident que cette opposition a généré une sorte de fracture culturelle en véhiculant une autre manière de voir, mais surtout de percevoir nos traditions et coutumes. Cependant à l’heure d’un redimensionnement et d’une adaptation contextuelle de ce qui constitue nos valeurs identitaires, il nous revient de procéder à une démarche de sensibilisation et d’explication pour conférer plus de lisibilité à nos expressions culturelles. La mise en place d’un écomusée des pratiques divinatoires et curatives, est un moyen moderne et pratique de sauvegarde et de valorisation des savoirs et connaissances thérapeutiques endogènes. Outre la création d’emplois et de revenus, cette infrastructure sera une vitrine du patrimoine local qui favorisera le développement d’un tourisme culturel source de devises et vecteur de développement local; ABSTRACT: In Senegal, there are cultural and religious practices, ancient that we find in all the ethno-linguistic components. A given that challenges us, each in our case, and invites us to rethink the future of our cultural specificities and characteristics and multifaceted face of repeated assaults of modernity. The characteristic surrounding the rites and rituals is usually subject to various forms of demeaning and sometimes fanciful interpretations. We must recognize that the use of modern medicine can not fully meet this need of tranquility and mystical serenity that inhabits every African in general and Senegal in particular each. This is, for Africa and for us Senegalese, find a psychological tranquility and symbolic own insurance to create conditions for physical healing and / or legal. In that the grip of modernizing can in no way affect totally on this ancient belief that many Senegalese, not least, have the place of such practices. A cultural predisposition underpinned by cultic concerns that are the subject of an active communion between the community members. An awareness that manifests itself through occasionally organized ceremonies presided over by priests and priestesses. Our present study involved the search for a fair balance spiritual and temporal able to offer an opportunity to reconcile the traditional aspects of the cultural specificities of our ethno-linguistic components with which constitutes the constraints and demands of modernity. While it remains clear that this opposition has generated a kind of cultural divide by conveying a different way of seeing, but above all to collect our traditions and customs. However at the time resizing and contextual adaptation of what constitutes our identity values, it is our responsibility to conduct an outreach approach and explanation to give greater clarity to our cultural expressions. The establishment of a museum of divination and healing practices, is a modern and convenient way to backup and recovery of therapeutic knowledge and endogenous knowledge. In addition to creating jobs and income, this infrastructure will be a showcase of local heritage that promote the development of cultural tourism source of foreign exchange and local development vector.