Self-Fulfilling Price Cycles

This paper presents a model of a self-fulfilling price cycle in an asset market. Price oscillates deterministically even though the underlying environment is stationary. The mechanism that we uncover is driven by endogenous variation in the investment horizons of the different market participants, informed and uninformed. On even days, the price is high; on odd days it is low. On even days, informed traders are willing to jettison their good assets, knowing that they can buy them back the next day, when the price is low. The anticipated drop in price more than offsets any potential loss in dividend. Because of these asset sales, the informed build up their cash holdings. Understanding that the market is flooded with good assets, the uninformed traders are willing to pay a high price. But their investment horizon is longer than that of the informed traders: their intention is to hold the assets they purchase, not to resell. On odd days, the price is low because the uninformed recognise that the informed are using their cash holdings to cherry-pick good assets from the market. Now the uninformed, like the informed, are investing short-term. Rather than buy-and-hold as they do with assets purchased on even days, on odd days the uninformed are buying to sell. Notice that, at the root of the model, there lies a credit constraint. Although the informed are flush with cash on odd days, they are not deep pockets. On each cherry that they pick out of the market, they earn a high return: buying cheap, selling dear. However they don't have enough cash to strip the market of cherries and thereby bid the price up.

The rise and fall of piecework–timework wage differentials: market volatility, labor heterogeneity, and output pricing

Based on detailed payroll data of blue collar male and female labor in Britain’s engineering and metal working industrial sectors between the mid-1920s and mid-1960s, we provide empirical evidence in respect of several central themes in the piecework-timework wage literature. The period covers part of the heyday of pieceworking as well as the start of its post-war decline. We show the importance of relative piece rate flexibility during the Great Depression as well as during the build up to WWII and during the war itself. We account for the very significant decline in the differentials after the war. Labor market topics include piecework pay in respect of compensating differentials, labor heterogeneity, and the transaction costs of pricing piecework output.

A multi-purpose grammar generating a multi-scale integrated analysis of Laos

In this study we propose an application of the MuSIASEM approach which is used to provide an integrated analysis of Laos across different scales. With the term “integrated analysis across scales” we mean the generation of a series of packages of quantitative indicators, characterizing the performance of the socioeconomic activities performed in Laos when considering: (i) different hierarchical levels of organization (farming systems described at the level of household, rural villages, regions of Laos, the whole country level); and (ii) different dimensions of analysis (economic dimension, social dimension, ecological dimension, technical dimension). What is relevant in this application is that the information carried out by these different packages of indicators is integrated in a system of accounting which establishes interlinkages across these indicators. This is a essential feature to study sustainability trade-offs and to build more robust scenarios of possible changes. The multi-scale integrated representation presented in this study is based on secondary data (gathered in a three year EU project – SEAtrans and integrated by other available statistical sources) and it is integrated in GIS, when dealing with the spatial representation of Laos. However, even if we use data referring to Laos, the goal of this study is not that of providing useful information about a practical policy issue of Laos, but rather, to illustrate the possibility of using a multipurpose grammar to produce an integrated set of sustainability indicators at three different levels: (i) local; (ii) meso; (iii) macro level. The technical issue addressed is the simultaneous adoption of two multi-level matrices – one referring to a characterization of human activity over a set of different categories, and another referring to a characterization of land uses over the same set of categories. In this way, it becomes possible to explain the characteristics of Laos (an integrated set of indicators defining the performance of the whole country) in relation to the characteristics of the rural Laos and urban Laos. The characteristics of rural Laos, can be explained using the characteristics of three regions defined within Laos (Northern Laos, Central Laos and Southern Laos), which in turn can be defined (using an analogous package of indicators), starting from the characteristics of three main typologies of farming systems found in the regions.

Faire la ville juste : une analyse "in itinere" de la maîtrise publique d'ouvrage du projet urbain Carré de Soie (métropole lyonnaise)

Dans certaines portions des agglomérations (poches de pauvreté de centre-ville, couronnes suburbaines dégradées, espaces périurbains sans aménité), un cumul entre des inégalités sociales (pauvreté, chômage, etc.) et environnementales (exposition au bruit, aux risques industriels, etc.) peut être observé. La persistance de ces inégalités croisées dans le temps indique une tendance de fond : la capacité d'accéder à un cadre de vie de qualité n'est pas équitablement partagée parmi les individus. Ce constat interroge : comment se créent ces inégalités ? Comment infléchir cette tendance et faire la ville plus juste ?¦Apporter des réponses à cette problématique nécessite d'identifier les facteurs de causalités qui entrent en jeu dans le système de (re)production des inégalités urbaines. Le fonctionnement des marchés foncier et immobilier, la « tyrannie des petites décisions » et les politiques publiques à incidence spatiale sont principalement impliqués. Ces dernières, agissant sur tous les éléments du système, sont placées au coeur de ce travail. On va ainsi s'intéresser précisément à la manière dont les collectivités publiques pilotent la production de la ville contemporaine, en portant l'attention sur la maîtrise publique d'ouvrage (MPO) des grands projets urbains.¦Poser la question de la justice dans la fabrique de la ville implique également de questionner les référentiels normatifs de l'action publique : à quelle conception de la justice celle-ci doit- elle obéir? Quatre perspectives (radicale, substantialiste, procédurale et intégrative) sont caractérisées, chacune se traduisant par des principes d'action différenciés. Une méthodologie hybride - empruntant à la sociologie des organisations et à l'analyse des politiques publiques - vient clore le volet théorique, proposant par un détour métaphorique d'appréhender le projet urbain comme une pièce de théâtre dont le déroulement dépend du jeu d'acteurs.¦Cette méthodologie est utilisée dans le volet empirique de la recherche, qui consiste en une analyse de la MPO d'un projet urbain en cours dans la première couronne de l'agglomération lyonnaise : le Carré de Soie. Trois grands objectifs sont poursuivis : descriptif (reconstruire le scénario), analytique (évaluer la nature de la pièce : conte de fée, tragédie ou match d'improvisation ?) et prescriptif (tirer la morale de l'histoire). La description de la MPO montre le déploiement successif de quatre stratégies de pilotage, dont les implications sur les temporalités, le contenu du projet (programmes, morphologies) et les financements publics vont être déterminantes. Sur la base de l'analyse, plusieurs recommandations peuvent être formulées - importance de l'anticipation et de l'articulation entre planification et stratégie foncière notamment - pour permettre à la sphère publique de dominer le jeu et d'assurer la production de justice par le projet urbain (réalisation puis entretien des équipements et espaces publics, financement de logements de qualité à destination d'un large éventail de populations, etc.). Plus généralement, un décalage problématique peut être souligné entre les territoires stratégiques pour le développement de l'agglomération et les capacités de portage limitées des communes concernées. Ce déficit plaide pour le renforcement des capacités d'investissement de la structure intercommunale.¦La seule logique du marché (foncier, immobilier) mène à la polarisation sociale et à la production d'inégalités urbaines. Faire la ville juste nécessite une forte volonté des collectivités publiques, laquelle doit se traduire aussi bien dans l'ambition affichée - une juste hiérarchisation des priorités dans le développement urbain - que dans son opérationnalisation - une juste maîtrise publique d'ouvrage des projets urbains.¦Inner-city neighborhoods, poor outskirts, and peri-urban spaces with no amenities usually suffer from social and environmental inequalities, such as poverty, unemployment, and exposure to noise and industrial hazards. The observed persistence of these inequalities over time points to an underlying trend - namely, that access to proper living conditions is fundamentally unequal, thus eliciting the question of how such inequalities are effected and how this trend can be reversed so as to build a more equitable city.¦Providing answers to such questions requires that the causal factors at play within the system of (re)production of urban inequalities be identified. Real estate markets, "micromotives and macrobehavior", and public policies that bear on space are mostly involved. The latter are central in that they act on all the elements of the system. This thesis therefore focuses on the way public authorities shape the production of contemporary cities, by studying the public project ownership of major urban projects.¦The study of justice within the urban fabric also implies that the normative frames of reference of public action be questioned: what conception of justice should public action refer to? This thesis examines four perspectives (radical, substantialist, procedural, and integrative) each of which results in different principles of action. This theoretical part is concluded by a hybrid methodology that draws from sociology of organizations and public policy analysis and that suggests that the urban project may be understood as a play, whose outcome hinges on the actors' acting.¦This methodology is applied to the empirical analysis of the public project ownership of an ongoing urban project in the Lyon first-ring suburbs: the Carré de Soie. Three main objectives are pursued: descriptive (reconstructing the scenario), analytical (assessing the nature of the play - fairy tale, tragedy or improvisation match), and prescriptive (drawing the moral of the story). The description of the public project ownership shows the successive deployment of four control strategies, whose implications on deadlines, project content (programs, morphologies), and public funding are significant. Building on the analysis, several recommendations can be made to allow the public sphere to control the process and ensure the urban project produces equity (most notably, anticipation and articulation of planning and real- estate strategy, as well as provision and maintenance of equipment and public spaces, funding of quality housing for a wide range of populations, etc.). More generally, a gap can be highlighted between those territories that are strategic to the development of the agglomeration and the limited resources of the municipalities involved. This deficit calls for strengthening the investment abilities of the intermunicipal structure.¦By itself, the real-estate market logic brings about social polarization and urban inequalities. Building an equitable city requires a strong will on the part of public authorities, a will that must be reflected both in the stated ambition - setting priorities of urban development equitably - and in its implementation managing urban public projects fairly.

Perinatal care at the limit of viability between 22 and 26 completed weeks of gestation in Switzerland.

Perinatal care of pregnant women at high risk for preterm delivery and of preterm infants born at the limit of viability (22-26 completed weeks of gestation) requires a multidisciplinary approach by an experienced perinatal team. Limited precision in the determination of both gestational age and foetal weight, as well as biological variability may significantly affect the course of action chosen in individual cases. The decisions that must be taken with the pregnant women and on behalf of the preterm infant in this context are complex and have far-reaching consequences. When counselling pregnant women and their partners, neonatologists and obstetricians should provide them with comprehensive information in a sensitive and supportive way to build a basis of trust. The decisions are developed in a continuing dialogue between all parties involved (physicians, midwives, nursing staff and parents) with the principal aim to find solutions that are in the infant's and pregnant woman's best interest. Knowledge of current gestational age-specific mortality and morbidity rates and how they are modified by prenatally known prognostic factors (estimated foetal weight, sex, exposure or nonexposure to antenatal corticosteroids, single or multiple births) as well as the application of accepted ethical principles form the basis for responsible decision-making. Communication between all parties involved plays a central role. The members of the interdisciplinary working group suggest that the care of preterm infants with a gestational age between 22 0/7 and 23 6/7 weeks should generally be limited to palliative care. Obstetric interventions for foetal indications such as Caesarean section delivery are usually not indicated. In selected cases, for example, after 23 weeks of pregnancy have been completed and several of the above mentioned prenatally known prognostic factors are favourable or well informed parents insist on the initiation of life-sustaining therapies, active obstetric interventions for foetal indications and provisional intensive care of the neonate may be reasonable. In preterm infants with a gestational age between 24 0/7 and 24 6/7 weeks, it can be difficult to determine whether the burden of obstetric interventions and neonatal intensive care is justified given the limited chances of success of such a therapy. In such cases, the individual constellation of prenatally known factors which impact on prognosis can be helpful in the decision making process with the parents. In preterm infants with a gestational age between 25 0/7 and 25 6/7 weeks, foetal surveillance, obstetric interventions for foetal indications and neonatal intensive care measures are generally indicated. However, if several prenatally known prognostic factors are unfavourable and the parents agree, primary non-intervention and neonatal palliative care can be considered. All pregnant women with threatening preterm delivery or premature rupture of membranes at the limit of viability must be transferred to a perinatal centre with a level III neonatal intensive care unit no later than 23 0/7 weeks of gestation, unless emergency delivery is indicated. An experienced neonatology team should be involved in all deliveries that take place after 23 0/7 weeks of gestation to help to decide together with the parents if the initiation of intensive care measures appears to be appropriate or if preference should be given to palliative care (i.e., primary non-intervention). In doubtful situations, it can be reasonable to initiate intensive care and to admit the preterm infant to a neonatal intensive care unit (i.e., provisional intensive care). The infant's clinical evolution and additional discussions with the parents will help to clarify whether the life-sustaining therapies should be continued or withdrawn. Life support is continued as long as there is reasonable hope for survival and the infant's burden of intensive care is acceptable. If, on the other hand, the health care team and the parents have to recognise that in the light of a very poor prognosis the burden of the currently used therapies has become disproportionate, intensive care measures are no longer justified and other aspects of care (e.g., relief of pain and suffering) are the new priorities (i.e., redirection of care). If a decision is made to withhold or withdraw life-sustaining therapies, the health care team should focus on comfort care for the dying infant and support for the parents.

EuroDia: a beta-cell gene expression resource.

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a major disease affecting nearly 280 million people worldwide. Whilst the pathophysiological mechanisms leading to disease are poorly understood, dysfunction of the insulin-producing pancreatic beta-cells is key event for disease development. Monitoring the gene expression profiles of pancreatic beta-cells under several genetic or chemical perturbations has shed light on genes and pathways involved in T2DM. The EuroDia database has been established to build a unique collection of gene expression measurements performed on beta-cells of three organisms, namely human, mouse and rat. The Gene Expression Data Analysis Interface (GEDAI) has been developed to support this database. The quality of each dataset is assessed by a series of quality control procedures to detect putative hybridization outliers. The system integrates a web interface to several standard analysis functions from R/Bioconductor to identify differentially expressed genes and pathways. It also allows the combination of multiple experiments performed on different array platforms of the same technology. The design of this system enables each user to rapidly design a custom analysis pipeline and thus produce their own list of genes and pathways. Raw and normalized data can be downloaded for each experiment. The flexible engine of this database (GEDAI) is currently used to handle gene expression data from several laboratory-run projects dealing with different organisms and platforms. Database URL: http://eurodia.vital-it.ch.

Decentralization and the Gains from Monitoring

This paper analyzes the delegation of contracting capacity in a moral hazard environment with sequential production in a project which involves a principal and two agents. The agent in charge of the …nal production can obtain soft information about the other agent's effort choice by investing in monitoring. I investigate the circumstances under which it is optimal for the principal to use a centralized organization in which she designs the contracts with both agents or to use a decentralized organization in which she contracts only one agent, and delegates the power to contract the other agent. It is shown that in this setting a decentralized organization can be superior to a centralized organization. This is because the principal is better off under monitoring and the incentives for an agent to invest in monitoring can be higher in a decentralized organization. The circumstances under which this is true are related to the monitoring costs and the importance of each agent for production. The results explain the recent application of the design-build method in public procurement. Journal of Economic Literature Classi…cation Numbers: D23, D82, L14, L22. Keywords: Decentralization of Contracting, Monitoring, Moral Hazard.

Spatial and seasonal trends of a natural population of Biomphalaria occidentalis in northeastern Argentina

This study aims to analyze the age of a population of Biomphalaria occidentalis on a pound of Riachuelo river basin, wich is one of the three most important Middle Paraná river affluents in Corrientes province. Samples were drawn from three stations, were spatial and temporal numerical variations of the snail, as well as its relation with different environmental parameters, mainly temperature, rainfall, pH and conductivity, were analyzed. Snail abundance is given in number of individuals/hour. The differences between the three sampling stations, estimated by nonparametric tests, was nonsignificant. A relative scale to the greatest shell diameter was employed to build the age pyramids. Temporal fluctuations of snail abundance correlated negatively with the highest monthly accumulated temperatures (P < 0.05). Although different floristic compositions were observed at the three stations, no significant numerical variations were detected in B. occidentalis spatial distribution. Reproductive activity took place between March-April and November with overlapping cohort system. During summer (December-Febuary) mortality increased along with temperature and reproductive activity was not evident.

Knowing the past to predict the future: land-use change and the distribution of invasive bullfrogs

Biological invasions and land-use changes are two major causes of the global modifications of biodiversity. Habitat suitability models are the tools of choice to predict potential distributions of invasive species. Although land-use is a key driver of alien species invasions, it is often assumed that land-use is constant in time. Here we combine historical and present day information, to evaluate whether land-use changes could explain the dynamic of invasion of the American bullfrog Rana catesbeiana (=Lithobathes catesbeianus) in Northern Italy, from the 1950s to present-day. We used maxent to build habitat suitability models, on the basis of past (1960s, 1980s) and present-day data on land-uses and species distribution. For example, we used models built using the 1960s data to predict distribution in the 1980s, and so on. Furthermore, we used land-use scenarios to project suitability in the future. Habitat suitability models predicted well the spread of bullfrogs in the subsequent temporal step. Models considering land-use changes predicted invasion dynamics better than models assuming constant land-use over the last 50 years. Scenarios of future land-use suggest that suitability will remain similar in the next years. Habitat suitability models can help to understand and predict the dynamics of invasions; however, land-use is not constant in time: land-use modifications can strongly affect invasions; furthermore, both land management and the suitability of a given land-use class may vary in time. An integration of land-use changes in studies of biological invasions can help to improve management strategies.

Référentiels des compétences et des métiers : une approche ontologique

Résumé La mondialisation des marchés, les mutations du contexte économique et enfin l'impact des nouvelles technologies de l'information ont obligé les entreprises à revoir la façon dont elles gèrent leurs capitaux intellectuel (gestion des connaissances) et humain (gestion des compétences). II est communément admis aujourd'hui que ceux-ci jouent un rôle particulièrement stratégique dans l'organisation. L'entreprise désireuse de se lancer dans une politique gestion de ces capitaux devra faire face à différents problèmes. En effet, afin de gérer ces connaissances et ces compétences, un long processus de capitalisation doit être réalisé. Celui-ci doit passer par différentes étapes comme l'identification, l'extraction et la représentation des connaissances et des compétences. Pour cela, il existe différentes méthodes de gestion des connaissances et des compétences comme MASK, CommonKADS, KOD... Malheureusement, ces différentes méthodes sont très lourdes à mettre en oeuvre, et se cantonnent à certains types de connaissances et sont, par conséquent, plus limitées dans les fonctionnalités qu'elles peuvent offrir. Enfin, la gestion des compétences et la gestion des connaissances sont deux domaines dissociés alors qu'il serait intéressant d'unifier ces deux approches en une seule. En effet, les compétences sont très proches des connaissances comme le souligne la définition de la compétence qui suit : « un ensemble de connaissances en action dans un contexte donné ». Par conséquent, nous avons choisi d'appuyer notre proposition sur le concept de compétence. En effet, la compétence est parmi les connaissances de l'entreprise l'une des plus cruciales, en particulier pour éviter la perte de savoir-faire ou pour pouvoir prévenir les besoins futurs de l'entreprise, car derrière les compétences des collaborateurs, se trouve l'efficacité de l'organisation. De plus, il est possible de décrire grâce à la compétence de nombreux autres concepts de l'organisation, comme les métiers, les missions, les projets, les formations... Malheureusement, il n'existe pas réellement de consensus sur la définition de la compétence. D'ailleurs, les différentes définitions existantes, même si elles sont pleinement satisfaisantes pour les experts, ne permettent pas de réaliser un système opérationnel. Dans notre approche; nous abordons la gestion des compétences à l'aide d'une méthode de gestion des connaissances. En effet, de par leur nature même, connaissance et compétence sont intimement liées et donc une telle méthode est parfaitement adaptée à la gestion des compétences. Afin de pouvoir exploiter ces connaissances et ces compétences nous avons dû, dans un premier temps, définir les concepts organisationnels de façon claire et computationnelle. Sur cette base, nous proposons une méthodologie de construction des différents référentiels d'entreprise (référentiel de compétences, des missions, des métiers...). Pour modéliser ces différents référentiels, nous avons choisi l'ontologie, car elle permet d'obtenir des définitions cohérentes et consensuelles aux concepts tout en supportant les diversités langagières. Ensuite, nous cartographions les connaissances de l'entreprise (formations, missions, métiers...) sur ces différentes ontologies afin de pouvoir les exploiter et les diffuser. Notre approche de la gestion des connaissances et de la gestion des compétences a permis la réalisation d'un outil offrant de nombreuses fonctionnalités comme la gestion des aires de mobilités, l'analyse stratégique, les annuaires ou encore la gestion des CV. Abstract The globalization of markets, the easing of economical regulation and finally the impact of new information and communication technologies have obliged firms to re-examine the way they manage their knowledge capital (knowledge management) and their human capital (competence management). It is commonly admitted that knowledge plays a slightly strategical role in the organization. The firms who want to establish one politic of management of these capitals will have to face with different problems. To manage that knowledge, a long process of capitalization must be done. That one has different steps like identification, extraction and representation of knowledge and competences. There are some different methods of knowledge management like MASK, CommonKADS or KOD. Unfortunately, those methods are very difficult to implement and are using only some types of knowledge and are consequently more limited in the functionalities they can offer. Knowledge management and competence management are two different domain where it could be interesting to unify those to one. Indeed, competence is very close than knowledge as underline this definition: "a set of knowledge in action in a specified context". We choose in our approach to rely on the concept of competence. Indeed, the competence is one of crucial knowledge in the company, particularly to avoid the loss of know-how or to prevent future needs. Because behind collaborator's competence, we can find company efficiency. Unfortunately, there is no real consensus on the definition of the concept of competence. Moreover, existing different definitions don't permit to develop an operational system. Among other key concept, we can find jobs, mission, project, and training... Moreover, we approach different problems of the competence management under the angle of the knowledge management. Indeed, knowledge and competence are closely linked. Then, we propose a method to build different company repositories (competence, jobs, projects repositories). To model those different repositories we choose ontology because it permits to obtain coherent and consensual definitions of the concepts with support of linguistics diversities too. This building repositories method coupled with this knowledge and competence management approach permitted the realization of a tool offering functionalities like mobility management, strategical analysis, yellow pages or CV management.

Estudi per a un sistema de mesura de pes per a marmota alpina

Aquest projecte tracta sobre la viabilitat de la construcció d’un sistema per al seguiment del pes d’una població de marmotes en alta muntanya. Bàsicament, es construeix una bàscula amb un sensor de força i un sensor de temperatura. Aquestes sortides analògiques es connecten a un microcontrolador ATmega8 que, mitjançant un algorisme desenvolupat en aquest projecte, està contínuament en escolta fins a detectar un canvi sobtat en el pes. Aleshores les dades s’enregistren i es guarden en una memòria SRAM per a, posteriorment, poder ser descarregades a un ordinador i analitzades per un programa que s’ha creat per a tal finalitat.

Anàlisi i tècniques de processat del senyal per a la generació de mapes eòlics

L’emplaçament del projecte es situa a un parc eòlic marítim, on es vol observar el vent a través del radar VAD, Velocity Azimuth Display, per poder controlar la velocitat de rotació dels aerogeneradors, i poder substituir els actuals anemòmetres. No ens centrarem en el control d’aquest, sinó que l’objectiu principal d’aquest projecte és analitzar el funcionament i processat de dades del VAD. Es proposaran, simularan i estudiaran noves tècniques d’estimació espectral per obtenir una millora important amb les mesures de velocitat, direcció i divergència del vent, per tal de construir un radar més robust a pertorbacions. A més a més, també il·lustrarem mapes eòlics obtinguts a partir de tot el processat.

The biology of Aedes (Ochlerotatus) albifasciatus Macquart, 1838 (Diptera: Culicidae) in Central Argentina

Aedes albifasciatus is a flood water mosquito ocurring in the southern countries of South America. It is a competent vector of the Western Equine Encephalitis (WEE) and causes important losses on milk and beef production in central Argentina. Field work was carried out from December 1990 to March 1993, on a monthly basis during the dry season and biweekly during the rainy season. Larvae were collected using the 'dipping' technique and females with CDC traps baited with CO2. Field collected larvae were used to build laboratory cohorts, from which basic population parameters were estimated. Eggs survived up to six months on dry soil, although there was a linear decrease of viability with time. At 23ºC, larval development time was around nine days, and all adults emerged within one week. The estimation of larval development in the laboratory seems to be very near the development on the field, as larvae have been collected on average eight days after a rainfall. Egg to adult survival was 83%, with the highest mortality on fourth larval instar (6%). In the laboratory studies, sex proportion among the adults was 1:1, females lived longer than males (median 13 and five days, respectively), and adult survival pattern showed a constant number of individuals dying per unit time. Field collected females layed an average of 84 eggs per batch, and completing up to five gonotrophic cycles, suggesting an estimated survival of up to 35-50 days.

Human biology: cibernética y biología humana en el nuevo discurso expositivo de la década de 1970

En este trabajo se explica cuáles fueron las estrategias utilizadas y los resultados obtenidos en la primera exposición del nuevo esquema museográfico del Museo de Historia Natural de Londres, concebido por Roger Miles, Jefe del Departamento de Servicios Públicos de esa prestigiada institución. Esta iniciativa pretendía atraer a un mayor número de visitantes a partir de exposiciones basadas en modelos y módulos interactivos que relegaban a los objetos de las colecciones a un segundo plano. La exposición se tituló Human Biology y fue inaugurada el 24 de mayo de 1977. El tema de la exposición fue la biología humana, pero como se argumenta en este trabajo, Human Biology sirvió también como medio para legitimar el discurso modernizador de la biología humana, en tanto disciplina más rigurosa por las herramientas y técnicas más precisas que las utilizadas por la antropología física tradicional. Se buscaba también generar una audiencia para reforzar el campo interdisciplinario de la ciencia cognitiva y en particular la inteligencia artificial. El equipo de asesores científicos de la exposición contó entre sus miembros con personalidades que jugaron un papel protagónico en el desarrollo de esas disciplinas, y necesitaban demostrar su validez y utilidad ante los no especialistas y el público en general.

GWAS of human bitter taste perception identifies new loci and reveals additional complexity of bitter taste genetics.

Human perception of bitterness displays pronounced interindividual variation. This phenotypic variation is mirrored by equally pronounced genetic variation in the family of bitter taste receptor genes. To better understand the effects of common genetic variations on human bitter taste perception, we conducted a genome-wide association study on a discovery panel of 504 subjects and a validation panel of 104 subjects from the general population of São Paulo in Brazil. Correction for general taste-sensitivity allowed us to identify a SNP in the cluster of bitter taste receptors on chr12 (10.88- 11.24 Mb, build 36.1) significantly associated (best SNP: rs2708377, P = 5.31 × 10(-13), r(2) = 8.9%, β = -0.12, s.e. = 0.016) with the perceived bitterness of caffeine. This association overlaps with-but is statistically distinct from-the previously identified SNP rs10772420 influencing the perception of quinine bitterness that falls in the same bitter taste cluster. We replicated this association to quinine perception (P = 4.97 × 10(-37), r(2) = 23.2%, β = 0.25, s.e. = 0.020) and additionally found the effect of this genetic locus to be concentration specific with a strong impact on the perception of low, but no impact on the perception of high concentrations of quinine. Our study, thus, furthers our understanding of the complex genetic architecture of bitter taste perception.