The missing pillar: the creativity theory of knowledge spillover entrepreneurship

Knowledge spillover theory of entrepreneurship and the prevailing theory of economic growth treat opportunities as endogenous and generally focus on opportunity recognition by entrepreneurs. New knowledge created endogenously results in knowledge spillovers enabling inventors and entrepreneurs to commercialize it. This article discusses that knowledge spillover entrepreneurship depends not only on ordinary human capital, but more importantly also on creativity embodied in creative individuals and diverse urban environments that attract creative classes. This might result in self-selection of creative individuals into entrepreneurship or enable entrepreneurs to recognize creativity and commercialize it. This creativity theory of knowledge spillover entrepreneurship is tested utilizing data on European cities.

Salt and ionic cocrystalline forms of amides: protonation of carbamazepine in aqueous media

The products of reactions of the pharmaceutical amide carbamazepine (CBZ) with strong acids under aqueous conditions were investigated by both powder and single crystal X-ray diffraction. Despite previous claims to the contrary, it was found that salt forms with CBZ protonated at the amide O atom could be isolated from reactions with both HCl and HBr. These forms include the newly identified hydrate phase [CBZ(H)][Cl]·H O. Reactions with other mineral acids (HI and HBF ) gave ionic cocrystalline (ICC) forms (CBZ· [acridinium][I ]·2.5I and CBZ·[H O ] [BF ] ·H O) as well as the salt form CBZ·[CBZ(H)][BF ]·0.5H O. Reaction 2 4 3 2 5 2 0.25 4 0.25 2 4 2 of CBZ with a series of sulfonic acids also gave salt forms, namely, [CBZ(H)][O SC H ], [CBZ(H)][O SC H (OH)]· 3 6 5 3 6 4 0.5H O, [CBZ(H)] [O SCH CH SO ], and [CBZ(H)][O SC H (OH) (COOH)]·H O. CBZ and protonated CBZ(H) 2 2 3 2 2 3 3 6 3 2 moieties can be differentiated in the solid state both by changes to molecular geometry and by differing packing preferences

Ecological and social drivers of coffee pollination in Santander, Colombia

Bees and other insects provide pollination services that are key to determining the fruit set on coffee plantations. These pollination services are influenced by local ecology as well as human factors, both social and economic. To better understand these different factors, we assessed their effect on pollinators and coffee pollination services in Santander, Colombia. We quantified the effect of key ecological drivers on pollinator community composition, such as the method of farm management (either conventional or organic) and the surrounding landscape composition, specifically the proximity to forest. We found that ambient levels of pollination services provided by the local pollinator fauna (open pollination) accounted for a 10.5 ± 2.0% increase in final coffee fruit set, and that the various pollinators are affected differently by the differing factors. For example, our findings indicate that conventional farm management, using synthetic inputs, can promote pollinators, especially if they are in close proximity to natural forest fragments. This is particularly true for stingless bees. Honeybee visitation to coffee is also positively influenced by the conventional management of farms. Factors associated with greater numbers of stingless bees on farms include greater shade cover, lower tree densities, smaller numbers and types of trees in bloom, and younger coffee plantations. A forested landscape close to farms appears to enhance these factors, giving increased stability and resilience to the pollinating bees and insects. However we found that organic farms also support diverse pollinator communities, even if distant from forest fragments. The contribution of honeybees to pollination value (US$129.6/ha of coffee) is greater than that of stingless bees (US$16.5/ha of coffee). Since the method of farm management has a major impact on the numbers and types of pollinators attracted to farms, we have analysed the statistically significant social factors that influence farmers’ decisions on whether to adopt organic or conventional practices. These include the availability of technology, the type of landowner (whether married couples or individual owners), the number of years of farmers’ formal education, the role of institutions, membership of community organizations, farm size, coffee productivity and the number of coffee plots per farm. It is hoped that the use of our holistic approach, which combines investigation of the social as well as the ecological drivers of pollination, will help provide evidence to underpin the development of best practices for integrating the management of pollination into sustainable agricultural practices.

Participatory Development

Participatory development is a process of taking into account peoples’ agency in development by involving people in decision-making over planning processes that affect their lives. This permits people to achieve basic human needs but also to exercise their ability to challenge the established values and institutions that reproduce the monolithic enterprise of capitalism. Against de-territorialised and universal solutions put forward by development experts, participation raises the central issue of reflexivity, while suggesting how different forms of knowledge, power and agency relate to one another in actors’ diverse spheres of life to achieve degrees of social and environmental justice; this configures the notion of participation in processes of development.

Social organization of marine Tucuxi dolphins, Sotalia guianensis, in the Cananeia Estuary of southeastern Brazil

Social organization is an important component of the population biology of a species that influences gene flow, the spatial pattern and scale of movements, and the effects of predation or exploitation by humans. An important element of social structure in mammals is group fidelity, which can be quantified through association indices. To describe the social organization of marine tucuxi dolphins (Sotalia guianensis) found in the Cananeia estuary, southeastern Brazil, association indices were applied to photo-identification data to characterize the temporal stability of relationships among members of this population. Eighty-seven days of fieldwork were conducted from May 2000 to July 2003, resulting in direct observations of 374 distinct groups. A total of 138 dolphins were identified on 1-38 distinct field days. Lone dolphins were rarely seen, whereas groups were composed of up to 60 individuals (mean +/- 1 SD = 12.4 +/- 11.4 individuals per group). A total of 29,327 photographs were analyzed, of which 6,312 (21.5%) were considered useful for identifying individuals. Half-weight and simple ratio indices were used to investigate associations among S. guianensis as revealed by the entire data set, data from the core study site, and data from groups composed of <= 10 individuals. Monte Carlo methods indicated that only 3 (9.3%) of 32 association matrices differed significantly from expectations based on random association. Thus, our study suggests that stable associations are not characteristic of S. guianensis in the Cananeia estuary.

Dynamics of Dissolved Forms of Carbon and Inorganic Nitrogen in Small Watersheds of the Coastal Atlantic Forest in Southeast Brazil

Based on the fact that streamwater quality reflects landscape conditions, the objectives of this study were: to investigate nitrogen (N), carbon (C), and major ion concentrations in six streams crossing minimally disturbed Atlantic Forest areas, with similar geomorphological characteristics; to determine N and C fluxes in one of these pristine streams (Indaia); and assess the impact of human activity on the biogeochemistry of two other streams in the same region, crossing urbanized areas. The distribution pattern of carbon and inorganic nitrogen dissolved forms, as well as the major ion and biogenic gas concentrations in the streamwater, was similar in pristine streams, indicating that the C and N dynamics were determined by influence of some factors, such as climate, atmospheric deposition, geology, soil type, and land covering, which were analogous in the forested watersheds. The urban streams were significantly different from the pristine streams, showing low dissolved oxygen concentrations, high respiration rates, and high concentrations of carbon dioxide, dissolved inorganic nitrogen, dissolved inorganic carbon, and major ion. These differences were attributed to anthropogenic impact on water quality, especially domestic sewage discharge. Additionally, in the Indaia stream, it was possible to observe the importance of rainfall over temporal dynamics of dissolved carbon forms, and also, the obtained specific flux of dissolved inorganic nitrogen was relatively elevated (approximately 11 kg ha(-1) year(-1)). These results reveal the influence of human activity over the biogeochemistry of coastal streams and also indicate the importance N export of Atlantic Forest to the ocean.

Fonsecaea pedrosoi infection induces differential modulation of costimulatory molecules and cytokines in monocytes from patients with severe and mild forms of chromoblastomycosis

The host defense mechanism in chromoblastomycosis has not been thoroughly investigated. It has been suggested that cell- mediated immunity in patients with long- standing chromoblastomycosis is somehow impaired. As a result, these individuals became unable to develop an efficient immune reaction. Many studies have shown that monocyte- derived macrophages exhibit critical activities in immunity to microorganisms. Moreover, the ability of cells from the monocytic lineage to process and present antigens, to produce cytokines, and to provide costimulatory signals confirms their pivotal role in the initiation of specific immune responses. In the present study, it was observed that monocytes from patients with a severe form of disease had a higher production of IL- 10 and a lower expression of HLA- DR and costimulatory molecules when stimulated with specific antigen or LPS. Immune modulation with recombinant IL- 12 or anti- IL- 10 can restore the antigen- specific Th1- type immune response in chromoblastomycosis patients by up- regulating HLA- DR and costimulatory molecules in monocytes. Therefore, our data show that monocytes from patients with different clinical forms of chromoblastomycosis present distinct phenotypic and functional profiles. This observation suggests possible mechanisms that control the T cell response and influence their role in the development of pathology.

The game of contacts: Estimating the social visibility of groups

Estimating the sizes of hard-to-count populations is a challenging and important problem that occurs frequently in social science, public health, and public policy. This problem is particularly pressing in HIV/AIDS research because estimates of the sizes of the most at-risk populations-illicit drug users, men who have sex with men, and sex workers-are needed for designing, evaluating, and funding programs to curb the spread of the disease. A promising new approach in this area is the network scale-up method, which uses information about the personal networks of respondents to make population size estimates. However, if the target population has low social visibility, as is likely to be the case in HIV/AIDS research, scale-up estimates will be too low. In this paper we develop a game-like activity that we call the game of contacts in order to estimate the social visibility of groups, and report results from a study of heavy drug users in Curitiba, Brazil (n = 294). The game produced estimates of social visibility that were consistent with qualitative expectations but of surprising magnitude. Further, a number of checks suggest that the data are high-quality. While motivated by the specific problem of population size estimation, our method could be used by researchers more broadly and adds to long-standing efforts to combine the richness of social network analysis with the power and scale of sample surveys. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Drug Excipient Interaction Study with Polymorphic Forms of Tibolone

Powder mixtures (1:1) of tibolone polymorphic forms I (monoclinic) and II (triclinic) and excipients have been prepared and compacted. The samples were stored at 50 degrees C and 90% RH for one month and subsequently were evaluated using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The results indicate that during the compaction, the applied pressure reduced the chemical stability of tibolone in both polymorph forms. The triclinic form was more chemically unstable, both pure and in contact with excipients, than the monoclinic form. Lactose monohydrate was shown to reduce chemical degradation for both forms. Ascorbyl palmitate was shown to affect the tibolone stability differently depending on the polymorphic form used.