The rapid commercialization of applied genetics in the mtd-1970s, accompanied by a sudden rise in academic-corporate partnerships, raised questions about the impacts these linkages have had on the social and professional norms of scientists. The extent and pattern of faculty tnvolvement in commercialization of biological research is largely an unexplored area. This article provcdes a quantitative assessment of the linkages between biology faculty in American uncverscties and the newly formed biotechnology industry. The results of thes study, covering the period 1985-88, (...) show that academic scientists responded en masse to participating in the commercialization of genetecs research by estabhshmg formal associations with many of the new biotechnology compances. A data base consisting of 889 U.S. and Canadian biotechnology companies and 832 sccentcsts who had formal ties to them was developed over a four-year period. The patterns of academic-corporate Icnkages are revealed by institution. Three universities with the most commercially active faculty are Harvard, Stanford, and MIT. Of the 359 bcomedeca! scientists and geneteccsts who were members of the Nateonal Academy of Sceences, at minimum, 37% had formal ties with the biotechnology industry. (shrink)

Objectives: To report the attitudes and opinions of subjects in US clinical trials about whether or not, and why, they should receive post-trial access (PTA) to the trial drug, care and information. Design: Focus groups, short self-administered questionnaires. Setting: Boston, Dallas, Detroit, Oklahoma City. Participants: Current and recent subjects in clinical trials, primarily for chronic diseases. Results: 93 individuals participated in 10 focus groups. Many thought researchers, sponsors, health insurers and others share obligations to facilitate PTA to the trial drug, (...) if it benefited the subject, or to a therapeutic equivalent. Some thought PTA obligations include providing transition care (referrals to non-trial physicians or other trials, limited follow-up, short-term drug supply) or care for long-term adverse events. Others held, in contrast, that there are no PTA obligations regarding drugs or care. However, there was agreement that former subjects should receive information (drug name, dosage received, market approval date, long-term adverse effects, trial results). Participants frequently appealed to health need, cost, relationships, reciprocity, free choice and sponsor self-interest to support their views. Many of their reasons overlapped with those commonly discussed by bioethicists. Conclusion: Many participants in US trials for chronic conditions thought there are obligations to facilitate PTA to the trial drug at a “fair” price; these views were less demanding than those of non-US subjects in other studies. However, our participants’ views about informational obligations were broader than those of other subjects and many bioethicists. Our results suggest that the PTA debate should expand beyond the trial drug and aggregate results. (shrink)

I suggest that we may settle the question of their relatedness by way of two arguments. The first argument holds that two worlds might be identical in structure but different in their dispositions and subsequent behaviors. This argument loosens the relation of dispositional to structural properties; but, though plausible in itself, the argument has disastrous implications for the uniformity of processes within each world. The second argument supports our intuitive belief that the dependency of a thing’s dispositions upon its structure (...) must be complete, e.g., as the knife’s powers for cutting devolve only upon the fine edge of its rigid blade. This second argument is also a defence against the chaotic implications of the previous one. But it has these two effects only because of affirming that structural properties are, more accurately, geometrical-structural properties. Together, these arguments justify the conclusion that no theory of dispositions is comprehensive, unless it provides for these two factors: Geometrical-structural properties are necessary and sufficient to determine what a thing’s dispositions shall be; but these structural properties are distinguishable from dispositions as properties constitutive of a thing are different from its qualifications for relatedness, and especially causal relatedness, to other things. (shrink)

The social aspects of causality in medicine and healthcare have been emphasized in recent debates in the philosophy of science as crucial factors that need to be considered to enable, among others, appropriate interventions in public health. Therefore, it seems central to recognize the bearing of social causes (broadly understood, e.g., social inequalities and socio-economic status) in bringing about certain concrete pathologies. Being aware of the relevance of social causes in medicine and healthcare is particularly important in the face of (...) the role that artificial intelligence-based systems (such as machine learning algorithms) are increasingly playing in these high-stakes fields. In fact, these systems bear the dangerous potential of concealing relevant social causes. This is highly problematic not only because it reinforces issues of distributive injustice but also because it can pave the way for issues of epistemic injustice. The central aim of this chapter is to make a first effort to point out possible connections between the importance of recognizing social causes in medicine and healthcare and forms of epistemic injustice. (shrink)

This book, published in 1986, addresses questions concerned with a central normative principle in contemporary assessments of economic policies and systems. What does 'consumer sovereignty' mean? Is consumer sovereignty an appropriate principle for the optimization and evaluation of the design and performance of economic policies, institutions and systems? If not, what is a more appropriate principle? The author argues that the conception of consumer sovereignty has to be broadened so that it is not limited to the market mechanism but includes (...) environmental, work and social preferences. However, even this version runs into serious difficulties as the principle of consumer sovereignty still relies on too subjectivist a conception of the interests of individuals to be suitable for the evaluation of economic institutions. An alternative basis for such evaluation is 'human interests' that are not contingent on particular economic systems, After considering various possibilities, a basic-needs approach is proposed and its use in economic evaluation illustrated. (shrink)

Today job satisfaction is one of the most frequently investigated objects in organizational research and one of the most complicated areas that face today's executives who seek to avoid staff turnover and retain the best employees. High staff turnover as a consequence of job dissatisfaction may have a negative impact on company finances, as the recruitment, training, retraining of employess are not only costly but also time consuming. In addition, satisfied employees tend to be more productive, creative and more committed (...) to their employers. As a result, employers are increasingly focusing on their employees, their expectations and job satisfaction, as companies are currently experiencing a rapidly changing, innovation-driven period that can lead to tensions and negative social consequences. Job satisfaction is becoming an increasingly relevant topic as it threatens the loss of highly skilled professionals and, consequently, market positions. The aim of the research – to analyze the employee job satisfaction on the farmer's farm. The research method – quantitative research. The quantitative research method is aimed at gathering information expressed numerically and quantitatively. The methodology of quantitative research was chosen to reveal the aim of the research, since the aim is to measure the phenomenon of interest - job satisfaction, employee attitudes to individual work objects, and also because, in accordance with the aim of the research, the researcher focuses on the consideration of predetermined human provisions, and measurement. The chosen data collection method - written survey - helped to describe the phenomenon under research, obtain as much information as possible in order to reveal the aim of the research. The survey was conducted as it aimed to obtain representative information about the researched target group – employees of the farmers' farm and their attitudes to the investigated phenomenon - job satisfaction. (shrink)

Open peer commentary on the article “The Autopoiesis of Social Systems and its Criticisms” by Hugo Cadenas & Marcelo Arnold. Upshot: I discuss two aspects of Cadenas & Arnold’s target article. The first concerns some clarifications of the sociological importance of the concept of autopoiesis and the second the criticisms of this concept and its applications in the social sciences.

En 2011 el señor Mario Posada Ochoa donó a la Universidad EAFIT una extensa y poco conocida colección de arte; acaso unos cuantos amigos habrían visto de cerca las 480 obras que recibió la Universidad, de artistas como Segundo Angelvis, Inés Acevedo Bernal, Sergio Trujillo Magnenat, Luis A. Rengifo y Ramón Vásquez, entre otros. Algunas de ellas carecían de la firma del autor o de un dato que comprobara la autoría, y estaban deterioradas, más que por el tiempo, por el (...) improvisado bodegaje: don Mario las había guardado durante cuarenta años en su hermosa casa de Maracaibo, en el centro de la ciudad. En Extensión Cultural de EAFIT han procurado, desde entonces, conservar este legado. (shrink)

The Platonic Commentators.—After Cicero the Academy is no more than a few names to us for nearly five centuries. The nearest that we get to contact with it in this period is in the writings of Plutarch. He was himself a student there, and was well read in the books of Plato and the commentaries thereon.

Controversy surrounds several experiments that have addressed whether selective synaptic strengthening occurs during learning. To date, the evidence suggests that widespread alterations in synaptic strength, through either kindling or electroconvulsive shock, can disrupt this hypothetical process. The lack of evidence for selective modification of learning through LTP stimulation, however, provides difficulties for both the prevailing hypothesis and the hypothesis advanced by Shors & Matzel. Subsequent experiments may indicate a role for LTP in both learning and arousal.