Growth: Real and Spurious

Author(s):  
Garrett Hardin

One of the Rothschilds is credited with saying that "Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world." How so? Because interest makes money grow, supposedly without limit. Ecologists regard the claim as arrant nonsense, for it implies a denial of Epicurean conservation. Like putative records of lifeless money in savings banks, real populations of living organisms grow by compound interest, but this biological reality does not move scientists to reverence. Biologists know that the growth of animals or plants does not violate conservation principles; biological growth merely involves the transfer of matter from the nonliving world to the living. Though new arrangements of matter— new chemical molecules—are created, the quantity of matter/energy remains the same. Before delving deeper into population theory (the topic of the next chapter) we need to see what scientific sense can be made of growth phenomena in the world of finance. In developing the argument there will be quite a bit of manipulation of numbers, but no great precision in numbers is called for. The conclusions reached will be robust, a curious academic word that means that the illustrative data can be varied over quite a wide range of values without affecting the practical conclusions. To accept compound interest at face value is to be confronted with an apparent creation of wealth. A bank account earning 5 percent compound interest per year doubles in value every 14 years. Let us indicate the initial deposit by D and time (in units of 14 years) by t. (For instance, when the number of years is 28, t = 2.) The value of the account at the end of time t is given by a simple equation: Since time (t) is written as an exponent of the number 2 we speak of this as an exponential equation and say that the value of the account grows exponentially. (There are other ways of representing the growth function, but they too involve exponents.) Figure 8-1 is a graph of the exponential growth of a bank account that draws compound interest.

1991 ◽  
Vol 48 (S1) ◽  
pp. 110-117 ◽  
Author(s):  
James E. Stewart

Fish and invertebrates are subject to a wide range of disease agents. Many of their diseases are probably local in origin although a lengthy list of infections were probably imported via the vast array of exotic species which have been transferred to virtually all areas of the world. Since ail living organisms carry a full suite of microorganisms and larger parasites the likelihood of there being pathogens for local species among them is good. Introductions can occur in at least one of three separate ways: (1) intentional introductions for specific purposes, (2) accidental transport of biological agents via massive transfers of ballast waters or (3) through the ornamental or aquatic pet trade. Control measures and information services devised by the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea, the European Inland Fisheries Advisory Commission and the Office International des Epizooties are described.


Author(s):  
John W. Goodby

The World, and much of Nature that we see within it, experiences an environment of reduced symmetries. For example, living organisms are dependent on asymmetric or dissymmetric structures for their life processes. In the solid state, a large number of space groups are chiral. Conversely, in liquids, the effects of reduced symmetries are smeared out owing to the dynamical fluctuations of the constituent molecules, atoms or ions. Thus, on progressing from the strongly ordered solid to the amorphous liquid state, the effects of reduced symmetries weaken as the molecular or atomic correlations and penetration lengths fall. Between these two states of matter, the fourth state of organized fluids can be markedly affected by chirality, and over substantial length scales, owing to both the fluidity and partial ordering of the molecules. In effect, complex fluids can amplify the effects of chirality at the molecular level. Broken symmetries in self-organizing systems can lead to the formation of novel phases of matter and to the creation of structured liquids, and to the generation of nonlinear properties such as heli-, ferro-, ferri- and antiferro-electricity, and electroclinism, which can be harnessed in a wide range of applications including thermal sensors, imaging devices and information displays, to name but a few.


GIS Business ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (6) ◽  
pp. 597-606
Author(s):  
Dr. Maha Mustafa Omer Abdalaziz

The study aims at the technological developments that are taking place in the world and have impacted on all sectors and fields and imposed on the business organizations and commercial companies to carry out their marketing and promotional activities within the electronic environment. The most prominent of these developments is the emergence of the concept of electronic advertising which opened a wide range of companies and businessmen to advertise And to promote their products and their work easily through the Internet, which has become full of electronic advertising, and in light of that will discuss the creative strategy used in electronic advertising;


2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 459-464
Author(s):  
Alevtina Vasilevna Kamitova ◽  
Tatyana Ivanovna Zaitseva

The paper reflects the specificity of the fundamental ideas of the artistic world of M. G. Atamanov, which includes a wide range of literary facts from the content level of the text of the works to their poetics. A particularly important role in the works of M. G. Atamanov is played by cross-cutting themes and images that reflect the author's individual style and his idea of national-ethnic identity. The subject of the research is the book of essays “Mon - Udmurt. Maly mynym vös’?” (“I am Udmurt. Why does it hurt?”), which most vividly reflected the main spiritual and artistic searches of M. G. Atamanov, associated with his ideas about the Udmurt people. The main motives and plots of the works included in the book under consideration are accumulated around the concept of “Udmurtness”. The comprehension of “Udmurtness” is modeled in his essays through specific leit themes: native language, Udmurt people, national culture, mentality, geographic and topographic features of the Udmurt people’ places of residence, the Orthodox idea. The “Udmurt theme” is recognized and comprehended by the writer through the prism of national identity.


Author(s):  
N. A. Ilyushina ◽  
Yu. A. Revazova

In order to overcome resistance to individual pesticides and improve their effectiveness, formulations containing two or more active substances are constantly being developed and put on the market over recent years. Mixtures of residual amounts of pesticides can be present in water and food and enter the human and animal bodies. However, the combined effect of pesticides on living organisms, including genetic structures in cells, has not been studied enough and it is not yet possible to predict the genotoxic effects of their mixtures based on available data. The purpose of this review was to collect and summarize literature information on the genotoxicity of pesticide combinations obtained at different objects. The results of studies conducted in different countries of the world are discussed, examples of detected synergistic, additive and antagonistic effects are given, indicating the need for testing the genotoxicity of preparative forms of pesticides containing several active substances, as well as mixtures of jointly used pesticides in order to ensure the safe use of pesticides for public health.


2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (23) ◽  
pp. 4403-4434 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susimaire Pedersoli Mantoani ◽  
Peterson de Andrade ◽  
Talita Perez Cantuaria Chierrito ◽  
Andreza Silva Figueredo ◽  
Ivone Carvalho

Neglected Diseases (NDs) affect million of people, especially the poorest population around the world. Several efforts to an effective treatment have proved insufficient at the moment. In this context, triazole derivatives have shown great relevance in medicinal chemistry due to a wide range of biological activities. This review aims to describe some of the most relevant and recent research focused on 1,2,3- and 1,2,4-triazolebased molecules targeting four expressive NDs: Chagas disease, Malaria, Tuberculosis and Leishmaniasis.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
André De Faria Pereira Neto ◽  
Leticia Barbosa ◽  
Rodolfo Paolucci

UNSTRUCTURED Billions of people in the world own a smartphone. It is a low-cost, portable computing device with countless features, among which applications stand out, which are programs or software developed to meet a specific goal. A wide range of applications available ranging from entertainment and personal organization to work and education is available currently. It is a vast and profitable market. Health applications have been a means of intervention for different areas, including chronic diseases, epidemics, and health emergencies. A recently published paper in the journal with the highest impact factor in Digital Health (“Journal of Medical Internet Research”) proposes a classification of health applications. This study performs a critical analysis of this organization and presents other sort criteria. This paper also presents and analyzes the “Meu Info Saúde” (“My Health Info”) app – a pioneering government initiative focused on primary care launched by the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation. The application classification proposal that will be presented builds on the intervention strategies in the health-disease process, namely: “Health Promotion”, “Disease Prevention” and “Care, Treatment and Rehabilitation”, as defined by official documents such as the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Most applications present in the sample are of private and foreign origin, free to download, but with a display of ads or the sale of products and services. The sampled applications were classified as “Health Promotion”, and some applications have also been categorized as “Disease Prevention” or “Care, Treatment or Rehabilitation” because they have multiple functionalities. The applications identified as “Health Promotion” focused only on individuals’ lifestyle and their increased autonomy and self-care management capacity. From this perspective, the apps analyzed in this paper differ from the “Meu Info-Saúde” application developed at Fiocruz.


Author(s):  
Michael C. Legaspi

This is a book about wisdom. It is an inquiry into the beginnings of a particular way of thinking about life in the world. Seen in terms of wisdom, the world is not a meaningless array of disconnected things but something that is experienced as an ordered reality. This holistic way of understanding life in the world characterized pursuits of wisdom in a two-sided classical and biblical tradition that exercised a profound influence on Western culture. This book examines the development of that tradition in a wide range of texts from Homer to Plato and in the writings of early Jewish and Christian authors.


Author(s):  
Anna-Maria Hartmann

Mythographies were books that collected, explained, and interpreted myth-related material. Extremely popular during the Renaissance, these works appealed to a wide range of readers. While the European mythographies of the sixteenth century have been utilized by scholars, the short, early English mythographies, written from 1577 to 1647, have puzzled critics. The first generation of English mythographers did not, as has been suggested, try to compete with their Italian predecessors. Instead, they made mythographies into rhetorical instruments designed to intervene in topical debates outside the world of classical learning. Because English mythographers brought mythology to bear on a variety of contemporary issues, they unfold a lively and historically well-defined picture of the roles myth was made to play in early modern England. Exploring these mythographies can contribute to previous insights into myth in the Renaissance offered by studies of iconography, literary history, allegory, and myth theory.


2020 ◽  
Vol 69 (2) ◽  
pp. 224-240
Author(s):  
Nita Mathur

The plethora of M. N. Srinivas’s articles and books covering a wide range of subjects from village studies to nation building, from dominant caste in Rampura village to nature and character of caste in independent India, and from prospects of sociological research in Gujarat to practicing social anthropology in India have largely influenced the understanding of society and culture for well over five decades. Additionally, he meticulously wrote itineraries, memoirs and personal notes that provide a glimpse of his inner being, influences, ideologies, thought all of which have inspired a large number of and social anthropologists and sociologists across the world. It is then only befitting to explore the major concerns in the life and intellectual thought of one whose pioneering contributions have been the milestones in the fields of social anthropology and sociology in a specific sense and of social sciences in India in a general sense. This article centres around/brings to light the academic concerns that Srinivas grappled with the new avenues of thought and insights that developed consequently, and the extent of his rendition their relevance in framing/understanding contemporary society and culture in India.


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