Voluminous, Repetitive, and Intractable

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-35
Author(s):  
Mauro Boianovsky

In the late 1970s Paul Samuelson drafted the outline of a paper, never published, with a critical assessment of the theoretical innovations of postwar development economics. He found it a “vital” but essentially “not tractable” subject, with a “voluminous” and “repetitive” literature. This article discusses how that assessment fits in Samuelson’s published writings on economic development, throughout several editions of his textbook Economics, and in papers he wrote before and after that assessment. Increasing returns posed a main analytical hurdle, together with the elusive attempt to provide “laws of motion” of economic development. Samuel son’s notion of “tractability” may be traced back to Peter Medawar’s well-known definition of science as the “art of the soluble.”

2014 ◽  
pp. 147-153
Author(s):  
P. Orekhovsky

The review outlines the connection between E. Reinert’s book and the tradition of structural analysis. The latter allows for the heterogeneity of industries and sectors of the economy, as well as for the effects of increasing and decreasing returns. Unlike the static theory of international trade inherited from the Ricardian analysis of comparative advantage, this approach helps identify the relationship between trade, production, income and population growth. Reinert rehabilitates the “other canon” of economic theory associated with the mercantilist tradition, F. Liszt and the German historical school, as well as a reconside ration of A. Marshall’s analysis of increasing returns. Empirical illustrations given in the book reveal clear parallels with the path of Russian socio-economic development in the last twenty years.


2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 745-758
Author(s):  
S.N. Larin ◽  
E.Yu. Khrustalev ◽  
N.V. Noakk

Subject. Currently, as the global economy evolves, its innovative components should demonstrate a tendency of accelerated growth as intellectual capital, information technologies, increasing knowledge and digitization of mushrooming production processes. Nowadays, intellectual capital is one of the economic development drivers. However, the economic community is found to have no generally accepted wording of the concept, thus laying the basis for this article. Objectives. The study sums up the analysis of approaches used by the Russian and foreign economists to determining the economic substance of intellectual capital. We also identify the importance of human capital as its components and specify the definition of the concept. Methods. The article overviews and analyzes proceedings by the most renowned authors, which substantiate how the economic substance of intellectual capital should be unveiled, and suggest its definitions. Results. We specified the definition of intellectual capital concerning the current economic development. We suggest integrating a new component into intellectual capital, such as intellectual property, which includes products of intellectual activity and intangible assets. They can be owned by the entity or other legal entities and individuals, including some employees of the entity. Conclusions and Relevance. The specified definition of intellectual capital will help address issues of sustainable economic development and ensure the competitiveness of the Russian entities nationwide and worldwide, since it directly contributes to intellectual capital and its components.


Author(s):  
Rimma Gurevich

H. Kant’s novel received a high literary and aesthetic appreciation in criticism and wide recognition by readers. Criticism (before and after the unification of Germany) concerns mainly one aspect viz. authenticity of the events depicted in the novel and the charcters’ images. Opponents argue that Kant’s ideological views, his consistent socialist and party position have prompt him to embellish reality, create simulacra, and the idyllic world of socialist Biedermeyer. The article shows that these assessments ignore the nature of his talent, especially his creative personality peculiarities such as journalistic orientation of the motivated «political» person and writer.


Author(s):  
Amaresh Chakrabarti ◽  
V. Srinivasan ◽  
B.S.C. Ranjan ◽  
Udo Lindemann

AbstractFunctions are important in designing. However, several issues hinder progress with the understanding and usage of functions: lack of a clear and overarching definition of function, lack of overall justifications for the inevitability of the multiple views of function, and scarcity of systematic attempts to relate these views with one another. To help resolve these, the objectives of this research are to propose a common definition of function that underlies the multiple views in literature and to identify and validate the views of function that are logically justified to be present in designing. Function is defined as a change intended by designers between two scenarios: before and after the introduction of the design. A framework is proposed that comprises the above definition of function and an empirically validated model of designing, extended generate, evaluate, modify, and select of state-change, and an action, part, phenomenon, input, organ, and effect model of causality (Known as GEMS of SAPPhIRE), comprising the views of activity, outcome, requirement–solution–information, and system–environment. The framework is used to identify the logically possible views of function in the context of designing and is validated by comparing these with the views of function in the literature. Describing the different views of function using the proposed framework should enable comparisons and determine relationships among the various views, leading to better understanding and usage of functions in designing.


FACE ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 273250162110228
Author(s):  
David T. Mitchell ◽  
David Z. Allen ◽  
Matthew R. Greives ◽  
Phuong D. Nguyen

Machine learning is a rapidly growing subset of artificial intelligence (AI) which involves computer algorithms that automatically build mathematical models based on sample data. Systems can be taught to learn from patterns in existing data in order to make similar conclusions from new data. The use of AI in facial emotion recognition (FER) has become an area of increasing interest for providers who wish to quantify facial emotion before and after interventions such as facial reanimation surgery. While FER deep learning algorithms are less subjective when compared to layperson assessments, the databases used to train them can greatly alter their outputs. There are currently many well-established modalities for assessing facial paralysis, but there is also increasing interest in a more objective and universal measurement system to allow for consistent assessments between practitioners. The purpose of this article is to review the development of AI, examine its existing uses in facial paralysis assessment, and discuss the future directions of its implications.


2014 ◽  
Vol 42 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jelle W. Boumans ◽  
Rens Vliegenthart

‘Safety first’ versus ‘fighting on the barricades’: a content analysis of the nuclear debate in the Netherlands ‘Safety first’ versus ‘fighting on the barricades’: a content analysis of the nuclear debate in the Netherlands News content is often the result of an intense struggle between sources over the definition of an issue. This study content analyzes the agendas of the proponents and antagonists of nuclear energy in the Netherlands between 2002-2012 and investigates to what extent these agendas overlap with the news media agendas, including the often overlooked press agencies and regional newspapers. Analysis shows that the agenda of opponent Greenpeace – consisting of the themes of nuclear waste and risks – is slightly more visible in news agency and national newspaper content. Regional newspapers however tend to adopt the nuclear industry’s most dominant theme – safety. Interestingly enough, one regional newspaper seems to completely ignore the oppositional voice. This finding calls for a critical assessment of the relation between regional newspaper content and information subsidies.


2021 ◽  
Vol 90 ◽  
pp. 215-234
Author(s):  
Teodora Manea

AbstractMy main interest here is to look at pain as a sign of the body that something is wrong. I will argue that there is a meaning of pain before and after an illness is diagnosed. An illness contains its own semantic paradigm, but the pain before the diagnosis affects the pace of life, not only by limiting our interactions, but also as a struggle with its meaning and a reminder of mortality.My main approach is what I call bio-hermeneutics, an extension of medical hermeneutics branching out from the Continental hermeneutical tradition. As such, I will explore the connection between pain and language, temporality, dialectics, and ontology. Given the centrality of language in constructing the meaning of pain, my analysis is informed by the semantics (looking at pain metaphors), syntax (pain as incoherence), and pragmatics (pain as companion) of expressing pain.The last section explores the meaning of pain in connection with death, as memento mori. Revisiting an old definition of philosophy as melete thanatou, or ‘rehearsal of death’, I will reflect on the difficulty of finding meaning not only for pain, but also for death as cessation of all existential possibilities.


1993 ◽  
Vol 134 ◽  
pp. 291-309 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruth Hayhoe

China's present leadership sees universities as being of key importance for the country's economic development and for its relationship with Western countries. This is a kind of two-edged sword. On the one hand, considerable support and encouragement for scientific and technological development is provided, together with pressures for scientific findings to be applied to specific economic development needs. On the other, the reflective and theoretical social sciences and the humanities are being purged of Western influences in efforts to mobilize all resources against what is seen as the Western strategy of fostering “peaceful evolution” towards capitalism. The kinds of tension that arise out of this highly contradictory situation are severe.


2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 (11-12) ◽  
pp. 136-147
Author(s):  
Ihor BYSTRIAKOV ◽  

For Ukraine’s conditions, it is important to find new forms of organization of economic activity, which will ensure the overcoming of “catching-up” of the world economy. It is advisable to solve the problem in terms of determining the features of the national space for sustainable development. At the same time, objectively, there is a need to adapt the definition of “space” as such to the practice of environmental and economic development management. From a methodological standpoint, the issue is to use the post-industrial approaches to define economic processes with a focus on the category of “interest”. Since economic space of the post-industrial type is formed by the flows of “interests” of business entities, which circulate and determine its structure, attention is focused on domination of energy and information in communicative processes. From the standpoint of the functioning of a proper communicative field, the effect of economic activity is provided by reducing the parameters of transaction duration and then reducing the costs to a corresponding acceptable level. Evolution of the communication system indicates a change in the nature of interaction of business entities with environment. The main issues are the ecological and economic encodings of the life space, which gradually transform into everyday reality and form the corresponding cognitive frames. Therefore, an important point is the search for modern forms of economic self-sufficiency of functioning of ecological systems at the level of requirements for their safe existence at the expense of rational use of natural resources assets. The author emphasizes the expediency of focusing on decentralized forms of managing the process of ensuring the ecological and economic development of territories, taking into account the relevant competences of local economic systems within the definition of their communication fields. Aforementioned approach can be fully solved in the framework of the so-called platform economy. As a phenomenon of macroeconomic level, the platform economy provides guidance on changing the mechanism of cost formation at the grassroots level. The ecological and economic concept of sustainable development fits into general trends associated with transformation of the markets towards expansion of network interactions, since business as well starts to develop according to the similar to natural ecosystem laws.


2020 ◽  
pp. 71-76
Author(s):  
Viktoriya Rudenko ◽  

In market conditions, one of the main regulators of economic development is the financial mechanism, a key element of which is the fiscal mechanism for regulating the national economy investment development. Currently, the methods of the fiscal mechanism are not used effectively enough in Ukrainian practice, as evidenced by the low investment attractiveness of the economy and weak investment activity of economic entities. Therefore, the definition of the essence and components of methods of the fiscal mechanism is currently among the important financial and economic issues, the scientific substantiation of which largely depends on the economy investment development. The article is devoted to the study of theoretical approaches to the functioning of the methods of the financial mechanism and on this basis to determine the content and composition of the methods of the fiscal mechanism. It was determined that there are various approaches to understanding the essence of financial methods (as means, forms, methods, rules) and three conceptual approaches to the interpretation of the methods of financial mechanism: management (considers the methods of financial mechanism as processes in which implementation of financial policy); organizational (treats the methods of the financial mechanism as a means of organizing financial relations, which are formed in the process of implementing financial policy); complex (characterizes the methods of the financial mechanism as a process of organizing financial relations to achieve the objectives of financial policy). As a result of research of theoretical bases of functioning of financial methods the essence of methods of the fiscal mechanism of regulation of national economy investment development was substantiated. The main methods of the fiscal mechanism were identified, including planning, organization and control. The basic requirements to functioning of methods of the fiscal mechanism of regulation of the national economy investment development were considered.


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