Quanta, Chance Events, and Indeterminism

2021 ◽  
pp. 43-78
Keyword(s):  
Chance Events

Daily Variability of Listeria Contamination Patterns in a Cold-Smoked Salmon Processing Operation

2006 ◽  
Vol 69 (9) ◽  
pp. 2123-2133 ◽  
Author(s):  
YUEWEI HU ◽  
KEN GALL ◽  
ALPHINA HO ◽  
RENATA IVANEK ◽  
YRJÖ T. GRÖHN ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Samples ◽  
Food Product ◽  
Processing Operation ◽  
Smoked Salmon ◽  
High Prevalence ◽  
Chance Events ◽  
Source Contamination ◽  
Contamination Event ◽  
Working Day ◽  
Listeria Welshimeri

An understanding of Listeria transmission and contamination patterns in processing environments of ready-to-eat foods is critical for improving control of Listeria monocytogenes. A cold-smoked fish processing operation was the site used to study variability in Listeria contamination in a processing environment associated with a ready-to-eat food product throughout one production week (five consecutive days). Intensive testing was conducted on finished products and environmental samples collected at the beginning, middle, and end of each working day. A total of 20 finished products and 22 to 36 environmental samples were collected at each sampling time, and an additional 12 environmental samples were collected on days 4 and 5. Overall, a total of 782 samples, 300 finished products and 482 environmental samples, were tested. All samples were collected from processing steps after smoking, including skinning, trimming, slicing, staging, and packing. A total of 28 finished and 57 environmental samples (9.3 and 11.8%, respectively) were positive for Listeria spp. (including 1 and 5 samples positive for L. monocytogenes, respectively). DNA sequencing of the sigB gene allowed differentiation of eight Listeria subtypes. Listeria prevalence varied significantly between days, and a high prevalence in both environmental samples and finished products on day 3 was likely associated with a point source contamination event by a single Listeria welshimeri subtype. There were no consistent differences in Listeria prevalence among samples collected from the beginning, middle, and end of the production day, but subtype data often revealed unique contamination patterns for samples collected at different times of a given day. Listeria contamination patterns and prevalences were highly variable between days and within a given day. These findings indicate that chance events play an important role in the contamination of finished products, thus complicating efforts to define Listeria transmission patterns in processing environments associated with ready-to-eat foods.

Historical Contingencies in the Evolution of States and Their Militaries

2018 ◽  
Vol 71 (1) ◽  
pp. 126-161
Author(s):  
Jonathan Bendor ◽  
Jacob N. Shapiro
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Law Of Large Numbers ◽  
International System ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Selection Environment ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
Key Players ◽  
Chance Events ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Do So

AbstractHistorians and some scholars of international relations have long argued that historical contingencies play a critical role in the evolution of the international system, but have not explained whether they do so to a greater extent than in other domains or why such differences may exist. The authors address these lacunae by identifying stable differences between war and other policy domains that render the evolution of the international system more subject to chance events than those other domains. The selection environment of international politics has produced tightly integrated organizations (militaries) as the domain’s key players to a much greater degree than other policy domains. Because there are few players, no law of large numbers holds, and because militaries are tightly integrated, microshocks can reverberate up to macro-organizational levels. The anarchic character of the international system amplifies the impact of these shocks. The authors explore these phenomena in a range of historical examples.

A Constructivist Framework for Understanding Entrepreneurship Performance

1993 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 549-570 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hamid Bouchikhi
Keyword(s):  
Structural Characteristics ◽  
Complex Interaction ◽  
Entrepreneurial Process ◽  
The Core ◽  
Prior Performance ◽  
Chance Events

This paper outlines a constructivist framework for understanding the outcomes of the entrepreneurial process. The core thesis of the paper is that, taken alone, neither the personality of the entrepreneur nor the structural characteristics of the environment determine the outcome. Rather, it is argued that the outcome of the entrepreneurial process is emergent from a complex interaction between the entrepreneur, the environment, chance events and prior performance. The framework is illustrated with evidence from biographies of six entrepreneurs involved in successful processes.

scholarly journals On the Indian tradition of mathematical names: A scientific analysis

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ashish Karn ◽  
Brett Rosiejka ◽  
Pankaj Badoni ◽  
Raman Kumar Singh
Keyword(s):  
Indian Subcontinent ◽  
Social Consciousness ◽  
Quantitative Evidence ◽  
Cultural Roots ◽  
Indian Tradition ◽  
Scientific Analysis ◽  
Chance Events ◽  
The Rich ◽  
And Mathematics ◽  
Shed Light

The current paper explores the tenuous interlink between names of individuals in a society and its collective social consciousness, particularly with reference to the pervasive occurrence of the ‘mathematical names’ in the current Hindu society in the Indian subcontinent and beyond. Initially, an attempt is made to put things into mathematical perspective by drawing a quick sketch of the mathematical achievements of the Indian mathematicians. Then, under the six broad categories of geometry, trigonometry, numeration, arithmetic, algebra and mathematics in the Vedic tradition, a concise layman description of these subdivisions are presented, underlining the names of the concepts and terms, sometimes by producing the textual references. Next, upon identification of such mathematical terms, these names are juxtaposed with the names current in the Indian Hindu setting. By employing an extensive dataset of university student names in India and the databases of Facebook and LinkedIn, we produce both qualitative and quantitative evidence of the presence of such names in the Indian subcontinent. Evidently, these names reflect impressions of the rich mathematical heritage left by the Hindu stalwart mathematicians. This hypothesis has also been examined by taking surveys of people bearing these mathematical names, as well as by documenting the ‘conscious procedures’ that go behind the naming of a Hindu Indian child. In trying to investigate if such a phenomenon is unique to the Indian tradition, a stark contrast with the ‘names in mathematics’ as prevalent in the European mathematical traditions is presented, as cultural roots of mathematics are explored. Further, we ascribe the presence of these names as the extant remains of the colossal impact of multifarious mathematical traditions existing in India. In fact, the present research also brings to the fore, certain unseen facets of the Indian Hindu society as regards the education of mathematics to women – through an indirect exploration of their names. We then show that the pervasive occurrence of these names are not merely the result of semantic chance events, but denote the richness of the Indian mathematical legacy. We also present cross-cultural comparisons to show the uniqueness of Indian mathematical and scientific traditions that led to the pervasiveness of ‘mathematical names’ in India. Finally, an attempt is made to clarify some subtle points on the associations between mathematics and religion in India and other cultures of the world. It is a sincere hope that the present study may shed light on the cultural roots of mathematics and may provide a different dimension in the study of mathematics and society, across other civilizations.

The Expansion of Life

2021 ◽  
pp. 99-118
Author(s):  
Franklin M. Harold
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Atmospheric Oxygen ◽  
Gene Level ◽  
Chance Events ◽  
Eukaryotic Microbes ◽  
Multicellular Organisms ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
New Phase ◽  
Recurrent Theme

The story of life tells of relentless expansion from obscure beginnings to smother the earth in organized biochemistry. First came the prokaryotes, Bacteria and Archaea, followed some two billion years later by eukaryotic microbes. The latter pattern of organization underpins the rise of multicellular organisms, and their spectacular proliferation over the past 600 million years. There have been no fundamentally new kinds of organisms since, but the rise of mind culminating in humanity may signal a new phase in life’s history. Life has expanded in both quantity and quality, a gyre of mounting size, complexity, and functional capacity; in some elusive sense evolution is progressive. Multicellularity, the key invention, is not singular but happened multiple times in several eukaryotic lineages. The proliferation of higher organisms was probably enabled by increased energy flow, and dependent on the increase in atmospheric oxygen. It is studded with innovations in structure, physiology, and behavior, whose origin is a recurrent theme in evolutionary biology. Novelty is rooted in mutational events at the gene level, supplemented by the acquisition of genes from the outside by both gene transfer and symbiosis, and possibly by other avenues. Chance events were scrutinized and culled by natural selection. There appears to be no intrinsic progressive drive, but natural selection generally favors the more functional and better organized.

What Luck!

2021 ◽  
pp. 113-124
Author(s):  
Andrew C. A. Elliott
Keyword(s):  
Random Methods ◽  
Related Idea ◽  
The World ◽  
Chance Events ◽  
Fortune Telling

Who is the luckiest person in the world? What do we mean by ‘luck’? Luck is usually treated as something persistent, a quality that attaches to people, places or objects. We feel that luck should be balanced, that the wheel of fortune should always rotate to balance things out, but it doesn’t. Fate is a powerful and related idea that destiny pre-ordains the course of our lives. Fortune-telling techniques purport to get a glimpse of fate and to see hidden truths. Somewhat paradoxically, most kinds of divination make use of random methods. The paradox of fairness is explained. It seems, though, that what distinguishes self-described lucky people from those who consider themselves unlucky is a question of attitude, of how one interprets the chance events that have filled our lives.

scholarly journals Eight Million Years of Satellite DNA Evolution in Grasshoppers of the Genus Schistocerca Illuminate the Ins and Outs of the Library Hypothesis

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 88-102 ◽  
Author(s):  
Octavio M Palacios-Gimenez ◽  
Diogo Milani ◽  
Hojun Song ◽  
Dardo A Marti ◽  
Maria D López-León ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Satellite Dna ◽  
Schistocerca Gregaria ◽  
Rate Of Change ◽  
High Rate ◽  
Consensus Sequences ◽  
Evolutionary Changes ◽  
Chance Events ◽  
Quantitative Changes ◽  
Library Hypothesis ◽  
Chromosomal Loci

Abstract Satellite DNA (satDNA) is an abundant class of tandemly repeated noncoding sequences, showing high rate of change in sequence, abundance, and physical location. However, the mechanisms promoting these changes are still controversial. The library model was put forward to explain the conservation of some satDNAs for long periods, predicting that related species share a common collection of satDNAs, which mostly experience quantitative changes. Here, we tested the library model by analyzing three satDNAs in ten species of Schistocerca grasshoppers. This group represents a valuable material because it diversified during the last 7.9 Myr across the American continent from the African desert locust (Schistocerca gregaria), and this thus illuminates the direction of evolutionary changes. By combining bioinformatic and cytogenetic, we tested whether these three satDNA families found in S. gregaria are also present in nine American species, and whether differential gains and/or losses have occurred in the lineages. We found that the three satDNAs are present in all species but display remarkable interspecies differences in their abundance and sequences while being highly consistent with genus phylogeny. The number of chromosomal loci where satDNA is present was also consistent with phylogeny for two satDNA families but not for the other. Our results suggest eminently chance events for satDNA evolution. Several evolutionary trends clearly imply either massive amplifications or contractions, thus closely fitting the library model prediction that changes are mostly quantitative. Finally, we found that satDNA amplifications or contractions may influence the evolution of monomer consensus sequences and by chance playing a major role in driftlike dynamics.

scholarly journals Injuries are not accidents: Towards a culture of prevention

2014 ◽  
pp. 132-135 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francisco J. Bonilla-Escobar ◽  
Maria Isabel Gutierrez Martinez
Keyword(s):  
Low Socioeconomic Status ◽  
Road Traffic ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Low Socioeconomic ◽  
Middle Income Countries ◽  
Common Misconception ◽  
Chance Events ◽  
Global Health Issue ◽  
Culture Of Prevention ◽  
Vital Element

Injuries are the result of an acute exposure to exhort of energy or a consequence of a deficiency in a vital element that exceeds physiological thresholds resulting threatens life. They are classified as intentional or unintentional. Injuries are considered a global health issue because they cause more than 5 million deaths per year worldwide and they are an important contributor to the burden of disease, especially affecting people of low socioeconomic status in low- and middle-income countries. A common misconception exists where injuries are thought to be the same as accidents; however, accidents are largely used as chance events, without taken in consideration that all these are preventable. This review discusses injuries and accidents in the context of road traffic and emphasizes injuries as preventable events. An understanding of the essence of injuries enables the standardization of terminology in public use and facilitates the development of a culture of prevention among all of us.

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