‘The Economic’ According to Aristotle: Ethical, Political and Epistemological Implications

A renewed concern with Aristotle’s thought about the economic aspects of human life and society can be observed. Aristotle dealt with the economic issues in his practical philosophy. He thus considered ‘the economic’ within an ethical and political frame. This vision is coherent with a specific ontology of ‘the economic’ according to Aristotle. In a recent paper, I analysed this ontology and left its consequences, especially for Ethics and Politics, for another paper. In this article, I firstly summarise the reasoning and conclusions of the aforementioned paper. Then, I extract the ethical and political “lessons” of the Aristotelian conception. I finally add a section with epistemological “lessons”, and consequences for the teaching of Economics.     

Combinatorial activity of Six1-2-4 genes in cephalic neural crest cells controls craniofacial and brain development

The combinatorial expression of Hox genes is an evolutionarily ancient program underlying body axis patterning in all Bilateria. In the head, the neural crest (NC)––a vertebrate innovation that contributes to evolutionarily novel skeletal and neural features––develops as a structure free of Hox-gene expression. The activation of Hoxa2 in the Hox-free facial NC (FNC) leads to severe craniofacial and brain defects. Here, we show that this condition unveils the requirement of three Six genes, Six1, Six2, and Six4, for brain development and morphogenesis of the maxillo-mandibular and nasofrontal skeleton. Inactivation of each of these Six genes in FNC generates diverse brain defects, ranging from plexus agenesis to mild or severe holoprosencephaly, and entails facial hypoplasia or truncation of the craniofacial skeleton. The triple silencing of these genes reveals their complementary role in face and brain morphogenesis. Furthermore, we show that the perturbation of the intrinsic genetic FNC program, by either Hoxa2 expression or Six gene inactivation, affects Bmp signaling through the downregulation of Bmp antagonists in the FNC cells. When upregulated in the FNC, Bmp antagonists suppress the adverse skeletal and cerebral effects of Hoxa2 expression. These results demonstrate that the combinatorial expression of Six1, Six2, and Six4 is required for the molecular programs governing craniofacial and cerebral development. These genes are crucial for the signaling system of FNC origin, which regulates normal growth and patterning of the cephalic neuroepithelium. Our results strongly suggest that several congenital craniofacial and cerebral malformations could be attributed to Six genes’ misregulation.     

Do IMF fiscal forecasts add value?

We used a panel of 29 advanced and emerging market countries to investigate whether the IMF's World Economic Outlook (WEO) fiscal forecasts add value in terms of forecast accuracy and information content, relative to private sector forecasts (from Consensus Economics). We find that: (i) WEO forecasts are not significantly less accurate than Consensus forecasts; (ii) WEO and Consensus forecasts tend to mutually encompass one another; and (iii) each source of forecasts appears to contain some information that is not embedded in the other source.     

Earliest evidence of mammalian social behaviour in the basal Tertiary of Bolivia

The vast majority of Mesozoic and early Cenozoic metatherian mammals (extinct relatives of modern marsupials) are known only from partial jaws or isolated teeth, which give insight into their probable diets and phylogenetic relationships but little else. The few skulls known are generally crushed, incomplete or both, and associated postcranial material is extremely rare. Here we report the discovery of an exceptionally large number of almost undistorted, nearly complete skulls and skeletons of a stem-metatherian, Pucadelphys andinus, in the early Palaeocene epoch of Tiupampa in Bolivia. These give an unprecedented glimpse into early metatherian morphology, evolutionary relationships and, especially, ecology. The remains of 35 individuals have been collected, with 22 of these represented by nearly complete skulls and associated postcrania. These individuals were probably buried in a single catastrophic event, and so almost certainly belong to the same population. The preservation of multiple adult, sub-adult and juvenile individuals in close proximity (<1?m(2)) is indicative of gregarious social behaviour or at least a high degree of social tolerance and frequent interaction. Such behaviour is unknown in living didelphids, which are highly solitary and have been regarded, perhaps wrongly, as the most generalized living marsupials. The Tiupampan P.?andinus population also exhibits strong sexual dimorphism, which, in combination with gregariousness, suggests strong male-male competition and polygyny. Our study shows that social interactions occurred in metatherians as early as the basal Palaeocene and that solitary behaviour may not be plesiomorphic for Metatheria as a whole.     

Using Soft Systems Methodology to Fight Against Info-Exclusion: The Experience of a Brazilian University

The aim of this paper is to apply a systemic methodology to analyse the concept of info-inclusion which can guide strategic actions of institutions within civil society and within several levels of government. The paper provides a plan of action that, integrated with other tools, aims at fighting the technological and social gap. We apply Soft System Methodology (SSM), because it provides a holistic approach to info-exclusion. SSM is often used to analyse and resolve problems in complex social studies such as info-exclusion. An info-exclusion reduction project, developed by a university in the country region of Sao Paulo will be provided as a case study. This project is one of the several Brazilian initiatives to solve the problem of limited access to information technology tools. We start by contextualising info-exclusion in Brazil and follow with a review of SSM. We then introduce the concept of info-inclusion and apply SSM to it. We end with a discussion of the results obtained and with some suggestions for action and possible improvements.     

片上系统（SoC）设计——设备和部件

20世纪70年代，英特尔公司（Intel）的戈登-摩尔（Gordan Moore）预言：芯片上晶体管的数量将每隔18个月至两年就会翻一番。这即是电脑行业在幕后称之为的“摩尔定律”，这一定律至今依然在发挥着作用。但是，如果“摩尔定律”一直有效，那么小小芯片上的晶体管数量将继续呈指数级的增长。，可以想像不久的将来芯片将承受怎样的负担，这就需要将整个系统集成在一个小小芯片上的SoC（System on Chip）技术。这个激动人心的技术将曾经占据整个房间的庞大的计算机变得如今只有小拇指的指甲那么大小。正如很多专家所言，自从以半导体和集成电路为基础的计算技术出现以来，片上系统（SoC）技术已经成为最重要的一项技术。     

Bird-like fossil footprints from the Late Triassic

The study of fossilized footprints and tracks of dinosaurs and other vertebrates has provided insight into the origin, evolution and extinction of several major groups and their behaviour; it has also been an important complement to their body fossil record. The known history of birds starts in the Late Jurassic epoch (around 150 Myr ago) with the record of Archaeopteryx, whereas the coelurosaurian ancestors of the birds date back to the Early Jurassic. The hind limbs of Late Triassic epoch theropods lack osteological evidence for an avian reversed hallux and also display other functional differences from birds. Previous references to suggested Late Triassic to Early Jurassic bird-like footprints have been reinterpreted as produced by non-avian dinosaurs having a high angle between digits II and IV and in all cases their avian affinities have been challenged. Here we describe well-preserved and abundant footprints with clearly avian characters from a Late Triassic redbed sequence of Argentina, at least 55 Myr before the first known skeletal record of birds. These footprints document the activities, in an environment interpreted as small ponds associated with ephemeral rivers, of an unknown group of Late Triassic theropods having some avian characters.