12,137 research outputs found
Inventing Paradigms, Monopoly, Methodology, and Mythology at 'Chicago': Nutter and Stigler
This paper focuses on Warren Nutter’s The Extent of Enterprise Monopoly in the United States, 1899-1939. This started out as a (1949) doctoral dissertation at The University of Chicago, part of Aaron Director’s Free Market Study. Besides Director, O.H. Brownlee and Milton Friedman were closely involved with supervising it. It was published by The University of Chicago Press in 1951. In the 1950s the book was explicitly understood as belonging to the “Chicago School” (Dow and Abernathy 1963). By articulating the content, context, and reception of Nutter’s monograph, this paper discusses four larger themes. First, I introduce the importance of Kuhnian conceptions of science to the methodological and institutional understanding of economics in the development of a ‘Chicago’ school of economics. I do this in context of previously unpublished Stigler-Kuhn exchange. While Thomas Kuhn was widely read and adopted in the social sciences and humanities in the 1960s and 70s (and thereafter), I argue that at ‘Chicago,’ proto-Kuhnian language can be found going back to the 1940s; in those early days it is partly used to disparage the achievements of economic theorizing as promoted by others. A more self-congratulatory Kuhnian self-understanding of economics as a mature paradigm starts to get adopted around 1955 by George Stigler. One important new claim is that the later Kuhnian language gets adopted in part to divest ‘Chicago’ from its shared roots with Institutionalist economics. So, this paper contributes to a better understanding of the formation of a shared narrative at ‘Chicago.’ Second, I introduce contextual themes from Milton Friedman’s writings in the late 40s and 50s to help us understand the nature of realism at Chicago. Nutter’s dissertation helps in reading and illuminating Milton Friedman’s famous 1953 methodology paper in historical and intellectual context. Third, while this chapter notes some of the political ramifications of Chicago economics, my main aim is to help explain the manner in which Chicago attempted to chart a distinctive methodological course. This methodology has often been described as Marshallian with debts to the large-scale NBER studies. Rather than going over familiar territory, I call attention to the importance of proxies in Nutter’s empirical methodology. It is an unappreciated feature of the inductive, quantitative method that focused on the component structures of the economy that characterizes Chicago’s methodological outlook in this period. I show this by comparing Nutter’s dissertation to work done by Stigler, then at Columbia. We know from Stigler’s correspondence with Friedman that in this period they discussed methodological matters. What is less well known is that Friedman is explicitly credited for Stigler’s methodological insights in Stigler's Five Lectures at LSE. The fifth lecture, “Competition in the United States,” covers similar territory as Nutter’s project. Comparing the work by Stigler and Nutter sheds light on the nature of Chicago methodology as it was being developed away from foundations laid by Frank Knight and Henry Simons in the late 1940s and 1950s and opening up the door to (right wing) social engineering as exemplified by Harberger. I present my analysis through the published critical reception of both works among economists. A fourth reason to focus on Nutter’s dissertation is that it was featured in a Fortune magazine article in January 1952. So, it provides a useful entry into how politically important ‘Chicago’ research was marketed to a wider audience. This connects to issues explored by Phil Mirowski and his students, Rob van Horn and Eddie Nik-kah. So, Nutter’s dissertation can help us see how ‘sponsored’ research looks at ‘Chicago at the time. This is especially important because it has been claimed that Director’s Free Market Study group promoted a change from classically liberal views on monopoly, which condemned labor and employer monopolies, to a more pro-business stance
Evolution of cooperation among tumor cells
The evolution of cooperation has a well established theoretical framework based on game theory. This approach has made valuable contributions to a wide variety of disciplines, including political science, economics, and evolutionary biology. Existing cancer theory suggests that individual clones of cancer cells evolve independently from one another, acquiring all of the genetic traits or hallmarks necessary to form a malignant tumor. It is also now recognized that tumors are heterotypic, with cancer cells interacting with normal stromal cells within the issue microenvironment, including endothelial, stromal, and nerve cells. This tumor cell???stromal cell interaction in itself is a form of commensalism, because it has been demonstrated that these nonmalignant cells support and even enable tumor growth. Here, we add to this theory by regarding tumor cells as game players whose interactions help to determine their Darwinian fitness. We marshal evidence that tumor cells overcome certain host defenses by means of diffusible products. Our original contribution is to raise the possibility that two nearby cells can protect each other from a set of host defenses that neither could survive alone. Cooperation can evolve as byproduct mutualism among genetically diverse tumor cells. Our hypothesis supplements, but does not supplant, the traditional view of carcinogenesis in which one clonal population of cells develops all of the necessary genetic traits independently to form a tumor. Cooperation through the sharing of diffusible products raises new questions about tumorigenesis and has implications for understanding observed phenomena, designing new experiments, and developing new therapeutic approaches.Author manuscript. Published in final edited form as: Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2006 September 5; 103(36): 13474-13479.The final published version of this article is located at: www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.0606053103NIH U56 CA113004; to David E. AxelrodR.A. was supported by National Science Foundation (NSF) Grant SES-0240852. D.E.A. was supported by NSF Grant IIS-0312953, National Institutes of Health (NIH) Grant U56 CA113004, and New Jersey Commission on Cancer Research Grant 1076-CCR-SO. K.J.P. is an American Cancer Society Clinical Research Professor and is supported by NIH Grants CA69568, CA102872, and CA093900.NIH CA69568; to Kenneth J. PientaNIH CA102872; to Kenneth J. PientaNIH CA093900; to Kenneth J. PientaNSF SES-0240852; to Robert AxelrodNJ Commission on Cancer Research 1076-CCR-SO; to David E. AxelrodAlso available in PubMed Central. PMCID: PMC155738
The Arts Interview. Dr. David Pitt : The Truant Years, E. J. Pratt
Host Fred Hollingshurst interviews Dr. David Pitt of Memorial University, who discusses the life and work of Newfoundland poet E. J. Pratt. Pitt is the author of E. J. Pratt: The Truant Years, 1881-1927
Fly about round me coursing, swallow sweet birds come near [first line]
strophicpiano and voiceCover is duplicated in 125.115b.Johns Hopkins University, Levy Sheet Music Collection, Box
125, Item 115aTranslated From the French of Volney L'Hotelier by Samuel J. Gardner, Esq. The Music by Felicien David (Author of "Le Desert").E.G. Warren, Engr
Fly about round me coursing, swallow sweet birds come near [first line]
strophicpiano and voiceCover is duplicated in 125.115b.Johns Hopkins University, Levy Sheet Music Collection, Box
125, Item 115aTranslated From the French of Volney L'Hotelier by Samuel J. Gardner, Esq. The Music by Felicien David (Author of "Le Desert").E.G. Warren, Engr
Interview with David Dunn on the subject of bark beetle sounds
AnimaliaArthropodaInsectaColeopteraCompressed from .wav format into .mp3 delivery formatComposer and recording engineer David Dunn describes his recordings of bark beetles in New Mexico, and some of the possible causes and consequences of bark beetle infestations devastating pine forests throughout the WestSounds were recorded using a modified transducer inserted into the bark of the tree, and are taken with permission of the author from the compact disc "The Sound of Light in Trees" produced by David Dunn in collaboration with the Acoustic Ecology Institute. Scientists say that bark beetle populations are increasing in large part because of increased drought and milder winters due to global warming
Unsung Hero of Gettysburg: The Story of Union General David McMurtrie Gregg
Reviewer David J. Eicher writes that Longacre presents a “fine narrative,” in which the author weaves stories of the general’s personal life together with battle scenes that “are interesting and move along at a fast pace.” Longacre “clearly admires his subject,” Eicher writes, but the work “is not without offering criticism.” With Unsung Hero of Gettysburg, the general “has finally received a biography that delivers the details of a soldier’s full and interesting life,” over a century after Gregg’s death
Should i publish in an open access journal?
An “author pays” publishing model is the only fair way to make biomedical research findings accessible to all, say Matthew Kurien and David S Sanders, but James J Ashton and R Mark Beattie worry that it can lead to bias in the evidence base towards commercially driven results
Portrait of David Rowbotham, 1958 [picture] /
Condition: good, framed.; Inscriptions: "The Studio, 225 Brunswick Rd, Valley, Bris. David Rowbotham, author poet & journalist" -- verso; Signed "Sibley '58" -- lower c.; Title from accession record.; File no 204/13/64
Cult: A Composite Novel
Cult (redacted)
The first component of the thesis is a composite novel called Cult which falls into two parts with seven narratives in each. Part 1 tracks the protagonist, Ellen, from her first involvement with the cult through to her eventually leaving it. Although fiction, the first half of the book answers the kinds of questions the author is asked when people discover that she was once a sannyasin (a follower of the guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh). While the experiences of meditation, group therapy and communal living are all faithfully rendered within the stories, the need for strong characters, narrative drive and a lightness of touch takes precedence.
Part 2 picks up Ellen’s story some twenty or so years later and explores what becomes of her in middle age. It also looks at other groups in society, such as academia, the law and the internet dating community which each have their own jargon, hierarchies, rituals and rules but are not considered to be cults.
The book examines the question raised in the Epigraph, ‘how do we be together when we feel so alone’ with a focus on relationships other than the familial and the romantic.
Collisions, Chasms and Connections: a Performative Exploration of the Composite Novel Form
The second part of the thesis is both a critical and creative response to three contemporary American books: Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout; A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan; and Legend of a Suicide by David Vann. The critical element comprises a close reading of the three books; a chronological reconstruction of their overarching storylines; and a consideration of what their authors have said about writing the books. It concludes that, in the composite novel, the simultaneous presentation of multiple views and storylines operate much like a 3D image to give the impression of depth to the characters and situations rendered. The creative element of the essay is a playful and personal response to the texts
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