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Behavioral Genetics - An introduction to how genes and environments interact through development to shape differences in mood, personality, and intelligence.pdf

November 8, 2009 · Filed Under Medical Textbook · Comment  · Tags: , , , , ,

Taken from Introduction: Why do humans range so widely in their susceptibility to mental illness, in their willingness to take risks, and in their performance on intelligence tests? One answer to this question comes from scientists in the field of behavioral genetics. They say that the variation in behavioral traits across a population is due, in part, to the genes. So many studies have pointed to connections between genes and particular behaviors that most scientists now feel comfortable stating that there is such a link for every possible behavior. But what does it really mean to say that there is a link between genes and behavior?
Does it mean that there is a gene that makes some of us blush when embarrassed; that there is one gene that makes you prefer classical music and another gene that makes you dislike it; that there is a bunch of genes that each provides for different levels of skill in playing poker? The answer to all these questions is no. Does it mean behavior passes down from generation to generation, i.e., is inherited, just like baldness and eye color? Again, the answer is no.
So when next you see an article that proclaims, “Gene for [insert a human behavior here] discovered,” read it with a critical eye. Or when you next hear someone say, “He inherited his [insert a human behavior here] from his father,” receive that with skepticism, too.
The pervasive role of genes in behavior does not mean what it is commonly misunderstood to mean. It does not mean that a gene or even several genes can make you act in any particular way. It does not mean that a behavior can “pass down through the genes.” Such claims are not accepted in behavioral genetics.
It does mean that genes play a vital role in the body’s development and physiology, and it is through the body, acting in response to and upon surrounding environments, that behavior manifests itself. So while we do inherit our genes, we do not inherit behavior traits in any fixed sense. The effect of our given set of genes on our behavior is entirely dependent upon the context of our life as it unfolds day to day.

s p o n s o r e d   l i n k s


Emergent Macroeconomics - An Agent-Based Approach to Business Fluctuations.pdf

October 21, 2009 · Filed Under Social Economic · Comment  · Tags: , ,

This macroeconomics ebook summarizes a crucial strand of research based on heterogeneous agents addressing and explaining key stylized facts of real world.

Principles of Microeconomics.pdf

October 21, 2009 · Filed Under Social Economic · Comment  · Tags: , , , , ,

Microeconomics is a branch of economics that studies how individuals and firms make decisions to allocate limited resources, typically in markets where goods or services are being bought and sold.

Rethinking Corporate Social Responsibility - A Fleishman-Hillard/National Consumers League Study.pdf

October 9, 2009 · Filed Under Society · Comment  · Tags: , ,

Taken from “How to Use this Report”: This report summarizes the survey’s key findings, and related communications implications, in the Executive Summary. The Detailed Findings section presents:
How consumers define and interpret the meaning of CSR.
Consumers’ opinions regarding corporate performance in the social responsibility arena.
Consumers’ interactions and attitudes toward an international social responsibility standard.
Consumers’ personal values and belief behaviors.
Factors influencing consumer purchase behaviors.
Opinions of and interactions with CSR sources.
Consumers’ level of involvement with CSR.
A summary profile

Best Practices for Sustainable Development of Micro Hydro Power in Developing Countries.pdf

September 1, 2009 · Filed Under Civil & Architectural Engineering · Comment  · Tags: , , , , ,

Taken from Introduction: Micro hydro, defined as a plant between 10 kW and 200 kW, is perhaps the most mature of the modern small-scale decentralised energy supply technologies used in developing countries. There are thought to be tens of thousands of plants in the ‘micro’ range operating successfully in China 2, and significant numbers are operated in wide ranging countries such as Nepal, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Vietnam and Peru. This experience shows that in certain circumstances micro hydro can be profitable in financial terms, while at others, unprofitable plants can exhibit such strong positive impacts on the lives of poor people and the environment that they may well justify subsidies.

The evidence from this extensive experience shows such wide variation in terms of cost, profitability and impact, that it has often been difficult for investors and rural people to determine whether, and under what circumstances, this technology is viable and best meets their needs.

Whilst supplying improved energy services to people for the first time is difficult, supplying such services profitably to very poor people who live far away from roads and the electricity grid poses a particularly difficult challenge. This report shows that micro hydro compares well with other energy supply technologies in these difficult markets. Despite this micro hydro appears to have been relatively neglected by donors, the private sector and governments in the allocation of resources and attention. In the past, rural electrification by means of grid extension was the option favoured by donors. More recently the fashion has switched towards photovoltaics, probably because of its higher foreign content, and the higher added value returned to the metropolitan countries.

The relative neglect of micro hydro has also been in part due to the fact that the circumstances under which it is financially profitable have not been systematically established, at least not in ways that investors find credible. In addition, while it is known that the growth and sustainability of the micro hydro sub-sector depends on certain types of infrastructure and institutional investments, it was often not clear which elements ofthis ‘enabling environment’ were essential, nor how they were best financed.




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