Technical Progress

Abdominal blunt trauma represents the main cause of death in people of age less than 40 years; the liver injury occurs frequently, with an incidence varying from 3 to 10%. Isolated hepatic lesions are rare and in 77-90% of cases, lesions of other organs and viscera are involved. Right hepatic lobe is a frequent site of injury, because it is the more voluminous portion of liver parenchyma; posterior superior hepatic segments are proximal to fixed anatomical structures such as ribs and spine that may have an important role in determining of the lesion. The coronal ligaments' insertion in this parenchymal region augments the effect of acceleration-deceleration mechanism. Associated lesions usually are homolateral costal fractures, laceration or contusion of the inferior right pulmonary lobe, haemothorax, pneumothorax, renal and/or adrenal lesions. Traumatic lesions of left hepatic lobe are rare and usually associated with direct impact on the superior abdomen, such as in car-crash ...

This paper analyses the rate of technical progress at Portuguese airports between 1990 and 2000, using a stochastic cost frontier method. A translog frontier model is used and the maximum likelihood estimation technique is employed to estimate the empirical model. We estimate the efficient scores and disentangle the rate of technical progress into three components: pure technical progress, non-neutral technical progress and scale-augmenting technical progress. The results show that the average score is 88%, denoting a relatively high degree of waste, despite the fact that technical change contributed to a reduction in costs.

This paper argues that the patters of income and wealth distribution of the economies may explain the productive and trade specialization in the long run. Two channels are considered to understand the relations between both processes: demand for goods and institutional and ...

Cybercommunities are online social spaces. They may be online chat systems based on text, or virtual worlds based on 2D or 3D graphics. They may be created for different social purposes, from gaming to dating to mili-tary training. The growth of cybercommunities is a ...

This paper discusses air pollution mortality in Europe by projecting future incomes and the associated air pollution until 2020. A grav- ity model for transboundary emissions is introduced while the EKC decomposition is utilized to calculate emissions in 2020. The deter- minants of air pollution deaths, such as urbanization and technical progress in medicine are evaluated. The results show that

The theoretical contribution of Technip’s history lies in the confrontation between inheritances and mutations which contributed to form an independant economic entity with an original growth path. The achievement of the multidivisional integration of Technip in the sense of Alfred Chandler seem strongly linked to a moment of rupture of Schumpeterian innovation cycles and to the internalization of technical progress as a production factor in the sense of Oliver Williamson. The shift to a new growth model, the historical moment of detachment from the State and the real apparition of a private and multinational company.

Short Abstract of the Book in English and French

Abstract of the book "Al-Mirsād fi masāïl al-iktisād" (Observations on economic questions), written by Abdelkader Al-Medjaoui (1848-1914) and Omar Brihmat (1859-1909), and published 1904 in Algiers by Pierre Fontana Eastern Editions.

The discovery of this book, previously unknown, gives an opportunity to shed new light on the economic literature claiming Islamic ethics at the same time that Max Weber began the wrinting on the Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1904-1905). It shows that the interest of two Muslims reformists for economic issues in Algeria appeared to stimulate the economic activity of the local society, not to express an ideological posture towards socialism or/and capitalism, starting from the idea, on the one hand, that the technical progress provide beneficial goods and substantially improve the welfare and, on the other hand, that the world order is based on the exchange which ensure peace between nations. This discovery finally invite to overcome the dichotomy between "Islamization of the economy" and "invention of a new economy", which has emerged during the first International Conference on Islamic Economics (1976), to take place in the history of peoples and provide economic solutions in line with their real needs while fulfilling the requirements of Islamic law. The word "observations" then takes on its full dimension.


Key-words: Islam, ethics, economy, society, technical progress, welfare, history, Algeria



Résumé du livre "Al-mirçād fi massāïl al-iqtiçād" (Observations sur des questions économiques), écrit Abdelkader Al-Medjaoui (1848-1914) et Omar Brihmat (1859-1909) et publié à Alger en 1904 aux éditions orientales Pierre Fontana.

La découverte de ce livre, jusque-là inconnu, permet d'apporter un éclairage nouveau sur la littérature économique se réclamant de l'éthique musulmane à la même époque où Max Weber entama l'écriture de l'éthique protestante et l'esprit du capitalisme (1904-1905). Elle montre que l'intérêt de deux réformistes musulmans pour les questions économiques en Algérie s'est manifesté pour stimuler la vie économique de la société locale, et non pour manifester une posture idéologique à l'égard du socialisme ou/et du capitalisme, en partant de l’idée, d’une part,  que le progrès technique permet de disposer de biens profitables et d’améliorer substantiellement le bien-être et, d’autre part, que l'organisation du monde repose sur l’échange qui favorise la paix entre les nations. Cette découverte invite finalement à dépasser la dichotomie entre "islamisation de l'économie" et "invention d'une nouvelle économie", ayant émergé durant la première conférence internationale sur l'économie islamique (1976), pour s'inscrire dans l'histoire des populations et apporter des solutions économiques en phase avec leurs besoins réels tout en satisfaisant aux exigences du droit musulman. Le mot "observations" prend alors toute sa dimension.

Mots-clés: Islam, éthique, économie, société, histoire, progrès technique, bien-être, Algérie

Holography, the three-dimensional imaging technology, was portrayed widely as a paradigm of progress during its decade of explosive expansion 1964–73, and during its subsequent consolidation for commercial and artistic uses up to the mid 1980s. An unusually seductive and prolific subject, holography successively spawned scientific insights, putative applications and new constituencies of practitioners and consumers. Waves of forecasts, associated with different sponsors and user communities, cast holography as a field on the verge of success—but with the dimensions of success repeatedly refashioned. This retargeting of the subject represented a degree of cynical marketeering, but was underpinned by implicit confidence in philosophical positivism and faith in technological progressivism. Each of its communities defined success in terms of expansion, and anticipated continual progressive increase. This paper discusses the contrasting definitions of progress in holography, and how they were fashioned in changing contexts. Focusing equally on reputed ‘failures’ of some aspects of the subject, it explores the varied attributes by which success and failure were linked with progress by different technical communities. This important case illuminates the peculiar post-World War II environment that melded the military, commercial and popular engagement with scientific and technological subjects, and the competing criteria by which they assessed the products of science.

Norsteroids are xenobiotics with androgenic and anabolic properties known since as far back as the 1930s. In doping controls, the use of the banned xenobiotic norsteroids is detected in the competitor’s urines by the measurement of norandrosterone (19-NA) and noretiocholanolone (19-NE), which are the main metabolites for nandrolone (NT) and most norsteroids with anabolic properties. In 1996, the IOC subcommission “Doping and Biochemistry of Sport” informed the Heads of the “IOC Accredited Laboratories” that the recommended cut-off limit for reporting an offence was to be 1–2 ng ml−1 urine for either 19-NA or 19-NE. We will discuss how technical progress in gas chromatography coupled to high-resolution mass spectrometry permitted a dramatic increase in sensitivity with a detection limit of 1 pg ml−1 urine, or less, and an assay limit of 20–50 pg ml−1 urine, for either 19-NA or 19-NE. As a paradox, norsteroids have been known for decades as not only xenobiotics but also obligatory endogenous intermediates in the biosynthesis of estrogens from androgens in all species, man included. It is this biochemical observation which fed the active scientific and medical controversy initiated in 1998 over the possibly endogenous production of nandrolone and metabolites well over the new IOC’s recommended cut-off limit of 2 ng ml−1 urine. Notwithstanding the particular technical difficulties attached, we will provide data and discuss the minute endogenous levels detected and measured in man either at rest, after performance or training and compare them to the relatively high levels reported in male athlete’s doping controls today. We will also discuss data on the pharmacological effects of some contraceptive therapies containing norsteroids in women. In view of the well-documented noxious effects repeatedly observed after anabolic steroid misuse, the confirmation and implementation of technically proven procedures for reporting norsteroid abuse in sports seems an important enough goal to protect athlete’s health against such abuses and justifies up dating the review of the patent scientific and medical experience and knowledge gained over the last 50 years on nandrolone and its minor production in man and woman.