Search Results

To some extent, the evolution of multicellular organisms such as metazoans is the evolution of their cells, whose prototypical characters are frequently abandoned, as with syncytia or as a consequence of apoptosis. To explain the evolution of growth, cell differentiation, and morphogenesis, an adequate framework is provided by the intrinsic logic of these developmental processes which proceed, whenever challenged, according a principle of developmental inertia. Cell-cell competition can explain the origin of gametes, set-aside cells and germ layers, and the occurrence of morphostatic processes. Alternative views of the evolution of life histories regard either the whole life cycle or the individual developmental stages as legitimate units of evolution, but the latter views face difficulties with intrinsic problems of periodization of development. Animal larval types are surveyed, with a discussion of primary versus secondary origins of larvae and metamorphosis. The last section of the chapter deals with the role of genes in animal development.

This chapter highlights the seasonality of temporary waters and how this relates to variability in the life cycles of their inhabitants, leading to discussion of phenotypic and genotypic solutions. The physiology of desiccation a major stressor in these habitats is reviewed, as are other adaptations of the biota such as cyclical dispersal and colonization. The differences between active and passive strategies of the latter are emphasized.

This chapter focuses on the IT policies of the Dutch and European governments in the period from 1960 to 1980. The success of different government policies and instruments is evaluated against the background of the development of the life cycles of computer technologies. The evolution of Dutch company, Philips Electronics Ltd, is discussed, which was the biggest company involved in IT hardware in the Netherlands during that time, and succeeded best in profiting from government policies.

This chapter adopts a long run perspective to survey the place of the regions in the British economy over the last 250 years; from the ‘old’ industrial districts of the first industrial revolution to the ‘new’ industrial clusters of the third industrial revolution. The chapter asks how a regionally oriented perspective can add to or alter dominant narratives in English economic and business history. Through a structured, dynamic analysis of these two apparently distinct eras during which the local came to the fore, it argues that spatial factors are not incidental to long-run processes in English economic history; that powerful spatial factors have not simply been path-dependent but also path-forming; and that these factors can play a significant role in explaining long-run processes of restructuring, at organizational and strategic as well as at spatial levels, and thus bear an important relation to questions of national economic performance. Consideration of these issues requires an appreciation of the strategic and organizational characteristics and competitive advantages associated with clustering and of their dynamic properties. Two concepts are key to the latter issue; life-cycle and lock-in. Throughout, these concepts are fused with the historians' appreciation of narrative, agency and contingency. The chapter concludes that despite considerable continuities, the ‘new’ clusters of the 21st century display a fragility that marks them out from the ‘old’ clusters of the 18th and 19th centuries.

This chapter considers the disparities in political activity on the basis of age and what their implications for the representation of the opinions, concerns, and needs of all are. It attempts, in short, to analyze life-cycle, cohort, and period effects. Life-cycle effects refer to the social, psychological, and physical changes that take place as individuals age. In any society, particular experiences tend to correspond to particular stages in the life cycle. Using data from American National Election Studies (ANES) panel studies and from more than a half century of ANES cross-sections, this chapter investigates the origins of gaps among age groups in participation and finds evidence for both cohort and life-cycle effects.

GLOBEC studies focused on biological—physical interactions of target species in different study regions, emphasizing responses of organisms to varying physical forces. Population‐level processes were shown to be important, with ecological responses often being ecosystem‐specific. The timing of biological events (e.g. spring bloom, entry/exit from diapause, and fish spawning) is susceptible to environmental change. Many species can adapt their feeding modes and diets, but changes in mortality imposed by heavy fishing can disrupt biological systems, making them increasingly vulnerable to perturbations. Some organisms can move away from unfavourable conditions, changing the vertical and horizontal linkages between disparate ecosystems with unknown consequences. Trophic controls in food webs vary over time and space and food web structures also change, both over the short term and through shifts in regimes, sometimes irreversibly. There is an ongoing requirement to integrate ecological processes, from biogeochemistry to top predators, to understand potential consequences of global change.

This chapter explores the role of time in ecology as a resource. In this framework, the established terms timing, rate, acceleration, and duration accrue more nuanced importance. Here, timing, rate, and duration refer to the onset of, progression through, and hence use of time in linked series of associated phenophases that comprise an individual organism's life history cycle. As with other resources, time available for allocation to such phenophases or life history stages is limited in supply, and it is in demand by conspecific and heterospecific competitors alike. The chapter then argues that time, much like space, varies in its scales of availability for use by the individual organism, and in its forms available for use by the individual organism.

Several solitary bee species in the genus Osmia have been studied as potential pollinators of fruit trees and other early-blooming crops. Methods to manage large populations in agro-ecosystems have been developed for at least three species. This chapter reviews current knowledge on the life cycle of Osmia and emphasizes the need to establish a solid ecophysiological basis to develop adequate rearing methods for these species. Two phenological events — the timing of adult diapause in the autumn, and the timing of emergence in the spring — require particular attention when managing Osmia populations. The timing of adult diapause is critical because pre-wintering temperatures have a profound effect on fat body depletion, winter survival, and vigor at emergence. Timing of emergence and its synchronization with bloom of the target crop is important to maximize pollination and production of bee progeny. Both events can be adjusted with proper temperature management.

This chapter focuses on how Baby Boomers compare to prior groups on the verge of retirement. Specifically, it evaluates the stock of health which Early Boomers bring to retirement and compares it to two prior cohorts at the same point in their life cycles. In the Health and Retirement Study, it appears that Boomers on the verge of retirement are in poorer health than their counterparts a dozen years ago. Boomers indicate they have relatively more difficulty with everyday physical tasks in addition to having more pain, more chronic conditions, more drinking and psychiatric problems, than their HRS earlier counterparts.

This chapter highlights the conceptual aspects of a rating system without focusing on mathematical and technical aspects. An overview is provided of the different aspects of risk measurement and modelling: data, modelling techniques, and implementation for use. All aspects of the development and implementation of a new model are discussed. The system life cycle is explained in section 4.2. Section 4.3 provides a high-level overview on credit scoring models. Such models rely on data, for risk measurement, model use, and model development. The data issues are discussed in Section 4.4. Section 4.5 provides a bird's eye view on the model development process of internal rating systems. Implementation aspects are discussed in Section 4.6. Section 4.7 explains that models need to be maintained and updated regularly. Section 4.8 explains the different, but also partially overlapping aspects of model validation, quality control, and backtesting.

Salt marshes provide a model ecosystem for analyzing the role of parasites in community dynamics. These habitats include an abundant and diverse community of trematode parasites which have complex life cycles, including snail, fish and bird hosts, embedded in rich food webs. Parasites were added to an already detailed food web from the Carpenteria salt marsh in Santa Barbara, California. Including parasites in the food web dramatically increased food web connectance (the average level of species interaction), which has profound implications for the study of community structure and function. Further incorporation of parasites into food webs will increase our appreciation of their role in ecosystems.

This chapter uses a life‐cycle model calibrated to microeconomic US data to examine financial asset allocation strategies of working households saving for retirement. For typical US households with relatively safe labour income streams, risky investments should be extremely attractive when they are young, have modest savings and have many years until retirement; but risky assets should be less attractive later in life, as human wealth declines and financial assets accumulate. Households whose income comes from private businesses, which are exposed to many of the same risks as publicly traded companies, should find risky investments in stocks less attractive at all ages. Households with high‐risk aversion should be cautious investors both because of their high‐risk aversion and their tendency to accumulate greater precautionary savings. Impatient households, on the other hand, accumulate relatively little savings; financial risks are relatively unimportant for them compared to income risks, and thus they can afford to invest more aggressively.

This chapter discusses the basic determinants of the generation of wealth and its distribution across households; it has four sections. Section 7.1 considers the life cycle motive as a basis of household saving behaviour, paying particular attention to the role played by the pension annuity system. Section 7.2 discusses the role of education in transmitting wealth between parents and children. Section 7.3 turns to the topic of macroeconomics and looks at how the rate of return is determined in the long term, thereby showing how the theoretical discussions in this book form a general equilibrium framework. Section 7.4 takes up the question of asset and related expectations––asset price fluctuation is considered one of the major causes of generation of huge wealth in the short term, but there are various conflicting dimensions to this problem.

States and social movements cannot escape one another, and the outcomes of their interaction give shape to the political world. The state continues to be important in providing a large part of the structural context for movements, and the important possibility of movements transforming the state itself in a greener direction has been established. This dynamic entails reshaping of the state as it incorporates movements, but the ’life cycle’ of movements as they relate to states is much more than a one‐way drive to inclusion. Whether we care about the substantive ends sought by social movements, the transformation of the state, or the continued democratic well‐being of society, the conclusion is that civil society is not just a resting place for social movements on their way to the state . It is meaningful and sometimes crucial as a site of political action in its own right.

This chapter discusses noncalendrical celebrations, that is, those high moments in the life cycle—birth, coming of age, coronation, marriage, and death—and the celebratory, almost ritualized, aspects of events organized to mark such important moments in the life cycles of kings and their close families. Celebrations often served as an extension of kingly and noble hegemony. In this regard, how other contending centers of authority—cities, noblemen, ecclesiastical authorities, and others—reacted to, shared in, or ignored these celebrations provides telling signs that none of these feasts were innocent affairs undertaken “just for fun.” They were always rife with wider political intent and meaning.

This chapter discusses the emergence of the environmental movement within the context of corporate responsibility and sustainability management, focusing on the development of environmental management accounting (EMA). It illustrates how media coverage on the harmful aspects of environmental problems played a defining role in management's desire to be considered ecologically sound and environmentally friendly. It describes in some detail how mainstream management accounting practices such as activity-based costing (ABC), life cycle costing (LCC), and the balanced scorecard (BSC) have been modified to incorporate environmental aspects. The chapter also discusses the role of government agencies and financial reporting, and the impact these have on managerial decisions.

In this chapter, mobbing-proneness within organizations is examined through the perspective of the organizational life cycle. Examining the organizational life cycle is offered as an additional means of understanding the organizational context and the emergence of risk factors for mobbing. Organizational life cycle analysis affords a longitudinal rather than cross-sectional view of the organization. Combined, cross-sectional and longitudinal organizational analyses are proposed as empirically derived means for gaining retrospective understandings of the organizational context in mobbing cases that have already occurred and for prospective mapping of organizational risk factors that may potentially give rise to mobbing cases in the future. Organizational development, change, and responsiveness to risk factors for mobbing are also discussed in relation to open systems organizational models. It is argued that the organization plays a central role in the development of mobbing—a point that continues to be overlooked in the mischaracterization of so many cases of mobbing as bullying.

The survival of the Le Stranges’ household accounts for a run of almost fifty years from 1606 to 1654 allows consumption to be observed across the family’s life cycle, from soon after marriage to the death of Sir Hamon Le Strange. This chapter takes advantage of the long stretch of accounts to examine how expenditure varied across the life cycle, relating this to household size, indebtedness and the Civil War. It looks at the importance of life cycle events—birth, death and marriage—as consumption events, and the evidence of childcare and childhood provided by items of expenditure. The treatment of the Le Stranges’ three sons is contrasted with that of their daughter in terms of educational provision, marriage arrangements and overall expenditure.

This chapter presents a typology of the diversity of ludic events, their origins, and evolution in late medieval and early modern Spain. There has long been an argument that Spanish festivals, celebratory cycles, and chivalrous activities, such as the tournament, did not originate in the peninsula but were most often imported from elsewhere. Festivities are, of course, as old as humanity itself. They are, in some ways, an aspect of that ludic drive that articulates the human need for play. At the individual, family, or community level, celebrations have played, and continue to play, a significant role in social relations, linking networks of individuals into temporary cohesive units. A birth, a coming of age, a wedding, a death, and all the high points of the life cycle call for some kind of ritual marking. Depending on wealth and social standing, these celebrations may be either exaggerated displays of one's lofty position or humble affairs.