The organisational goals of social entrepreneurs: how social are they?

There is an increasing consensus among academics that the common denominator of ‘social entrepreneurs’ is their adherence to a ‘dominant social mission’. The extent to which social entrepreneurs actually adhere to socially oriented goals and values is largely taken for granted and treated as a black box. Building on established theoretical constructs, this paper develops a number of measures that can potentially contribute to our understanding of how ‘social’ social entrepreneurs really are. More specifically, we empirically test four potential measures of “social proclivity” in a well defined sample of social ventures, performing confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) (N~270). CFA points to high reliability and validity for the measures of each of the four constructs and supports the existence of a higher order construct “social proclivity”. Further, results show that social entrepreneurs display strong social as well as economic motives, providing an empirical base for actually capturing the dual-bottom line that characterises these enterprises

Hitts Law? A test of the relationship between information load and movement precision

Recent technological developments have made viable a man-machine interface heavily dependent on graphics and pointing devices. This has led to new interest in classical reaction and movement time work by Human Factors specialists. Two experiments were designed and run to test the dependence of target capture time on information load (Hitt's Law) and movement precision (Fitts' Law). The proposed model linearly combines Hitt's and Fitts' results into a combination law which then might be called Hitts' Law. Subjects were required to react to stimuli by manipulating a joystick so as to cause a cursor to capture a target on a CRT screen. Response entropy and the relative precision of the capture movement were crossed in a factorial design and data obtained that were found to support the model

Notes on some Terrestrial Orchids of the Londiani District

Volume: XXII

Visual Attention to Radar Displays

A model is described which predicts the allocation of attention to the features of a radar display. It uses the growth of uncertainty and the probability of near collision to call the eye to a feature of the display. The main source of uncertainty is forgetting following a fixation, which is modelled as a two dimensional diffusion process. The model was used to predict information overload in intercept controllers, and preliminary validation obtained by recording eye movements of intercept controllers in simulated and live (practice) interception

Vitamin D and the RNA transcriptome: more than mRNA regulation

The GRCh37.p13 primary assembly of the human genome contains 20805 protein coding mRNA, and 37147 non-protein coding genes and pseudogenes that as a result of RNA processing and editing generate 196501 gene transcripts. Given the size and diversity of the human transcriptome, it is timely to revisit what is known of VDR function in the regulation and targeting of transcription.Early transcriptomic studies using microarray approaches focused on the protein coding mRNA that were regulated by the VDR, usually following treatment with ligand. These studies quickly established the approxamte size, and surprising diversity of the VDR transcriptome, revealing it to be highly heterogenous and cell type and time dependent. With the discovery of microRNA, investigators also considered VDR regulation of these non-protein coding RNA. Again, cell and time dependency has emerged. Attempts to integrate mRNA and miRNA regulation patterns are beginning to reveal patterns of co-regulation and interaction that allow for greater control of mRNA expression, and the capacity to govern more complex cellular events. As the awareness of the diversity of non-coding RNA increases, it is evident that VDR actions are mediated through these molecules also. Key knowledge gaps remain over the VDR transcriptome. The causes for the cell and type dependent transcriptional heterogenetiy remain enigmatic. ChIP-Seq approaches have confirmed that VDR binding choices differ very significantly by cell type, but as yet the underlying causes distilling VDR binding choices are unclear. Similarly, it is clear that many of the VDR binding sites are non-canonical in nature but again the mechanisms underlying these interactions are unclear. Finally, although alternative splicing is clearly a very significant process in cellular transcriptional control, the lack of RNA-Seq data centered on VDR function are currently limiting the global assessment of the VDR transcriptome. VDR focused research that complement

Social and economic proclivity of social entrepreneurs : dimensions, measurement and validation

Social entrepreneurs are argued to adhere to a ‘dominant social goal’, using revenue streams from the market as a means to support their mission.. However, the extent to which social entrepreneurs actually adhere to socially or economically oriented goals is largely treated as a black box in the literature. This paper develops and validates measures for gaining insight in the relative importance of the “social” and “economic” proclivity of social entrepreneurs, conceptualizing them as two aggregated constructs with three dimensions: work values, organizational identity, and responsibility. The paper validates the theoretically developed constructs and dimension in a well defined sample of social ventures, performing higher order confirmatory factor analysis (N~270)

Some indigenous coast plants for coast gardens

Volume: XXII