The emergence of novelty is a driving agent for economic change. New technologies, new products and services, new institutional arrangements, to mention a few examples, are the backbone of development and growth. Important though it is, the emergence of novelty is not well understood. What seems to be clear, however, is that it implies “bounds of unknowledge” (Shackle) that impose epistemologic...

This review presents recent data on the biological properties of cancer stem cells in brain gliomas. The possibilities of using of experimental methods of cell culture and immunohistochemical identification of tumor stem cells as a part of neurospheres (tumorospheres) are shown. Methodological features of neurospheres culture are described. Literature data about the dependence of neurospheres f...

This article explores the methodological implications of actor-network theory for social research. Pointing to an increasing awareness of ANT in sociological discourse, but assuming that it is more widely known than well understood, the article outlines some of the key features of ANT as an approach to social life, before addressing the tricky question of how these ideas translate into methodol...

This article summarizes the methodological progress that has been made in the vibrational spectroscopy of isolated polynuclear metal oxide clusters, with particular emphasis on free electron laser-based infrared action spectroscopy of gas phase clusters, over the last decade. The possibilities, limitations and prospects of the various experimental approaches are discussed using representative e...

Development economists have superseded any necessity of using Arrow’s methodological individualism (MI) in focusing on cross-cultural, cross-national, or developmental economics. This study examines whether analysis of cross-cultural economic models might include a concept of economic generosity as a type of economic structuration that deviates from MI principles and is closer to what economist...

Reacting to the original papers outlining the importance of “social mechanisms,” thispaper contrasts two views of the social process, the mechanismal and the relational. In the sourceshere analyzed, the mechanismal perspective is largely based on methodological individualismand generally presupposes rational, or at least intentional, action. A fundamental assumption ofthis appro...

Randomised trials vary in methodological quality, and flaws in trial conduct can lead to biased estimation of the intervention effect. If a meta-analysis makes no allowance for methodological flaws, there’s a danger that the results could be biased and over-precise, or that some lowerquality trials could be given too much influence in the meta-analysis. Cochrane review authors now use a specifi...

This article presents a theoretical foundation for marketing based on the ideas of the Austrian school of economists. After a discussion of the methodological foundations of Austrian economics, which reject the statistical and experimental methods of the physical sciences as the means to verify theory in the social sciences, the article presents the Austrians' principle of methodological indivi...