Technological frames provide an interpretive mechanism for individuals to evaluate new product innovations. These frames therefore play an important role in product market evolution. But how are ...technological frames themselves shaped? Prior research has demonstrated how technological frames are influenced by consumers' direct experience with new products and how they are informed by traditional media evaluations. More recently, however, the emergence of social media has resulted in the development of new arenas where consumers, producers, and other actors discuss and debate forthcoming product innovations by exchanging rumors and propositions. Integrating insights from the sociology of rumor and the affordances of social media, we propose a model of how online product rumor communities shape technological frames in a way not accounted for by prior models of innovation and product market evolution. Online product rumor communities influence product market evolution not only when products are released but also in the "prehistory" of product markets.
•We study product innovation rumors and find that they shape perceptions inside and outside the firm.•Product innovation rumors are used despite the debated legitimacy of technology blogs.•Rumors ...augment validated knowledge from more legitimate sources that may not be freely available.•Firms can influence external actors through selective revealing and seeding of rumors.•Rumors address the paradox of openness by forming an informal means of gathering insight.
Prior studies of open innovation have highlighted the effects of different flows of knowledge between firms and external partners—such as flows of software code, technical solutions, or new product ideas—and how firms face a “paradox of openness” about how open to be to external sources while also appropriating value. There are increasingly flows of more provisional knowledge as well, in the form of product innovation rumors exchanged within online technology blogs. Our study objective was to understand how product innovation rumors are used by firms as both inflows and outflows of provisional knowledge and their effect on the innovation process. Using interview data within a high-technology firm whose forthcoming products were the subject of rumor within technology blogs, we develop propositions regarding how inflows of product innovation rumors affect innovation decisions (while addressing concerns about appropriability and intrafirm knowledge flows) and how outflows from firms may affect stakeholders outside the firm (through selective revealing and influence of technology blog editors). Product innovation rumors in part address the paradox of openness by forming an informal means of open innovation alongside formal processes, and we suggest further research opportunities in this domain.
•We conceptualize emerging entrepreneurial ecosystems (EEEs) using both cultural and material approaches.•We develop a comparative typology of the cultural and material dimension of an EEE and apply ...it to an emerging regional ecosystem around artificial intelligence (AI).•We render cultural and material maps using topic modeling of Twitter feeds versus well-placed others.•We theorize discursive cultural strategies used by actors in the EEE and potential material effects of these strategies.•We present some adjustments to data collection and assessment that may be of use for policy analysts.•We discuss implications of the cultural approach and cultural mapping of EEEs for policy analytics and for EEE policy.
Ecosystems are typically evaluated and understood using standard visible material metrics, such as new products, patents, startups, VC funding, jobs, and successful exits. Yet emerging entrepreneurial ecosystems (EEEs) provide many possibilities for members not signaled by such visible markers. Consequently, policymakers may have a difficult time making informed decisions about incentives and regulations to foster economic growth through ecosystem emergence. To address this methods and measurement issue, we conceptualize emerging systems using both cultural and material approaches to develop a comparative typology and apply it to an emerging regional ecosystem growing around artificial intelligence (AI). We render cultural and material maps using topic modeling of Twitter feeds versus well-placed others, identify strategies in each, and discuss relevant policies for enhancing EEEs to realize various economic opportunities. This method adds to policy analytics and suggests policies for building cultural infrastructure in EEEs.
We find anomalously high gadolinium (Gd) concentrations in the femoral head bones of patients exposed to chelated Gd, commonly used as a contrast agent for medical imaging. Gd is introduced in ...chelated form to protect patients from exposure to toxic free Gd(3+), a calcium antagonist which disrupts cellular processes. Recent studies suggest Gd chelates break down in vivo, and Gd accumulation in tissue is linked to medical conditions such as nephrogenic systemic fibrosis (NSF), acute kidney failure, and in some cases death. We measure Gd and other rare earth element (REE) concentrations in 35 femoral heads by solution based ICP-MS. Gd concentrations in patients with documented exposure to Gd-based contrast agents (n = 13: Gd DTPA-BMA (Omniscan) n = 6; Gd HP-DO3A (Prohance) n = 5; unknown type n = 4) are significantly higher (p < 0.001) than the control group (n = 17). We use our control group to establish the 'natural' background level of Gd in human bone (cortical 95% CI: 0.023, 0.041 nmol/g; trabecular 95% CI: 0.054, 0.107 nmol/g). A control group outlier reveals the occurrence of individuals with high concentrations of all REEs, including Gd. Because of this, we calculate Gd anomalies from the concentrations of adjacent REEs and normalize to the control group mean to isolate Gd input from contrast agents. Normalized Gd anomalies, (Gd/Gd*)(N), for exposed patients range up to >800 times the 'natural' level (95% CI: 124, 460). Our data confirm that Gd, introduced in chelated form, incorporates into bone and is retained for more than 8 years. No difference was observed in bone Gd concentrations and anomalies between patients dosed with Gd DTPA-BMA (Omniscan; n = 6) and Gd HP-DO3A (Prohance; n = 5). Osteoporotic fracture patients exposed to Gd have significantly lower Gd concentrations than osteoarthritis patients (p < 0.001). This indicates different mechanisms of metal incorporation and/or retention in osteoporotic bone tissues, and may signal an increased risk of endogenous Gd release for patients with increased rates of bone resorption (e.g. osteoporosis patients and menopausal, pregnant, and lactating women) who are exposed to Gd-based contrast agents.
Many phosphatic minerals of biogenic, authigenic and diagenetic origin are distinguished by rare-earth element (REE) compositions, which have a well-developed middle rare-earth element (MREE) ...enrichment defined by a gradual increase in the shale-normalized ratios of REE toward the middle of the REE series (La to Lu). Also, the REE composition of dissolved matter in the waters of the Amazon, Fly and Sepik Rivers (as well as other river, lake and ground waters) have well-developed MREE enrichments. The development of MREE enrichments was studied through a series of leaching experiments using river-bank sediments from the Amazon, Fly, Sepik and Mississippi Rivers. A well-characterized phosphate mineral-rich shale with a pronounced MREE enrichment in its bulk composition was also leached in order to better assess the relationship between the weathering of phosphate minerals and the formation of MREE-enriched solutions. The two leaching solutions per sediment consisted of filtered lake water at pH 5 and the same water adjusted to pH 2.
Leaching experiments with the four river sediments result in extensive fractionation whereby the REE compositions of the solutions develop MREE enrichments from starting sediments that show no MREE enrichments. The pH 2 leachates have much higher concentrations of the REE and more fully developed MREE enrichments than do the pH 5 leachates. The MREE enrichments at pH 2 usually form within an hour of starting the experiments. The phosphatic shale results show that there is preferential release of large amounts of MREE at pH 5, as well as at pH 2, demonstrating the weather ability of the phosphatic minerals at pHs of natural freshwaters. The Sepik River pH 5 experiment also shows significant MREE enrichment under near-neutral conditions.
The development and retention of the MREE enrichments in the leaching solutions is accompanied by an increase in dissolved phosphate concentrations. Although the magnitudes of the MREE enrichment do not directly correlate with the percent of phosphate released, the experimental data suggest that the preferential dissolution of phosphatic minerals during weathering can result in extensive REE fractionation between bulk river sediment and water, leading to freshwaters with MREE enrichments.
The geochemistry and petrology of the type section of the Caradoc Series in the Onny valley indicate that it was deposited on a marginal basin continental shelf similar to the western side of the ...present Sea of Japan. The lower beds form a transgressive–regressive sequence in which the rocks become less mature upwards. All the coarser sediments above the basal quartzites and conglomerates are greywackes in which the apparent muddy and ferrous matrix is due to the breakdown of unstable minerals and particles. Higher values of Na2O and Na/K ratios are found in the coarser shallow-water sandstones of the Horderley Sandstone Formation and decrease markedly in the succeeding beds, accompanied by an increase in K2O. Higher values of carbonate-corrected (and hence related) other major and minor elements like SiO2, CaO, P2O5, MnO and most trace elements correlate with the transgressive systems and maximum flooding surfaces of the three sequences recognized where they are related to condensation at those horizons. Chemical Indices of Alteration (CIA) suggest that the Horderley Sandstone Formation underwent greater predepositional physical weathering than lower and higher beds, which is compatible with the petrography, and were deposited during a cool phase within overall warm Sandbian–Katian times. Trace element ratios suggest an oxic to suboxic depositional environment.
Carbon and oxygen isotopes of both well-preserved articulate brachiopod Paucicrura rogata and cement in mid-Cincinnatian samples (Maysvillian to early Richmondian) on the eastern North American ...passive margin shelf in SW Ontario show no simple relationships. The δ13C trends of the brachiopods, organic matter and cements are little altered and vary little up section. The brachiopod δ13Cbrach pattern is very close to the American mid-continent whole rock δ13CWRcarb pattern across the Fairview excursions. The δ18Obrach variations, if primary, indicate fluctuating but generally slightly cooling temperatures upwards, though the actual temperatures depend on inferred salinities of the seawater. The temperature/ salinity relationships variations are compatible with the warm deep saline water hypothesis. The paleoceanography shows a change from a warm open passive carbonate margin to a fluctuating warmer/cooler enclosed clastic marginal basin with freshwater input, heralding the cold conditions of the Hirnantian ice age. The Milankovitch cyclicity determined from δ13Ccarb patterns, is practically identical to that from determined from magnetic intensities on the contemporary Yangtse Shelf.
•Ontario brachiopod. C & O isotopes document Cincinnatian paleoenvironmental changes.•The δ13Cbrach pattern corresponds with the Fairview excursion in the midcontinent.•The δ18Obrach values indicate fluctuating but slightly cooling temperatures upwards.•The Warm Saline Deep Ocean hypothesis applies to the succession.•The C & O isotope patterns fit Milankovitch cycles on the contemporary Yangtze shelf.
The famous Permian-Triassic boundary section at Guryul Ravine in Kashmir shows repeated strong disturbances in the uppermost 3 m of the section below the main end-Permian mass extinction horizon. Two ...one-meter-thick disturbed beds, with convoluted bedding and fluid escape structures, are interpreted as seismites. Immediately above, three lenticular, fining-upward, bioclastic grainstone beds, interbedded with argillites, are interpreted as tsunamites. In these beds, hummocky cross-stratification and grading indicate deposition by waning irregular waves at a minimum water depth of 100 m based on physical processes and faunas. Bed grain sizes indicate that the waves needed to move even the coarse sand of the matrix, let alone associated large pebbles up to 20 cm in diameter, range from amplitudes of ∼40 m for wave periods of 10 s (the upper limit for storm waves) to amplitudes of ∼3 m for wave periods of 50 to 1000 s (typical of large open-ocean tsunamis). Fossil and sedimentary evidence suggests lengthy intervals between successive tsunami events, which, together with a lack of geochemical evidence for impact, favors terrestrial causes. Geochemical proxies show that the Guryul Ravine environment remained oxic or suboxic throughout the P–Tr transition, but that anoxia developed regionally at the time of the boundary crisis. This paper is the first to propose seismites and tsunamites at the P-Tr boundary, so the geographic extent of these deposits is unknown, although analogous deposits occur in many sections worldwide from published reports.
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