Darwin-inspired population thinking suggests approaching culture as a population of items of different types, whose relative frequencies may change over time. Three nested subtypes of populational models can be distinguished: evolutionary, selectional and replicative. Substantial progress has been made in the study of cultural evolution by modelling it within the selectional frame. This progres...

Models of cultural evolution study how the distribution of cultural traits changes over time. The dynamics of cultural evolution strongly depends on the way these traits are transmitted between individuals by social learning. Two prominent forms of social learning are payoff-based learning (imitating others that have higher payoffs) and conformist learning (imitating locally common behaviours)....

OBJECTIVE The objective of this study is to identify points of agreement and disagreements among general practitioners (GPs) in Denmark concerning how the existential dimension is understood, and when and how it is integrated in the GP-patient encounter. DESIGN A qualitative methodology with semi-structured focus group interviews was employed. SETTING General practice setting in Denmark. ...

Among various types of cities, mining cities have special features including a high concentration of industrial activities associated with the exploration, extraction, refining, processing and export of groundwater resources, the risk of reduction and termination of non-renewable resources, high degree of environmental pollution, high production of domestic and industrial waste and social issue...

'Wholesome Nutrition' is a concept of sustainable nutrition that was developed at the University of Giessen in the 1980s. In this concept, health and the ecologic, economic, social and cultural dimensions of nutrition are equally important. In 1992 at the UN-Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro the definition of 'Sustainable Development' comprised the dimensions environme...

The rapid proliferation of self-tracking pregnancy apps raises critical questions about the commodification and surveillance of personal data in family life while highlighting key transformations in the social experience of pregnancy. In the last 2 years, we have seen the emergence of significant research in the field. On one hand, scholars have highlighted the political economic dimension of t...

We analyze the geometrical structure of the astonishing Nasca geoglyphs in terms of their fractal dimension with the idea of dating these manifestations of human cultural engagements in relation to one another. Our findings suggest that the first delineated images consist of straight, parallel lines and that having sophisticated their abilities, the Nasca artists moved on to the design of more ...

meSch has the goal of designing, developing and deploying tools for the creation of tangible interactive experiences that connect the physical dimension of museums and exhibitions with relevant digital cross-media information in novel ways. In particular, meSch will deliver a platform to enable curators, artists, designers and cultural heritage professionals in general to create smart objects a...

The Fifth Dimension is an afterschool setting where collaborative learning is organized around computer game playing. Learning and cooperation in the Fifth Dimension are analyzed in the paper from the point of view of Activity Theory, a conceptual approach originating from Russian cultural-historical psychology. It is proposed that the mechanisms underlying the influence of social context on le...