__________________________________________________________ This article attacks “open systems” arguments that because constant conjunctions are not generally observed in the real world of open systems we should be highly skeptical that universal laws exist. This work differs from other critiques of open system arguments against laws of nature by not focusing on laws themselves, but rather on th...

While normal distributions and related current quantitative methods are still relevant for some organizational research, the growing ubiquity of power laws signifies that Pareto rank/frequency distributions, fractals, and underlying scale-free theories are increasingly pervasive and valid characterizations of organizational dynamics. Where true, researchers ignoring power law effects risk drawi...

Several of themajor U.S. federal and state laws regulating the collection, use and disclosure of personal information by business entities only regulate the activities of entities that receive personal information directly from consumerswhile ignoring third-parties that receive this personal information through onward transfers. This regulatory gap opens the door for such third parties to use o...

If you walk into a pharmacy with prescription for Merck’s ZOCOR, which contains simvastatin, the pharmacist will probably give product containing simvastatin made by another company. The dispense “generic” product. State generic substitution laws, passed in 1970s to help government save money switching patients cheaper drugs, either permit or require this substitution. But drug brand names -- s...

A new study by Ito and colleagues on page 7 may help explain why patients with a severe lung disease called chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) fail to respond to steroid treatment. Ito and colleagues show that steroids require the enzyme HDAC2 (histone deacetylase 2) to block the inflammatory transcription factor NF-κB. In patients with COPD, HDAC2 activity is reduced, rendering cells...