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- This article is about institutions as social mechanisms. Please see Organization for formal establishments.
Institutions are social structures and social mechanisms of social order and cooperation governing the behavior of two or more individuals. Institutions are identified with a social purpose and permanence, transcending individual human lives and intentions, and with the making and enforcing of rules governing cooperative human behavior. The term, institution, is commonly applied to customs and behavior patterns important to a society, as well as to particular formal organizations of government and public service. As structures and mechanisms of social order among humans, institutions are one of the principal objects of study in the social sciences, including sociology, political science and economics. Institutions are a central concern for law, the formal regime for political rule-making and enforcement. The creation and evolution of institutions is a primary topic for history.
Aspects of Institutions
Although individual, formal organizations, commonly identified as "institutions," may be deliberately and intentionally created by people, the development and functioning of institutions in society in general may be regarded as an instance of emergence; that is, institutions arise, develop and function in a pattern of social self-organization, which goes beyond the conscious intentions of the individual humans involved.
As mechanisms of social cooperation, institutions are manifest in both objectively real, formal organizations, such as the U.S. Congress, the Roman Catholic Church or the Bank of England, and, also, in informal social order and organization, reflecting human psychology, culture, habits and customs. Most important institutions, considered abstractly, have both objective and subjective aspects: examples include money and marriage. The institution of money encompasses many formal organizations, including banks and government treasury departments and stock exchanges, which may be termed, "institutions," as well as subjective experiences, which guide people in their pursuit of personal economic well-being and wealth. Powerful institutions are able to imbue a paper currency with certain value, and to induce millions into cooperative production and trade in pursuit of economic ends abstractly denominated in that currency's units. The subjective experience of money is so pervasive and persuasive that economists talk of the "money illusion" and try to disabuse their students of it, in preparation for learning economic analysis.
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Institutions :: Biology
Research Institutes :: Institutions
Hormesis, non-linearity, and risk communication
Calabrese, E. Fri, 01 May 2009 00:00:00 -0000
Risk communication and non-linearity
Ropeik, D Fri, 01 May 2009 00:00:00 -0000
This article will consider non-linearity and hormesis from the perspectives of risk perception and risk communication. The observations that follow do not come from a scientist or researcher. (For a richer academic treatment of the issue of risk communication and nonlinearity, see BELLE, Vol. 11, Issue 1, 2002). I was for 25 years a journalist on television and in print, focusing on coverage of environmental issues. I then studied and taught risk perception and risk communication at the Harvard School of Public Health. I now independently consult in these areas. From the academic side, I have read a fair amount of the literature that helps explain what I call ‘The Perception Gap,’ the gap between our fears and the facts. And as a journalist and consultant I have witnessed in the real world, people’s relatively greater fear of lesser risks, and relatively lower fear of the risks the scientific data suggest they ought to worry about more. I offer the following perspectives based on those foundations.
Risk communication in precautionary culture-the precautionary coalition
Hanekamp, J., Pieterman, R Fri, 01 May 2009 00:00:00 -0000
Center for Toxicology - Graduate programs including superfund and toxigenomics, links to poison and drug information, and others at the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicolgy, College of Pharmacy, University of Arizona, Tucson.
Chemical Industry Institute of Toxicology - CIIT is dedicated to not-for-profit research on the potential adverse effects of chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and consumer products on human health. Details of the faculty located in North Carolina.
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Dental Information - Resource for the study of environmental toxins and their potential role in human health and disease, especially mercury in dental amalgam fillings and vaccines. Non-profit research trust of ALT Inc., Lexington, Kentucky.
Edinburgh Center for Toxicology - History of the facilities, and archive of online course, from Riccarton Campus of Heriot Watt University, Scotland.
Industrial Toxicology Research Centre - Resource for pollutants, carcinogens, with divisions working on food, pulmonary, environmental, neurotoxicology and carcinogenesis. Regional representative for WHO, IPCS, IARC, US FDA for South East Asia region at Lucknow, India.
Meta Description: [ Industrial Toxicology Research Centre, Lucknow established in 1965 is the only toxicological research laboratory of the CSIR(full name). Its main campus is located on Mahatma Gandhi Marg and the other campus in Gheru on Lucknow-Kanpur highway (22 km from the main campus). The laboratory undertake... ]
Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences - Environmental and occupational health issues, including neurotoxicology and immunotoxicology research. Includes education programmes, faculties and profiles of staff contributing within Utrecht University, The Netherlands.
Meta Description: [ Interfaculty Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences ]
Laboratory of Toxicology, Ghent University - Details of analytical methods, employing GC and LCMS, to detect drugs of abuse and poisons. Includes equipment, publications, related links, staff and contacts in Belgium.
Meta Description: [ Laboratorium voor Toxicologie, Universiteit Gent - forensische analyses and arbeidstoxicologie, onderzoek en onderwijs ]
National Center for Toxicological Research - Conducts peer-reviewed scientific research that supports and anticipates current and future regulatory needs for the FDA.
Meta Description: [ FDA's National Center for Toxicological Research Main Page ]
Research Institute of Hygiene, Toxicology and Occupational Pathology - Projects, software, symposia, and role for the Russian Ministry of Health, at RIHTOP in Volgograd, Russia.
Toxicology - Education and research in the field of toxicity in food, nutrition, and environmental exposure in the Department of Agrotechnology and Food Sciences, Wageningen University, The Netherlands.
Toxicology Excellence for Risk Assessment - Non-profit corporation dedicated to the best use of toxicity data for risk assessment. Includes toxicity data, information on risk methodologies, and contacts in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Toxicology Information Response Center - Information center offering direct access to scientific and technical databases, from Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Tennessee.
Meta Description: [ TIRC is an information
center offering direct access to virtually all of the world's scientific and technical
databases and operates on a cost recovery basis. ]
Toxicology PhD Program - Graduate intake, areas of emphasis; neurotoxicology, immunotoxicology, osteotoxicology, carcinogenesis, and molecular, pulmonary, reproductive and developmental toxicology. Details of faculty at the University of Rochester Medical Center, New York.
Meta Description: [ The Department of Environmental Medicine’s
mission is to increase scientific understanding of
the health risks posed by contaminants at home, in the
workplace, and in the ambient environment. This medical school offers doctoral programs in
toxicology, with faculty members who spec... ]
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