bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Breeding of Philander frenata (Didelphimorphia, Didelphidae) in captivity
Authors: Hingst Erika , D'Andrea Paulo Sergio , Santori Ricardo , Cerqueira Rui
Published: April 2007

Data on the reproductive biology and laboratory management of Philander frenata are presented here. Sensory contact before pairing increased breeding success and reduced aggression between pairs. Gestation period was 13–14 days, with a post-lactation oestrous. Births occurred only between August and February. Mean litter size at birth and at weaning was 5.5 (SD=2.4) and 4.0 (SD=1.9), respectively. Sex ratio at birth was statistically biased toward males. The timing of weaning was established at between 70 and 80 days old, with the young weighing from 24 g to 49 g.
Assessment of side effects induced by injection of different adjuvant/antigen combinations in rabbits and mice
Authors: Leenaars P. P. A. M. ,   Rotterdam, Koedam M. A. , Wester P. W. , Baumans V. , Claassen E. , Hendriksen C. F. M.
Published: April 2007

We evaluated the side effects induced by injection of Freund's adjuvant (FA) and alternative adjuvants combined with different antigens. Rabbits and mice were injected subcutaneously, intramuscularly (rabbits) and intraperitoneally (mice) with different adjuvants (FA, Specol, RIBI, TiterMax, Montanide ISA50) in combination with several types of antigens (synthetic peptides, autoantigen, glycolipid, protein, mycoplasma or virusesl. The effects of treatment on the animals' well-being were assessed by clinical and behavioural changes (POT and LABORAS assays) and gross and histopathological changes. In rabbits, treatment did not appear to induce acute or prolonged pain and distress. Mice showed behavioural changes immediately after (predominantly secondary) immunization. Injection of several adjuvant/antigen mixtures resulted in severe pathological changes, depending on adjuvant, type of antigen, animal species used and route of injection. Both rabbits and mice showed pathological changes ranging from marked to severe after injection of FA, and ranging from minimal to marked after Specol and Montanide injections. Pathological changes after RIBI injections were severe in rabbits, though slight in mice. After TiterMax injections, pathological changes were moderate in rabbits, though severe in mice. In conclusion, injection of FA according to present guidelines resulted mostly in severe pathological changes, whereas only very few clinical and behavioural signs indicated prolonged severe pain. Our findings indicate that Montanide ISA50 and Specol induce acceptable antibody titres, and cause fewer pathological changes than FA. Thus they are effective alternatives to FA.
Effect of dietary fat level on the calcium content of heart and kidney in DBA/2 and C57BL/6 mice
Authors: van den Broek F. A. R. , Beynen A. C.
Published: April 2007

High-fat and low-fat diets were fed for 24 weeks to two strains of mice differing in susceptibility to the development of dystrophic cardiac calcinosis (DCC). The severity of DCC was assessed by histological examination and measurement of heart calcium concentrations. Plasma and renal tissue mineral levels were also measured.

On the basis of macroscopic examination, feeding the high-fat diet did not influence the severity of DCC in the susceptible DBA/2 mice. Heart calcium concentrations were reduced in both strains; in DBA/2 mice more than in DCC-resistant C57BL/6 mice. Cardiac concentrations of magnesium and phosphorus were similar in the two strains of mice and unaffected by the amount of dietary fat. Kidney calcium concentrations were higher in the DBA/2 than in the C57BL/6 mice and the high-fat diet also reduced kidney calcium concentrations in the DBA/2 mice.

The amount of dietary fat, at least during growth and maintenance, did not appear to affect the development of DCC in DBA/2 mice.
Establishment of a 24-hour electrocardiogram recording system using a Holter recorder for miniature swine
Authors: Suzuki A. , Tsutsumi H. , Kusakabe K. , Kuwahara M. , Sugano S. , Tanigawa M.
Published: April 2007

A Holter recording system was established for the Göttingen miniature swine. For this purpose, we first developed a jacket to hold a Holter recording set, and subsequently determined a bipolar lead suitable for obtaining stable electrocardiogram (ECG) recording without artifacts. To make the jacket, we measured the lengths of eight sites of the body of 14 miniature swine. Several types of jackets were made and tested. We observed the behaviour of animals with these jackets by videotape recorder (VTR) recording. These observations permitted development of a jacket suitable for Holter recording. The jacket permits easy placement of the recorder, and long-term ECG recording can be performed without difficulty. In order to determine a suitable lead for long-term recording, we recorded ECGs from six adult miniature swine using three types of leads, the M-X, R-L and A-B leads. The R-L lead frequently exhibited baseline drift, and QRS complexes often disappeared in this lead due to low amplitude. ECG recording with the M-X and A-Bleads was of sufficient quality to permit analysis. This system is expected to be useful for further cardiovascular research in miniature swine.
Oral endotrachael intubation of guineapigs
Authors: Kramer Klaas , Grimbergen Joop A. , van Iperen Dick J. , van Altena Klaas , Voss Hans-Peter , Bast Aalt
Published: April 2007

Oral endotracheal intubation of guineapigs as reported in the literature, is considered to be extremely difficult. Because of this, we constructed special equipment and developed a technique to facilitate the procedure. A special restraint device was designed to position the guineapig. Utilizing a laryngoscope and an operating microscope for visualization then makes intubation easy to perform.
Experimental intracoronary stenting: comprehensive experience in a porcine model
Authors: Vollmar B. , Bay W. , Özbek C. , Heib K.-D, , Menger M. D. , Schieffer H.-J.
Published: April 2007

Appropriate animal models for intracoronary stenting are most important for improving understanding of the pathophysiology of acute occlusion and long-term re-stenosis, which currently limits the safety and efficacy of percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty in humans. Since the anatomy and physiology of swine coronary arteries closely resemble those of humans, the procine model should be ideal for testing of stents. This is a comprehensive report on an experimental set-up in pigs, communicating in detail the necessary techniques as well as some modifications facilitating safe intra coronary stent placement and successful follow-up studies for weeks or months. Stent procedure is performed in mechanically ventilated and haemodynamically monitored animals under balanced anaesthesia. Intracoronary application of flow wires allows the assessment of local flow conditions, flow properties and coronary flow reserve. Real-time intravascular ultrasonography (IVUS) provides detailed information on coronary morphology and enables the appropriate sizing of the coronary lumen. From our own experience, we like to propose that the use of the porcine model has the potential to gain new insights into the pathophysiology of intracoronary stent placement-associated complications and allows for the study of modifications in techniques and materials, and the development of novel pharmacological therapeutic strategies.
Echocardiography, a non-invasive method for the investigation of heart morphology and function in laboratory dogs: 1. Method and reference values for M-mode parameters
Authors: Hanton G. , Geffray B. , Lodola A.
Published: April 2007

We have set up M-mode echocardiographic (EC) recording in beagles in our laboratory and generated reference values for EC indicators of left ventricle function and morphology. Additionally we assessed the effects of sex, strain and body weight on these parameters and the correlation between parameters.

M-mode EC under two-dimensional guidance in longitudinal section was performed on 59 male and 49 female beagles from Marshall (USA) and 13 males and 13 females from Harlan (France). The following parameters were measured or calculated: left ventricle internal diameter in diastole and systole (LVIDd and LVIDs), left ventricle end diastolic and end systolic and stroke volumes (EDV, ESV and SV), cardiac output and index (CO and CI), fractional shortening (FS), ejection fraction (EF), the thickness of the septum and left ventricle posterior wall in diastole (STd and LVPWd) and systole (STs and LVPWs), the percentage of thickening of the septum and left posterior wall (PST and PWT), and the mean and maximal velocities of the left ventricle posterior wall (PWVm and PWVM). Heart rate (HR) was measured by cardiac auscultation.

Marshall dogs have higher left ventricle dimensions but lower amplitude and velocity of contraction than Harlan dogs. There were also statistically significant differences between sexes for a number of EC parameters mainly those relating to the size of the left ventricle walls or cavity in diastole. Overall these differences were explained by the correlation between these parameters and body weight. Heart rate correlated only with PWVm and PWVM. There were positive correlations between PST, PWT and EF or FS and between velocities and FS or EF. EDV correlates negatively with EF, FS, PST or PWT.
Influence of oral buprenorphine, oral naltrexone or morphine on the effects of laparotomy in the rat
Authors: Liles J. H. , Flecknell P. A. , Roughan J. , Cruz-Madorran I.
Published: April 2007

The effects of oral administration of buprenorphine ('buprenorphine jello'), a partial μ opioid agonist, oral naltrexone, a μ antagonist and morphine, a μ agonist, were investigated in rats following laparotomy. Food and water consumption and body weight were reduced in rats that underwent surgery. Rats undergoing anaesthesia alone showed only a small reduction in water consumption. Administration of oral buprenorphine (0.5 mg/kg in flavoured gelatin) decreased the effects of surgery on body weight and water intake when compared to untreated (vehicle alone) controls. The magnitude of this beneficial effect was similar to that seen in previous studies using subcutaneous administration of buprenorphine. The fall in body weight and food and water intake following surgery was similar in the groups which received morphine and the control group which received vehicle (jelly).

Neither the magnitude of the fall in body weight, and food and water intake, nor the behavioural scores differed between naltrexone and control (vehicle alone) rats following surgery. This suggests that the beneficial effects of partial agonist analgesics are mediated by a reduction in pain rather than by antagonism of endogenous opioids.

Both anaesthesia and surgery caused changes in behaviour, but the major effects of buprenorphine in normal (unoperated) rats severely limited the value of behavioural parameters as a means of assessing possible beneficial effects of analgesic administration.
Haematological and serum biochemical values in spontaneously epileptic male rats and related rat strains
Authors: Asano Yuzo , Susami Masayuki , Honda Katuya , Serikawa Tadao
Published: April 2007

Haematological and serum biochemical measurements in male spontaneously epileptic rats (SER; double mutants homozygous for zitter and tremor genes) were compared with the values for related rat strains. Some haematological values were low in TRM rats and total leukocyte counts were high in ZI and TRM rats. TRM rats showed higher total cholesterol, phospholipid, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and calcium values, and lower albumin value than Kyo: Wistar rats. Zitter homozygous rats including SER exhibited low total cholesterol, phospholipid and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol values. The SER showed an increase in urea nitrogen, aspartate aminotransferase and alanine aminotransferase values, and a decrease in glucose value, suggesting deterioration of the whole body with age.
Advances in cubicle design using computational fluid dynamics as a design tool
Authors: Curry G. , Hughes H. C. , Loseby D. , Reynolds S.
Published: April 2007

As part of a recent animal facility refurbishment, a cubicle containment system was designed to increase the amount of experimental space and also provide containment facilities to support the holding and use of specialized animal models. In order to achieve this, a series of computational fluid dynamic (CFD) studies was undertaken to evaluate the effects of different airflows and in order to optimize ventilation, a variety of exhaust/supply arrangements and animal loads was employed. These studies showed that air delivered via two, opposed, low level ducts, at a rate of 20 air changes per hour and exhausted high in the cubicle above the rack, was the optimal configuration resulting in minimal turbulence, stagnation and entrainment.
Strategic Spot Trading in Supply Chains
Authors: Mendelson Haim , Tunca Tunay I.
Published: May 2007

In a variety of industries ranging from agriculture to electronics and oil, procurement takes place through a combination of bilateral fixed-price contracts and open market trading among supply chain participants, which allows them to improve supply chain performance by utilizing new demand and cost information. The strategic behavior of the participants in these markets interacts with the way fixed-price contracts are formulated and significantly affects supply chain efficiency. In this paper, we develop a strategic model that allows endogenous price formation in an industrial spot market where supply chain participants have private information. Utilizing the model, we analyze the equilibrium of a dynamic game between a single supplier and multiple manufacturers who first contract with the supplier at a fixed price and then trade on a spot market. We study how such trading affects supply chain performance and show that it does not eliminate fixed-price contracting even though the fixed price is determined under inferior information. We find that it reduces prices, increases the quantities produced, and improves supply chain profits and consumer surplus. However, depending on the information structure of the supply chain, spot trading may make either the supplier or the manufacturers worse off. Our results show how the informational regime affects the profitability of supply chain participants and the allocation of quantities between the procurement venues. We show that beyond a threshold level, the effect of increasing supply uncertainty, or decreasing either the demand uncertainty or the information asymmetry among the manufacturers, is to increase the percentage procured on the spot market as well as the overall quantity procured and sold, and to decrease prices. As the number of manufacturers increases, procurement shifts from fixed-price contracting to spot trading and in the limit, the supply chain is both fully coordinated and informationally efficient. We also show that in many cases, the supplier may gain strategic advantage by sharing some of her cost information with the manufacturers.
Africa's New Territorial Politics: Regionalism and the Open Economy in Côte d'Ivoire
Authors: Boone Catherine
Published: April 2007

This paper considers implications of the neoliberal shift for forms of national integration that were achieved during the era of state-led development. These national integration strategies (1960s–1980s) helped define and manage regional competition within the juridical boundaries of the territorial state. In today's “open economy” settings, old strategies of national integration are difficult to sustain. What has emerged is a new territorial politics, which revolves around attempts to consolidate power within subunits of the state and reorder relations among them, to enforce political control within communities, and to reorder rural property rights. Cote d'Ivoire provides a case in point.
Framing Reparations Claims: Differences between the African and Jewish Social Movements for Reparations
Authors: Howard-Hassmann Rhoda E. , Lombardo Anthony P.
Published: April 2007

Africans interested in reparations from the West frequently ask why the Jewish movement for reparations for the Holocaust was successful, whereas Africans have been unable to obtain reparations for the slave trade, colonialism, and post-colonial relations with the West. This article addresses this question using social movement theory and argues that success depends to a large extent on how the claim for reparations is framed. Past treatment of Africans by the West violated key contemporary norms of bodily integrity, equality, and private property. Yet the victims are no longer living, the perpetrators are diffuse, some of the harms were legal when they were committed, and the causal chain of harm is long and complex.
Is It Ethical to Study Africa? Preliminary Thoughts on Scholarship and Freedom
Authors: Mama Amina
Published: April 2007

This article explores the manner in which ethical concerns have been addressed within Africa's progressive intellectual tradition through the eras of anti-colonial, pan-African, and nationalist struggles for freedom, and into the era of globalization. Africa is characterized as the region bearing the most negative con-sequences of globalization, a reality that offers a critical vantage point well-attuned to the challenge of demystifying the global policy dictates currently dominating the global landscape. Ethical considerations are conceptualized as being framed by considerations of identity, epistemology, and methodology. It is suggested that Africa's radical intellectuals have effectively pursued anti-imperialist ethics, and developed regional and national intellectual communities of scholars who have worked for freedom, often challenging and subverting the constraints of dominant and received disciplinary approaches and paradigms. However, it is suggested that the liberatory promise of the anticolonial nationalist eras has not been fulfilled. While the fortunes of higher education and research in Africa have declined, scholars have established independent research networks in and beyond the campuses to keep African intellectual life alive. However, it is argued that Africa's intellectuals need to engage more proactively with the methodological implications of their own liberatory intellectual ethics. To do so requires that we address the intellectual challenges of Africa's complicated and contradictory location in the world and ensure that our unique vantage points inform methodological and pedagogical strategies that pursue freedom.
Political Transition without Transformation: The Dialectic of Liberalization without Democratization in Kenya and Zambia
Authors: Nasong'o Shadrack Wanjala
Published: April 2007

The decade from 1990 to 2000 saw a total of seventy-eight top leadership elections involving forty-three of the forty-eight sub-Saharan African countries. Of these, only twenty-one elections led to power transition from an incumbent to an opposition political party in nineteen countries. Paradoxically, even where there was such transition, authoritarian tendencies persisted. Focusing on Kenya and Zambia, this article argues and seeks to demonstrate that the limited number of transitions from an incumbent regime to an opposition party and the persistence of authoritarianism are a function of political liberalization without democratization of political institutions and rules of the political game.
Absorptive Capacity in Solid-State Technology and International Knowledge Transfer: The Case of Philips
Authors: Davids Mila , Verbong Geert
Published: April 2007

After World War II, the market for vacuum tubes was threatened by the development, first, of transistors and, later, integrated circuits. It was essential for European electronic companies, including the Dutch company Philips Electronics, to adopt American technology to gain a position in the semiconductor market. Philips was a lamp manufacturer that during the 1920s started to expand its activities to semiconductors. Successful international knowledge transfer depends on the active role of firms, in particular their ability to recognize the value of new, external information and to assimilate and apply it to commercial ends; this ability is called the absorptive capacity. The Philips case underscores the findings in most studies in this field that a solid knowledge-base is essential for absorptive capacity because it enables a company to scan the environment for external knowledge and then to assimilate that acquired knowledge. There is a continuous interaction between internal knowledge-building and external knowledge-acquisition. But whereas during the late 1940s and early 1950s external knowledge was indispensable to commence the production of transistors, from the mid-1950s onward in-house research and development (R&D) became more important and Philips became less receptive to knowledge from outside its own organization. Although Philips's internal knowledge-base in semiconductors was enhanced due to the acquisition of capabilities as well as investments in R&D, its absorptive capacity decreased because the company felt more confident in its own judgments.
Between Globalization and Localization: The Case of Dutch Civil Engineering in Indonesia, 1800-1950
Authors: Ravesteijn Wim
Published: April 2007

Globalization, understood as the process of absorbing people all over the world into one global network of economic and other ties, began roughly when Europeans started exploring the world through sailing the oceans (from the fourteenth century onward). The subsequent processes of colonialism and imperialism are stages in the unfolding globalization process. Technology made this globalization possible, but also developed in connection with it. This paper discusses globalization and technology development, focusing on colonial state formation and civil engineering development in colonial Indonesia, the former Dutch East Indies. Dutch East Indies state formation took place between 1800 and 1950, and civil engineering works were dominant in the technology involved. Dutch engineers in public service constructed 67,000 kilometers of roads, 7,500 kilometers of railways, many large bridges, modern irrigation systems covering 1.4 million hectares of rice fields, several international harbors, and 140 public drinking water systems in the archipelago. With these public works, Dutch engineers constructed the material base of the colonial and postcolonial Indonesian state. This paper shows that the case of Dutch civil engineering in Indonesia contradicts the idea that globalization implies a simple processes of diffusion from the West. Dutch East Indies civil engineering development appears to be a process in which Western technology had to be adapted to local natural, social, and cultural conditions, and was shaped by a variety of Western and non-Western actors. In addition, parts of this colonial technology diffused back to the Netherlands and elsewhere in the world.
Technology and Knowledge Transfer within Outsourcing Relationships: The Development of a Model of Interorganizational Innovation
Authors: Weeks Michael, R. (Michael Robert) , Davis Kevin J
Published: April 2007

This article uses a comparative case-study analysis to develop a model of interorganizational innovation. Innovation within outsourcing contexts is embedded within relational and environmental factors that have not been fully explored in prior literature. Yet, efforts to promote innovation within such contexts may be considered a special case of the diffusion of technology across institutional boundaries. Hence, the model derived from the case studies describes the factors necessary for successful technology and knowledge transfer within information-technology outsourcing environments. The model consists of four components: the client, the supplier, the relationship, and the innovation outcomes. Within each of these components we describe process and resource elements that influence the success of technology- and knowledge-transfer efforts. Finally, the interdependencies extant in the model are explored for a more complete understanding of the phenomena under examination.
Public Selves and Private Spheres: Studies of Emily Dickinson and the Civil War, 1984-2007
Authors: Barrett Faith
Published: April 2007

This essay reviews scholarly work over the last twenty years on Emily Dickinson's relationship to the Civil War. Beginning with detailed commentary on Shira Wolosky's Emily Dickinson: A Voice of War, the review offers an overview and analysis of the growing list of books and articles that address this topic.
Dickinson's Signature Conundrum
Authors: Brantley Richard E
Published: April 2007

Emily Dickinson's recurring pessimism contains the seed of her perennial resilience. As distinct from merely lamenting a lost beloved, for example, her poetry of aftermath defines new bounds of love. Her postexperiential perspective contributes, therefore, to the psychobiographical dimension of her art; it also overlaps, paradoxically, Romantic Anglo-America's reliance on natural and spiritual experience. Thus, however counterintuitively and however much against the odds, Dickinson's aftermath does more than just signal a Victorian-American morbidity or just shore fragments against a pre-Modern ruin. In addition, her signature conundrum of "sumptuous Destitution - " saturates her sorrow with her joy, epitomizing, thereby, her Late-Romantic hope.
Darwinian Dickinson: The Scandalous Rise and Noble Fall of the Common Clover
Authors: Guthrie James R. (James Robert)
Published: April 2007

The bee/flower trope was popular among nineteenth-century women writers, who used it to discuss ways in which courtship protocols tended to favor men while putting women at a disadvantage. By the time Dickinson was writing the majority of her poems involving bees and flowers, Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species was in print, and I suggest that Darwin's descriptions of co-adaptations between pollinators and flowers influenced how she deployed the trope. I particularly examine a possible connection between Dickinson and Darwin in Fr642, "There is a flower that Bees prefer - ." In that poem, a common clover plant engages in heroic and Darwinian struggles first to survive, and then to ensure her reproductive viability. In addition, I argue that Dickinson uses that poem to justify her practice of competing with other women authors while simultaneously shunning the publicity she feared fame would entail.
Letter to the Light: Discoveries in Dickinson's Correspondence
Authors: White Melissa
Published: April 2007

Sometime around 1900 Elizabeth Gilman made a copy of a letter Emily Dickinson wrote to her Norcross cousins in 1882. A study of this copy not only brings to light new Dickinson text and, with it, new information about her biography, but, perhaps just as importantly, offers a chance to examine how her texts circulated semi-privately in manuscript just as they were coming in to print. This examination also leads to a reconsideration of Dickinson editing, both past and present.
Francis Hutcheson and the Origin of Animal Rights
Authors: Garrett Aaron
Published: April 2007

"Animal right" is an important political and philosophical concept that has its roots in the work of Francis Hutcheson. Developing ideas derived from his natural-law predecessors, Hutcheson stressed the category of acquired or adventitious right to explain how animals might gain rights through becoming members of a community guided by a moral sense. This theoretical innovation had consequences not just for animals, but for making sense of how all of the formerly rightless might gain rights. Examining Hutcheson's development of an important, if problematic, concept allows us to think of rights not through the natural right tradition of Locke, but rather in connection with Bentham—as granted to those who become useful to the community and grounded in feeling and utility, not reason or language.
Kant's Conception of Humanity
Authors: Glasgow Joshua
Published: April 2007

Contemporary Kant scholarship generally takes 'humanity' in Kant's ethical writings to refer to beings with rational capacities. However, his claims that only the good will has unqualified goodness and that humanity is unconditionally valuable suggests that humanity might be the good will. This problem seems to have infiltrated some prominent scholarship, and Richard Dean has recently argued that, in fact, humanity is indeed the good will. This paper defends, and tries to make sense of, the more conventional view that humanity and the good will are distinct.
Aristotelian Influences in Gassendi's Moral Philosophy
Authors: Gventsadze Veronica
Published: April 2007

The accepted view that Gassendi's ethics is a Christianized form of Epicureanism is incomplete: there is extensive and direct influence of Aristotle's works on the key concepts of Gassendi's ethics, while Epicurean ethics is itself largely informed by Aristotle's views. In the first part of this paper, the notion of freedom as choice informed by rational judgment is examined, and the foundation of Gassendi's intellectualist view of freedom is established in Aristotle's notion of prohairesis. In the second part, the nature of happiness is examined, as well as the relationship between happiness and pleasure, and the contemplative as well as active components of happiness. The third part examines the significance of ethics as an ongoing activity of discernment and regulation of desires: the development of a "second nature" through habitual practice of virtues. The paper concludes with a brief consideration of Aristotle's influence on Gassendi's (and through him - on Locke's) political philosophy.
Is Natural Slavery Beneficial?
Authors: Lockwood Thornton
Published: April 2007

Aristotle's account of natural slavery appears to be internally inconsistent concerning whether slavery is advantageous to the natural slave. Whereas the Politics asserts that slavery is beneficial to the slave, the ethical treatises deny such a claim. Examination of Aristotle's arguments suggests a distinction which resolves the apparent contradiction. Aristotle distinguishes between the common benefit between two people who join together in an association And the same benefit which exists between a whole and its parts. Master and slave share no common benefit, but instead the slave receives the same benefit a master does, albeit only through participation in the master as a part within a whole. Although Aristotle's distinction hardly justifies his doctrine of slavery, it saves Aristotle from one alleged internal inconsistency and sheds light on what Aristotle means by association and the common good.
Husserl's Critique of Kant's Ethics
Authors: Peucker Henning
Published: April 2007

This paper introduces Husserl's ethics by examining his critique of Kant's ethics. It presents Husserl's lectures on ethics in which he offers his own ethical theory in a historical context. The phenomenological ethics seeks to combine the advantages of both the traditional empiricism and rationalism. Husserl's ethics takes into account that emotions play an essential role in the constitution of values and morals. Contrariwise, Husserl fights against relativism in ethics and praises Kant for the discovery of an absolute moral imperative. He considers Kant's ethics as a rationalistic position that is too formal and that does not take into account that every will must be motivated by some concrete material good that is evaluated in our feelings or emotions.
Promises, Social Acts, and Reid's First Argument for Moral Liberty
Authors: Yaffe Gideon
Published: April 2007

This paper is concerned to bring out the philosophical contribution that Thomas Reid makes in his discussions of promising. Reid discusses promising in two contexts: he argues that the practice of promising presupposes the belief that the promisor is endowed with what he calls 'active power' (EAP, IV.6), and he argues against Hume's claim that the very act of promising—and the obligation to do as one promised—are "artificial," or the products of human convention (EAP, V.6). In addition to explaining what Reid says in each of these two contexts, the paper demonstrates that the two discussions are linked. It is, in part, because he thinks that promises are a special kind of act (they are what he calls 'social acts', which he contrasts with 'solitary acts')—performable solely through the exercise of our native, natural capacities—that he thinks that the practice of promising presupposes active power. Towards this end, the paper explains how Reid conceives of active power and explains his concept of a social act. The paper argues that, when considered as part of a single, unitary conception of the nature of promises, Reid's two discussions provide important insights into the nature of promising, particularly with regard to the sense in which promisory obligations are conditional: they are conditional upon a rather short list of circumstances that are not within our power—a shorter list than those on which other obligations are conditional.
Genetic Position of Andalusians from Huelva in Relation to Other European and North African Populations: A Study Based on GM and KM Allotypes
Authors: Calderón Rosario , Ambrosio B , Guitard E , González Martín A , Aresti U , Dugoujon Jean-Michel
Published: April 2007

An understanding of population relationships in the Mediterranean region is crucial to the reconstruction of recent human evolution. Andalusia, the most southern region of Spain, has been continuously and densely occupied since ancient times and has a rich history of contacts with many different Mediterranean populations. Thus, to understand the Mediterranean peopling process, investigators should analyze the population relationships between the Iberian peninsula and northern Africa based on an assessment of genetic diversity that takes Andalusia into consideration. The aim of this study was to address the extent of genetic variation in the Iberian peninsula between its geographic extremes (Huelva and the Basque area) and to explain the intensity of the phylogenetic relationships between Andalusians and other neighboring populations, such as those from North Africa. We present, for the first time, results on allotype markers (GM and KM) of human immunoglobulins in the Andalusian population from Huelva. The most frequent GM haplotypes in Andalusia correspond to those that are also the most common in Europe. A sub-Saharan haplotype was found at a relatively high frequency compared to other Iberian samples, and a North Asian marker did not reach polymorphic frequencies in the study sample. A hierarchical cluster analysis based on the first two principal components (94.1% of the total genetic variance) revealed an interesting geographic structure for the 49 populations selected from the literature. The Huelva sample showed a central position in the multivariate space—despite being geographically located at one of the extremes of the Mediterranean basin—and clustered with most Western European populations. Western Europe and Eastern Europe (the latter group paradoxically including Italy and the major islands of the western Mediterranean) were differentiated. North African populations [End Page 663] were grouped in two clusters that did not separate either Arabs and Berbers or their present-day countries. Analysis of immunoglobulin allotype markers shows that gene flow among human populations should generally be interpreted in terms of complex patterns, with the observed frequencies being the consequence of the entire genetic and demographic history of the population. Single historical events rarely determine gene frequencies in large human populations. Analysis of the GM system has shown that the Andalusian population from Huelva, as a result of its complex history, is not simply an outstanding part of the Mediterranean world but rather the genetic center of gravity of that world.
Determinants of Agricultural and Non-agricultural Livelihood Strategies in Rural Communities: Evidence from Eastern Nigeria
Authors: Adi Bongo
Published: April 2007

Using primary survey data from two agro-ecologically distinct rural communities in eastern Nigeria, this paper examines the determinants of livelihood diversification away from agriculture and the manner in which agro-ecological differences affect such diversification. The probability of participating in non-agricultural activities was estimated in an endogeneity-controlled, probit model employing data on household assets, demographics, human capital, as well as a proxy for differences in agro-ecology. Results show that not many households remain undiversified as they combine activities within farming, commerce, skilled non-farm and low skilled non-farm sectors. Both human capital and the agro-climactic variables were found to determine the nature of diversification. Against the deagrarianisation thesis, the study found that despite high incidence of diversification, agriculture is not in any significant decline. Policies thus should be aimed at both agricultural and non-agricultural activities. Policies based on the assumption that agriculture is no longer relevant will hurt farming and retard development.
Economics, Geography, Family Planning and Rapidity of Change in the Demographic Transition: the Case of the Egyptian Muhafazas 1960-1996
Authors: Bonneuil Noël , Dassouki Chouaa
Published: April 2007

The Egyptian demographic transition from 1960 to 1996 is analyzed at the Muhafaza level. A reconstruction of demographic patterns highlights variation in the under-recording of infants across time, space, and rural/urban status. The quality of registration is worse for girls, producing an abnormal sex ratio that also varies across space and time. The analysis of fertility shows that the fertility upsurge of 1974-85 was not spatially uniform. Multi-level regression shows that fertility fluctuations are associated with the distribution of women's time between work and family, women's education, mortality decline, population density, and men's migration. After accounting for these variables and family planning, there remains a north-south gradient which wanes over the period, and a time factor interpretable as the rapidity of change and responsible for a brief fertility increase during the opening phase of the transition.
Do Indian Banks Understate their Bad Loans?
Authors: Chipalkatti Niranjan , Rishi Meenakshi
Published: April 2007

Did banking sector reforms in India and the adoption of capital adequacy norms based on the Basel Capital Accord prompt Indian banks to understate their bad loans? This paper addresses this question by investigating whether Indian banks under provide for loan loss provisions and understate their gross non performing assets in order to boost earnings and capital adequacy ratios. The paper examines the behavior of Indian banks in the context of tighter regulatory standards that became effective after 1999. The results show that "weak" Indian banks – defined by low profitability and low capital ratios camouflaged the magnitude of their gross non performing assets in the post-1999 period. Based on this the paper concludes that the true nature of India's bad loan problem may be more serious than alluded to in recent studies.
Public vs. Private Sector Earnings Differentials in the Caribbean Region: Evidence from the Economy of Trinidad & Tobago
Authors: Coppin Addington , Olsen Reed Neil
Published: April 2007

This article uses 1993 data from the Trinidad and Tobago Continuous Sample Survey of the Population to investigate patterns of remuneration across its public and private sectors. Unlike results from developed countries, the large earnings premium to public sector workers in Trinidad & Tobago appears to be explained more so by differences in returns to characteristics valued by the labor market than by differences in levels of these characteristics. The large public sector earnings premium is also more likely to benefit the most disadvantaged workers in the economy, Africans and women. These two findings highlight the possibility that the government is using its ability to pay its workers differentially in order to offset private sector ethnic and gender discrimination. Hence, the current move towards privatization of nationalized industries in Trinidad and Tobago is likely to have the impact of increasing ethnic and gender earnings inequity.
Productivity Growth of Indian Manufacturing Sector: Panel Estimation of Stochastic Production Frontier and Technical Inefficiency
Authors: Madheswaran S , Liao Hailin , Rath Badri Narayan
Published: April 2007

Applying a Stochastic Production Frontier to sector-level data within manufacturing sector in India, this paper examines Total Factor Productivity (TFP) growth during 1979-80 to 1997-98. The analysis focuses on the trend of technical progress (TP) and Technical Efficiency Change (TEC). The empirical result suggests that the TFP growth in a large number of industries have improved during 1997-98 compared to 1980-81. TFP growth is mainly driven by TP not by TEC in case of Indian economy since the coefficient of TEC is negative. In the light of empirical results, the policy implication is that the priority to boost economic growth should be in the enhancement of productivity based catching-up capability. In this direction, an efficiency oriented action plan aimed to improve productivity efficiency of manufacturing sectors is required to be implemented for removing the fiscal and financial constraints faced by the enterprises which are located in industrially backward areas.
Duty Drawback and Export Promotion in China
Authors: Mah Jai S
Published: April 2007

The Chinese government has actively tried to promote export. Her export promotion measures have included duty drawbacks, which are expected to lower the cost of imported inputs and to increase the exporters' competitiveness. This paper examines the effectiveness of the duty drawback system in the promotion of export in China considering export supply and export demand. The unit root test shows that all concerned variables are integrated of order one. The existence of a long run equilibrium relationship among the concerned variables is examined by Pesaran and Shin's autoregressive distributed lags model. Since the cointegration tests reveal that there does not exist any long run equilibrium relationship, the ordinary least squares estimation results using the first differenced data are reported. The regression results show that duty drawback is not significant in export promotion, which might arise from inefficiencies such as the false reporting practices.
Interdependencies in Micro-credit Group: Evidence from Repayment Data
Authors: Menon Nidhiya
Published: April 2007

We use repayment data from Grameen Bank groups to study mutual dependence in behavior among participants. Such dependence is a measure of group cohesion, and is interpreted as evidence for the existence of inter-connectedness among members at the group level. Results from a dynamic fixed-effects probit model demonstrate that individual repayment outcomes are significantly influenced by own lagged repayment behavior, and by averages of lagged repayment behaviors for the remaining members of a group. Simulations of own and cross effects between participants provide further support for strong inter-dependencies at the group level in repayment outcomes. By strengthening mutual support networks, such inter-dependencies may be crucial for poverty alleviation in developing countries such as Bangladesh.
Explaining the Differences in Firm Level Production Capacity Realization in Bangladesh Food Manufacturing: a Panel Data Study
Authors: Salim Ruhul A
Published: April 2007

The aim of this paper is to examine the impact of a set of firm-specific and policy related variables such as size, age, ownership and effective rate of assistance on the rate of production capacity realization (PCR) of firms. This study uses a panel of 92 food manufacturing firms of Bangladesh over the periods 1992-1994 and 1997-1999. Firm size is found to have positive impact while capital intensity and age of firm have negative impact on PCR at the firm level. The striking result is that the policy related variables such as the effective rate of assistance (ERA) and outward orientation (OPN) do not have any significant impact on PCR. These results are confirmed by the extensive test of sensitivity analysis. The insignificance of ERA and OPN may be attributed to piecemeal and partial nature of policy reforms. The results suggests the need for further reform of trade policies, in particular, focusing on reducing nominal and effective protection levels in order to enhance competition and competitiveness so that an efficient production can take a firmer root in the industrial sector of the economy.
The Conundrum of Economic Miracle: Manufacturing Growth without TFP Growth
Authors: Sun Chia-Hung
Published: April 2007

The findings of low or even negative total factor productivity (TFP) growth in Singapore's manufacturing industries by Young (1995) and many others has been a controversial issue in view of its crucial role in the future sustainability of Singaporean manufacturing. This paper applies the varying coefficients frontier model to re-examine productivity growth in Singapore's manufacturing at the 3-digit industry level over the period 1970–1997. The results indicate that Singapore's manufacturing has on average experienced a –0.8 percent TFP growth per annum although the extent of TFP growth improved slightly in the 1990s. The decomposition of TFP growth into technical efficiency change and technological progress, found technological regress is responsible for the negative TFP growth. Factor accumulation remains the principal contributor to the economic miracle of Singapore's manufacturing industries.
The Post-crisis Exchange Rate Management in Selected East Asian Countries
Authors: Taguchi Hiroyuki
Published: April 2007

This article examines the post-crisis exchange rate management in the selected East Asian countries: Indonesia, Korea, the Philippines, and Thailand. The main findings are as follows: First, the trends of the coefficient of variation in the monthly nominal exchange rates and foreign exchange reserves revealed that the exchange rate flexibility of all the sample countries had increased under the "soft peg" regime from the pre-crisis period towards the post-crisis period. Second, the result of the Frankel-Wei type of regression analysis with the Chow's test showed that the Philippines and Korea might reduce the US dollar dominance while Korea and Indonesia might raise the weights assigned to the Japanese yen and the euro respectively, in their post-crisis exchange rate management, and that all the sample countries could raise sensitivity to their domestic inflation rates in their post-crisis exchange rate management. The policy implication in the findings above lies in the significance of inflation rate as one of the factors for determining a reference rate in the exchange rate management.
The Poet Who Sings Through Us: Homer's Influence in Contemporary Western Culture
Authors: Belsky Scott A
Published: April 2007

Although Homer continues to be the cornerstone for many students of literature, there are those in the academy who feel that his works are losing their influence on contemporary cultural thought due to the increased push for diversity in literary studies. This work argues that such fears appear unfounded, for the Homeric influence–specifically the ethic of the Odyssean man–pervades and thrives throughout the fundamental worldview of the civilized West. Putting aside the shining testimonies of heroism and the like, the article examines Odysseus's opportunism, naked capitalism and colonialism as the more telling evidence of Homer's long-stretching shadow. Furthermore, Homer's apparent double standard about behavior acceptable at home and abroad reflects certain current sociopolitical philosophy. Therefore, the West cannot but be colored with Homer's brush. His critics and champions only help to amplify his permanence, and every new addition to the canon wears the beggar's rags that conceal the Odyssean ethic underneath.