bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Introduction to Algebraic Geometry
Authors: Hassett Brendan
Published: July 2010

Algebraic geometry, central to pure mathematics, has important applications in such fields as engineering, computer science, statistics and computational biology, which exploit the computational algorithms that the theory provides. Users get the full benefit, however, when they know something of the underlying theory, as well as basic procedures and facts. This book is a systematic introduction to the central concepts of algebraic geometry most useful for computation. Written for advanced undergraduate and graduate students in mathematics and researchers in application areas, it focuses on specific examples and restricts development of formalism to what is needed to address these examples. In particular, it introduces the notion of Gröbner bases early on and develops algorithms for almost everything covered. It is based on courses given over the past five years in a large interdisciplinary programme in computational algebraic geometry at Rice University, spanning mathematics, computer science, biomathematics and bioinformatics.
Probability and Information
Authors: Applebaum David
Published: July 2010

This updated textbook is an excellent way to introduce probability and information theory to new students in mathematics, computer science, engineering, statistics, economics, or business studies. Only requiring knowledge of basic calculus, it starts by building a clear and systematic foundation to the subject: the concept of probability is given particular attention via a simplified discussion of measures on Boolean algebras. The theoretical ideas are then applied to practical areas such as statistical inference, random walks, statistical mechanics and communications modelling. Topics covered include discrete and continuous random variables, entropy and mutual information, maximum entropy methods, the central limit theorem and the coding and transmission of information, and added for this new edition is material on Markov chains and their entropy. Lots of examples and exercises are included to illustrate how to use the theory in a wide range of applications, with detailed solutions to most exercises available online for instructors.
Complexity and Cryptography
Authors: Talbot John , Welsh Dominic
Published: July 2010

Cryptography plays a crucial role in many aspects of today's world, from internet banking and ecommerce to email and web-based business processes. Understanding the principles on which it is based is an important topic that requires a knowledge of both computational complexity and a range of topics in pure mathematics. This book provides that knowledge, combining an informal style with rigorous proofs of the key results to give an accessible introduction. It comes with plenty of examples and exercises (many with hints and solutions), and is based on a highly successful course developed and taught over many years to undergraduate and graduate students in mathematics and computer science.
A Short Introduction to Quantum Information and Quantum Computation
Authors: Le Bellac Michel
Published: July 2010

Quantum information and computation is a rapidly expanding and cross-disciplinary subject. This book, first published in 2006, gives a self-contained introduction to the field for physicists, mathematicians and computer scientists who want to know more about this exciting subject. After a step-by-step introduction to the quantum bit (qubit) and its main properties, the author presents the necessary background in quantum mechanics. The core of the subject, quantum computation, is illustrated by a detailed treatment of three quantum algorithms: Deutsch, Grover and Shor. The final chapters are devoted to the physical implementation of quantum computers, including the most recent aspects, such as superconducting qubits and quantum dots, and to a short account of quantum information. Written at a level suitable for undergraduates in physical sciences, no previous knowledge of quantum mechanics is assumed, and only elementary notions of physics are required. The book includes many short exercises, with solutions available to instructors through solutions@cambridge.org.
Mathematical Modeling in Continuum Mechanics
Authors: Temam Roger , Miranville Alain
Published: July 2010

Temam and Miranville present core topics within the general themes of fluid and solid mechanics. The brisk style allows the text to cover a wide range of topics including viscous flow, magnetohydrodynamics, atmospheric flows, shock equations, turbulence, nonlinear solid mechanics, solitons, and the nonlinear Schrödinger equation. This second edition will be a unique resource for those studying continuum mechanics at the advanced undergraduate and beginning graduate level whether in engineering, mathematics, physics or the applied sciences. Exercises and hints for solutions have been added to the majority of chapters, and the final part on solid mechanics has been substantially expanded. These additions have now made it appropriate for use as a textbook, but it also remains an ideal reference book for students and anyone interested in continuum mechanics.
Semiparametric Regression
Authors: Ruppert David , Wand M. P. , Carroll R. J.
Published: July 2010

Semiparametric regression is concerned with the flexible incorporation of non-linear functional relationships in regression analyses. Any application area that benefits from regression analysis can also benefit from semiparametric regression. Assuming only a basic familiarity with ordinary parametric regression, this user-friendly book explains the techniques and benefits of semiparametric regression in a concise and modular fashion. The authors make liberal use of graphics and examples plus case studies taken from environmental, financial, and other applications. They include practical advice on implementation and pointers to relevant software. The 2003 book is suitable as a textbook for students with little background in regression as well as a reference book for statistically oriented scientists such as biostatisticians, econometricians, quantitative social scientists, epidemiologists, with a good working knowledge of regression and the desire to begin using more flexible semiparametric models. Even experts on semiparametric regression should find something new here.
Methods of Statistical Physics
Authors: Tanaka Tomoyasu
Published: July 2010

This graduate-level textbook on thermal physics covers classical thermodynamics, statistical mechanics and its applications. It describes theoretical methods to calculate thermodynamic properties, such as the equation of state, specific heat, Helmholtz free energy, magnetic susceptibility and phase transitions of macroscopic systems. In addition to the more standard material covered, this book also describes powerful techniques, which are not found elsewhere, to determine the correlation effects on which the thermodynamic properties are based. Particular emphasis is given to the cluster variation method and a novel formulation is developed for its expression in terms of correlation functions. Although a basic knowledge of quantum mechanics is required, the mathematical formulations are accessible and entirely self-contained. The book will therefore constitute an ideal companion text for graduate students studying courses on the theory of complex analysis, classical mechanics, classical electrodynamics, and quantum mechanics.
The Economic Vote
Authors: Duch Raymond M. , Stevenson Randolph T.
Published: July 2010

This book proposes a selection model for explaining cross-national variation in economic voting: Rational voters condition the economic vote on whether incumbents are responsible for economic outcomes, because this is the optimal way to identify and elect competent economic managers under conditions of uncertainty. This model explores how political and economic institutions alter the quality of the signal that the previous economy provides about the competence of candidates. The rational economic voter is also attentive to strategic cues regarding the responsibility of parties for economic outcomes and their electoral competitiveness. Theoretical propositions are derived, linking variation in economic and political institutions to variability in economic voting. The authors demonstrate that there is economic voting, and that it varies significantly across political contexts. The data consist of 165 election studies conducted in 19 different countries over a 20-year time period.
Electromagnetic Theory and Computation
Authors: Gross Paul W. , Kotiuga P. Robert
Published: July 2010

Although topology was recognized by Gauss and Maxwell to play a pivotal role in the formulation of electromagnetic boundary value problems, it is a largely unexploited tool for field computation. The development of algebraic topology since Maxwell provides a framework for linking data structures, algorithms, and computation to topological aspects of three-dimensional electromagnetic boundary value problems. This book, first published in 2004, attempts to expose the link between Maxwell and a modern approach to algorithms. The first chapters lay out the relevant facts about homology and cohomology, stressing their interpretations in electromagnetism. These topological structures are subsequently tied to variational formulations in electromagnetics, the finite element method, algorithms, and certain aspects of numerical linear algebra. A recurring theme is the formulation of and algorithms for the problem of making branch cuts for computing magnetic scalar potentials and eddy currents.
Public Philosophy in a New Key
Authors: Tully James
Published: July 2010

These two ambitious volumes from one of the world's most celebrated political philosophers present a new kind of political and legal theory that James Tully calls a public philosophy, and a complementary new way of thinking about active citizenship, called civic freedom. Professor Tully takes the reader step-by-step through the principal debates in political theory and the major types of political struggle today. These volumes represent a genuine landmark in political theory from the author of Strange Multiplicity, one of the most influential and distinctive commentaries on politics and the contemporary world published in recent years. This first volume of Public Philosophy in a New Key consists of a presentation and defence of a contextual approach to public philosophy and civic freedom, and then goes on to study specific struggles over recognition and distribution within states.
Event History Modeling
Authors: Box-Steffensmeier Janet M. , Jones Bradford S.
Published: July 2010

Event History Modeling, first published in 2004, provides an accessible guide to event history analysis for researchers and advanced students in the social sciences. The substantive focus of many social science research problems leads directly to the consideration of duration models, and many problems would be better analyzed by using these longitudinal methods to take into account not only whether the event happened, but when. The foundational principles of event history analysis are discussed and ample examples are estimated and interpreted using standard statistical packages, such as STATA and S-Plus. Critical innovations in diagnostics are discussed, including testing the proportional hazards assumption, identifying outliers, and assessing model fit. The treatment of complicated events includes coverage of unobserved heterogeneity, repeated events, and competing risks models. The authors point out common problems in the analysis of time-to-event data in the social sciences and make recommendations regarding the implementation of duration modeling methods.
Longitudinal and Panel Data
Authors: Frees Edward W.
Published: July 2010

This focuses on models and data that arise from repeated observations of a cross-section of individuals, households or companies. These models have found important applications within business, economics, education, political science and other social science disciplines. The author introduces the foundations of longitudinal and panel data analysis at a level suitable for quantitatively oriented graduate social science students as well as individual researchers. He emphasizes mathematical and statistical fundamentals but also describes substantive applications from across the social sciences, showing the breadth and scope that these models enjoy. The applications are enhanced by real-world data sets and software programs in SAS and Stata.
Democracy Derailed in Russia
Authors: Fish M. Steven
Published: July 2010

Why has democracy failed to take root in Russia? After shedding the shackles of Soviet rule, some countries in the postcommunist region undertook lasting democratization. Yet Russia did not. Russia experienced dramatic political breakthroughs in the late 1980s and early 1990s, but it subsequently failed to maintain progress toward democracy. In this 2005 book, M. Steven Fish offers an explanation for the direction of regime change in post-Soviet Russia. Relying on cross-national comparative analysis as well as on in-depth field research in Russia, Fish shows that Russia's failure to democratize has three causes: too much economic reliance on oil, too little economic liberalization, and too weak a national legislature. Fish's explanation challenges others that have attributed Russia's political travails to history, political culture, or to 'shock therapy' in economic policy. The book offers a theoretically original and empirically rigorous explanation for one of the most pressing political problems of our time.
The Primacy of Politics
Authors: Berman Sheri
Published: July 2010

Political history in the industrial world has indeed ended, argues this pioneering study, but the winner has been social democracy - an ideology and political movement that has been as influential as it has been misunderstood. Berman looks at the history of social democracy from its origins in the late nineteenth century to today and shows how it beat out competitors such as classical liberalism, orthodox Marxism, and its cousins, Fascism and National Socialism by solving the central challenge of modern politics - reconciling the competing needs of capitalism and democracy. Bursting on to the scene in the interwar years, the social democratic model spread across Europe after the Second World War and formed the basis of the postwar settlement. This is a study of European social democracy that rewrites the intellectual and political history of the modern era while putting contemporary debates about globalization in their proper intellectual and historical context.
Setting the Agenda
Authors: Cox Gary W. , McCubbins Mathew D.
Published: July 2010

Scholars of the U.S. House disagree over the importance of political parties in organizing the legislative process. On the one hand, non-partisan theories stress how congressional organization serves members' non-partisan goals. On the other hand, partisan theories argue that the House is organized to serve the collective interests of the majority party. This book advances our partisan theory and presents a series of empirical tests of that theory's predictions (pitted against others). It considers why procedural cartels form, arguing that agenda power is naturally subject to cartelization in busy legislatures. It argues that the majority party has cartelized agenda power in the U.S. House since the adoption of Reed's rules in 1890. The evidence demonstrates that the majority party seizes agenda control at nearly every stage of the legislative process in order to prevent bills that the party dislikes from reaching the floor.
A double-blind, placebo-controlled, cross-over study to establish the bifidogenic effect of a very-long-chain inulin extracted from globe artichoke (Cynara scolymus) in healthy human subjects
Authors: Costabile Adele , Kolida Sofia , Klinder Annett , Gietl Eva , Bäuerlein Michael , Frohberg Claus , Landschütze Volker , Gibson Glenn R.
Published: July 2010

There is growing interest in the use of inulins as substrates for the selective growth of beneficial gut bacteria such as bifidobacteria and lactobacilli because recent studies have established that their prebiotic effect is linked to several health benefits. In the present study, the impact of a very-long-chain inulin (VLCI), derived from globe artichoke (Cynara scolymus), on the human intestinal microbiota compared with maltodextrin was determined. A double-blind, cross-over study was carried out in thirty-two healthy adults who were randomised into two groups and consumed 10 g/d of either VLCI or maltodextrin, for two 3-week study periods, separated by a 3-week washout period. Numbers of faecal bifidobacteria and lactobacilli were significantly higher upon VLCI ingestion compared with the placebo. Additionally, levels ofAtopobiumgroup significantly increased, whileBacteroides–Prevotellanumbers were significantly reduced. No significant changes in faecal SCFA concentrations were observed. There were no adverse gastrointestinal symptoms apart from a significant increase in mild and moderate bloating upon VLCI ingestion. These observations were also confirmed byin vitrogas production measurements. In conclusion, daily consumption of VLCI extracted from globe artichoke exerted a pronounced prebiotic effect on the human faecal microbiota composition and was well tolerated by all volunteers.
Growth and yield response of winter wheat to soil warming and rainfall patterns
Authors: PATIL R. H. , LAEGDSMAND M. , OLESEN J. E. , PORTER J. R.
Published: July 2010

It is predicted that climate change will increase not only seasonal air and soil temperatures in northern Europe but also the variability of rainfall patterns. This may influence temporal soil moisture regimes and the growth and yield of winter wheat. A lysimeter experiment was carried out in 2008/09 with three factors: rainfall amount, rainfall frequency and soil warming (two levels in each factor), on sandy loam soil in Denmark. The soil warming treatment included non-heated as the control and an increase in soil temperature by 5°C at 100 mm depth as heated. The rainfall treatment included the site mean for 1961–90 as the control and the projected monthly mean change for 2071–2100 under the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) A2 scenario for the climate change treatment. Projected monthly mean changes in rainfall compared to the reference period 1961–90 show, on average, 31% increase during winter (November–March) and 24% decrease during summer (July–September) with no changes during spring (April–June). The rainfall frequency treatment included mean monthly rainy days for 1961–90 as the control and a reduced frequency treatment with only half the number of rainy days of the control treatment, without altering the monthly mean rainfall amount. Mobile rain-out shelters, automated irrigation system and insulated heating cables were used to impose the treatments.

Soil warming hastened crop development during early stages (until stem elongation) and shortened the total crop growing season by 12 days without reducing the period taken for later development stages. Soil warming increased green leaf area index (GLAI) and above-ground biomass during early growth, which was accompanied by an increased amount of nitrogen (N) in plants. However, the plant N concentration and its dilution pattern during later developmental stages followed the same pattern in both heated and control plots. Increased soil moisture deficit was observed only during the period when crop growth was significantly enhanced by soil warming. However, soil warming reduced N concentration in above-ground biomass during the entire growing period, except at harvest, by advancing crop development. Soil warming had no effect on the number of tillers, but reduced ear number and increased 1000 grain weight. This did not affect grain yield and total above-ground biomass compared with control. This suggests that genotypes with a longer vegetative period would probably be better adapted to future warmer conditions. The rainfall pattern treatments imposed in the present study did not influence either soil moisture regimes or performance of winter wheat, though the crop receiving future rainfall amount tended to retain more green leaf area. There was no significant interaction between the soil warming and rainfall treatments on crop growth.
Dynamic mode decomposition of numerical and experimental data
Authors: SCHMID PETER J.
Published: July 2010

The description of coherent features of fluid flow is essential to our understanding of fluid-dynamical and transport processes. A method is introduced that is able to extract dynamic information from flow fields that are either generated by a (direct) numerical simulation or visualized/measured in a physical experiment. The extracted dynamic modes, which can be interpreted as a generalization of global stability modes, can be used to describe the underlying physical mechanisms captured in the data sequence or to project large-scale problems onto a dynamical system of significantly fewer degrees of freedom. The concentration on subdomains of the flow field where relevant dynamics is expected allows the dissection of a complex flow into regions of localized instability phenomena and further illustrates the flexibility of the method, as does the description of the dynamics within a spatial framework. Demonstrations of the method are presented consisting of a plane channel flow, flow over a two-dimensional cavity, wake flow behind a flexible membrane and a jet passing between two cylinders.
Charney isotropy and equipartition in quasi-geostrophic turbulence
Authors: VALLGREN ANDREAS , LINDBORG ERIK
Published: July 2010

High-resolution simulations of forced quasi-geostrophic (QG) turbulence reveal that Charney isotropy develops under a wide range of conditions, and constitutes a preferred state also in β-plane and freely decaying turbulence. There is a clear analogy between two-dimensional and QG turbulence, with a direct enstrophy cascade that is governed by the prediction of Kraichnan (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 47, 1971, p. 525) and an inverse energy cascade following the classic k−5/3 scaling. Furthermore, we find that Charney's prediction of equipartition between the potential and kinetic energy in each of the two horizontal velocity components is approximately fulfilled in the inertial ranges.
Linkage scan of nicotine dependence in the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Family Alcoholism Study
Authors: Gizer I. R. , Ehlers C. L. , Vieten C. , Seaton-Smith K. L. , Feiler H. S. , Lee J. V. , Segall S. K. , Gilder D. A. , Wilhelmsen K. C.
Published: July 2010

Background

Nicotine dependence has been shown to represent a heritable condition, and several research groups have performed linkage analysis to identify genomic regions influencing this disorder though only a limited number of the findings have been replicated.

Method

In the present study, a genome-wide linkage scan for nicotine dependence was conducted in a community sample of 950 probands and 1204 relatives recruited through the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Family Alcoholism Study. A modified version of the Semi-Structured Assessment for the Genetics of Alcoholism (SSAGA) with additional questions that probe nicotine use was used to derive DSM-IV nicotine dependence diagnoses.

Results

A locus on chromosome 2q31.1 at 184 centiMorgans nearest to marker D2S2188 yielded a logarithm (base 10) of odds (LOD) score of 3.54 (point-wise empirical p=0.000012). Additional peaks of interest were identified on chromosomes 2q13, 4p15.33-31, 11q25 and 12p11.23-21. Follow-up analyses were conducted examining the contributions of individual nicotine dependence symptoms to the chromosome 2q31.1 linkage peak as well as examining the relationship of this chromosomal region to alcohol dependence.

Conclusions

The present report suggests that chromosome 2q31.1 confers risk to the development of nicotine dependence and that this region influences a broad range of nicotine dependence symptoms rather than a specific facet of the disorder. Further, the results show that this region is not linked to alcohol dependence in this population, and thus may influence nicotine dependence specifically.
The death(s) of close friends and family moderate genetic influences on symptoms of major depressive disorder in adolescents
Authors: Gheyara S. , Klump K. L. , McGue M. , Iacono W. G. , Burt S. A.
Published: July 2010

Background

Prior work has suggested that genetic influences on major depressive disorder (MDD) may be activated by the experience of negative life events. However, it is unclear whether these results persist when controlling for the possibility of confounding active gene–environment correlations (rGE).

Method

We examined a sample of 1230 adopted and biological siblings between the ages of 10 and 20 years from the Sibling Interaction and Behavior Study. MDD was measured via a lifetime DSM-IV symptom count. Number of deaths experienced served as our environmental risk experience. Because this variable is largely independent of the individual's choices/behaviors, we were able to examine gene–environment interactions while circumventing possible rGE confounds.

Results

Biometric analyses revealed pronounced linear increases in the magnitude of genetic influences on symptoms of MDD with the number of deaths experienced, such that genetic influences were estimated to be near-zero for those who had experienced no deaths but were quite large in those who had experienced two or more deaths (i.e. accounting for roughly two-thirds of the phenotypic variance). By contrast, shared and non-shared environmental influences on symptoms of MDD were not meaningfully moderated by the number of deaths experienced.

Conclusions

Such results constructively replicate prior findings of genetic moderation of depressive symptoms by negative life events, thereby suggesting that this effect is not a function of active rGE confounds. Our findings are thus consistent with the notion that exposure to specific negative life events may serve to activate genetic risk for depression during adolescence.
Sola scriptura and the regula fidei: the Reformation scripture principle and early oral tradition in Martin Chemnitz' Examination of the Council of Trent
Authors: Merrick James R. A.
Published: July 2010

How could a sixteenth-century Protestant reformer who championed sola scriptura defend against the charge of novelty? In particular, how did a reformer understand the post-apostolic church's regula fidei as a possible early counter-precedent to the scripture principle? And what does the answer to these questions tell us about the Reformation scripture principle? These are the principal questions with which this article is concerned. By looking at Martin Chemnitz's Examination of the Council of Trent, I show that Chemnitz rebutted the charge of novelty by returning the favour, that is, he rhetorically situated the Catholics alongside the early Gnostics since both believed in an oral tradition that differed substantially from scripture. Furthermore, I find that Chemnitz contended that Irenaeus’ and Tertullian's use of the regula fidei actually supported sola scriptura since these fathers never posited a substantial distinction between scripture and tradition and, in fact, held that the content of the rule was recorded in scripture. Chemnitz concluded that Protestants holding the scripture principle are the ones who are truly faithful to early church tradition in general and the rule in particular.
The Righteousness of God in Psalms and Romans
Authors: Turner Geoffrey
Published: July 2010

Paul quoted extensively from scripture, especially in Romans. Many of these citations are from the Psalms, using the Septuagint. Paul could have found all his vocabulary and concepts for ‘justification by faith’ in the Psalms. The Psalms contain a doctrine of ‘righteousness through faithfulness’: God is righteous by forming a covenant with Israel, and proves his righteousness by remaining faithful to that covenant despite Israel's failings. He will remain faithful to the end by vindicating his righteous ones when they are oppressed by the ungodly. Israelites are righteous by having been elected to the covenant and will remain righteous through faithfulness to God, the marks of which are the avoidance of idolatry and keeping the law. Far from rejecting this Old Testament inheritance, Paul takes over this doctrine of ‘righteousness through faithfulness’ as it stands in the Psalms (Romans 1:18–3:20) and then christologises it (from 3:21). The mark of faithfulness to God now is no longer the law, however, but faithfulness to Christ, who is himself the model of faithfulness and what it is to be righteous. This understanding of how one becomes righteous is located by Paul himself within his fivefold scheme of salvation at Romans 8:30: foreknown, predestined, called, made righteous and glorified.
VARIETIES OF ALTRUISM
Authors: Kitcher Philip
Published: July 2010

Discussions of altruism occur in three importantly different contexts. During the past four decades, evolutionary theory has been concerned with the possibility that forms of behaviour labelled as altruistic could emerge and could be maintained under natural selection. In these discussions, an agentAis said to act altruistically towards a beneficiaryBwhenA's action promotes the expected reproductive success ofBat expected reproductive cost toA. This sort of altruism,biological altruism, is quite different from the kind of behaviour important to debates about ethical and social issues. There the focus is onpsychological altruism, a notion that is concerned with the intentions of the agent and that need have no connection with the spread of anyone's genes. Psychological altruists are people with other-directed desires, emotions or intentions (this is a rough preliminary characterization, to be refined below). Finally, in certain kinds of social scientific research, the important concept is that ofbehavioural altruism. From the outside, behavioural altruists look like psychological altruists, although their motives and preferences may be very different.
THE NAKED EMPEROR: SEEKING A MORE PLAUSIBLE GENETIC BASIS FOR PSYCHOLOGICAL ALTRUISM
Authors: Batson C. Daniel
Published: July 2010

The adequacy of currently popular accounts of the genetic basis for psychological altruism, including inclusive fitness (kin selection), reciprocal altruism, sociality, and group selection, is questioned. Problems exist both with the evidence cited as supporting these accounts and with the relevance of the accounts to what is being explained. Based on the empathy-altruism hypothesis, a more plausible account is proposed: generalized parental nurturance. It is suggested that four evolutionary developments combined to provide a genetic basis for psychological altruism. First is the evolution in mammals of parental nurturance. Second is the evolution in humans (and possibly a few other species) of the ability to see others as sentient, intentional agents and, thereby, to recognize other's needs, even subtle ones. Third is the evolution in humans of tender, empathic emotions as an important component of parental nurturance. Fourth is the evolution in humans of cognitive capacities that make it possible to generalize tender, empathic feelings and, thereby, altruism beyond offspring.
THE MORAL BASIS OF PROSPERITY AND OPPRESSION: ALTRUISM, OTHER-REGARDING BEHAVIOUR AND IDENTITY
Authors: Basu Kaushik
Published: July 2010

Much of economics is built on the assumption that individuals are driven by self-interest and economic development is an outcome of the free play of such individuals. On the few occasions that the existence of altruism is recognized in economics, the tendency is to build this from the axiom of individual selfishness. The aim of this paper is to break from this tradition and to treat as a primitive that individuals are endowed with the ‘cooperative spirit’, which allows them to work in their collective interest, even when that may not be in their self-interest. The paper tracks the interface between altruism and group identity. By using the basic structure of a Prisoner's Dilemma game among randomly picked individuals and building into it assumptions of general or in-group altruism, the paper demonstrates how our selfish rationality interacts with our innate sense of cooperation. The model is used to outline circumstances under which cooperation will occur and circumstances where it will break down. The paper also studies how sub-groups of a society can form cooperative blocks, whether to simply do better for themselves or exploit others.
PHILOSOPHICAL EGOISM: ITS NATURE AND LIMITATIONS
Authors: Schmid Hans Bernhard
Published: July 2010

Egoism and altruism are unequal contenders in the explanation of human behaviour. While egoism tends to be viewed as natural and unproblematic, altruism has always been treated with suspicion, and it has often been argued that apparent cases of altruistic behaviour might really just be some special form of egoism. The reason for this is that egoism fits into our usual theoretical views of human behaviour in a way that altruism does not. This is true on the biological level, where an evolutionary account seems to favour egoism, as well as on the psychological level, where an account of self-interested motivation is deeply rooted in folk psychology and in the economic model of human behaviour. While altruism has started to receive increasing support in both biological and psychological debates over the last decades, this paper focuses on yet another level, where egoism is still widely taken for granted.Philosophical egoism(Martin Hollis’ term) is the view that, on the ultimate level of intentional explanation, all action is motivated by one of the agent's desires. This view is supported by the standard notion that for a complex of behaviour to be an action, there has to be a way to account for that behaviour in terms of the agent's own pro-attitudes.Psychologicalaltruists, it is claimed, arephilosophicalegoists in that they are motivated by desires that have the other's benefit rather than the agent's own for its ultimate object (other-directed desires). This paper casts doubt on this thesis, arguing that empathetic agents act on other people's pro-attitudes in very much the same way as agents usually act on their own, and that while other-directed desires do play an important role in many cases of psychologically altruistic action, they are not necessary in explanations of some of the most basic and most pervasive types of human altruistic behaviour. The paper concludes with the claim that philosophical egoism is really a cultural value rather than a conceptual feature of action.
The Pacific zonal asymmetry and its influence on Southern Hemisphere sea ice variability
Authors: Hobbs W.R. , Raphael M.N.
Published: July 2010

At monthly and annual timescales, the zonally asymmetric circulation over the Southern Ocean is dominated by two quasi-stationary anticyclones: a western anticyclone approximately located south of New Zealand, and an eastern anticyclone located over the Drake Passage region. In this research their influence on late 20th century Antarctic sea ice is explored. During early winter, sea ice in the Weddell, Amundsen and Bellingshausen seas is influenced by the location of the east anticyclone. During late winter, the strength and location of the west anticyclone influences sea ice primarily in the Ross and Amundsen seas. The anticyclones have some effect on wind-driven sea ice motion, but the primary mechanism explaining their link to sea ice appears to be meridional atmospheric thermal advection. A western shift in the west anticyclone may be partly responsible for observed increases in ice cover in the Ross Sea over the late 20th century, but there is little evidence in existing data to support a link between the east anticyclone and observed sea ice trends.
Perspectives on influenza evolution and the role of research
Authors: Forrest Heather L. , Webster Robert G.
Published: July 2010

Influenza is a highly contagious respiratory pathogen that continues to evolve and threaten both veterinary and human public health. Influenza A viruses are continually undergoing molecular changes through mutations, reassortment, and, in rare instances, recombination. While they generally cause benign enteric infection in their natural reservoir of wild aquatic birds, they can cause catastrophic and potentially lethal disease outbreaks in humans, domestic poultry, and pigs when they cross the host species barrier. The continuing circulation of highly pathogenic (HP) H5N1 influenza viruses in domestic poultry in parts of Eurasia and the emergence and global spread of pandemic H1N1 2009 are current examples of influenza evolution. The spread of both HP H5N1 and pandemic H1N1 to multiple hosts emphasizes the potential for continued evolution. In this review, we discuss the current understanding of influenza A virus structure and strategies of variation, with a specific focus on the HP H5N1 and pandemic H1N1 influenza viruses. Additionally, we attempt to identify the gaps in our knowledge of H5N1 and pandemic H1N1 influenza viruses. These gaps include (i) an understanding of the molecular determinants of influenza virus and the host that permit efficient transmissibility and pandemic potential, (ii) the urgent need for prospective surveillance in apparently healthy swine, (iii) the molecular determinants of high pathogenicity in poultry, pigs, and people, (iv) the genetic basis of host susceptibility, (v) antigenic variability, (vi) the use of vaccine to control influenza, (vii) the role of wild birds as the reservoir of highly pathogenic avian influenza, (viii) the problems with vaccines, (ix) seasonality, (x) co-infections, and (xi) anti-influenza drug resistance. Our failure to eradicate HP H5N1 globally and to explain why H5N1 does not transmit efficiently in humans while an H1N1 pandemic virus of swine origin spread globally in months are key examples that emphasize the critical need to bridge these knowledge gaps. Future directions in influenza research that will help us resolve each of the above-mentioned knowledge gaps include complete genomic and proteomic analysis of both the virus and the host with the prospect of designing new control strategies and the development of genetically resistant hosts.
Avian influenza: our current understanding
Authors: Suarez David L.
Published: July 2010

Avian influenza (AI) virus is one of the most important diseases of the poultry industry around the world. The virus has a broad host range in birds and mammals, although the natural reservoir is wild birds where it typically causes an asymptomatic to mild infection. The virus in poultry can cause a range of clinical diseases and is defined either as low pathogenic AI (LPAI) or highly pathogenic AI (HPAI) depending on the type of disease it causes in chickens. Viruses that replicate primarily on mucosal surfaces and cause mild disease with low mortality are termed LPAI. Viruses that replicate on mucosal surfaces and systemically and cause severe disease with a mortality rate of 75% or greater in experimentally infected chickens are referred to as HPAI. A virus that is highly pathogenic in chickens may infect but result in a completely different disease and replication pattern in other host species. Outbreaks of HPAI have been relatively uncommon around the world in the last 50 years and have had limited spread within a country or region with one major exception, Asian lineage H5N1 that was first identified in 1996. This lineage of virus has spread to over 60 countries and has become endemic in poultry in at least four countries. AI virus also represents a public health threat, with some infected humans having severe disease and with a high case fatality rate. AI remains a difficult disease to control because of the highly infectious nature of the virus and the interface of domestic and wild animals. A better understanding of the disease and its transmission is important for control.
Interspecies and intraspecies transmission of influenza A viruses: viral, host and environmental factors
Authors: Yassine Hadi M. , Lee Chang-Won , Gourapura Renukaradhya , Saif Yehia M.
Published: July 2010

Influenza A viruses are enveloped viruses belonging to the familyOrthomyxoviridaethat encompasses four more genera: Influenza B, Influenza C, Isavirus and Thogotovirus. Type A viruses belong to the only genus that is highly infectious to a variety of mammalian and avian species. They are divided into subtypes based on two surface glycoproteins, the hemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA). So far, 16 HA and 9 NA subtypes have been identified worldwide, making a possible combination of 144 subtypes between both proteins. Generally, individual viruses are host-specific, however, interspecies transmission of influenza A viruses is not uncommon. All of the HA and NA subtypes have been isolated from wild birds; however, infections in humans and other mammalian species are limited to a few subtypes. The replication of individual influenza A virus in a specific host is dependent on many factors including, viral proteins, host system and environmental conditions. In this review, the key findings that contribute to the transmission of influenza A viruses amongst different species are summarized.
A FEMINIST VOICE IN THE ENLIGHTENMENT SALON: MADAME DE LAMBERT ON TASTE, SENSIBILITY, AND THE FEMININE MIND
Authors: HAMERTON KATHARINE J.
Published: July 2010

This essay demonstrates how the early Enlightenmentsalonnièremadame de Lambert advanced a novel feminist intellectual synthesis favoring women's taste and cognition, which hybridized Cartesian (specifically Malebranchian) andhonnêtethought. Disputing recent interpretations of Enlightenmentsalonnièresthat emphasize the constraints ofhonnêtetéon their thought, and those that see Lambert's feminism as misguided in emphasizing gendered sensibility, I analyze Lambert's approach as best serving her needs as an aristocratic woman within elite salon society, and show through contextualized analysis how she deployedhonnêtetétowards feminist ends. Additionally, the analysis of Malebranche's, Poulain de la Barre's, and Lambert's arguments about the female mind's gendered embodiment illustrates that misrepresenting Cartesianism as necessarily liberatory for women, by reducing it to a rigid substance dualism, erases from view its more complex implications for gender politics in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, especially in thehonnêteenvironment of the salons.
THE TRANSFIGURATION OF DUTY IN AUROBINDO'SESSAYS ON THE GITA
Authors: SARTORI ANDREW
Published: July 2010

Aurobindo Ghose was a major nationalist intellectual of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries who rose to prominence as one of the most radical leaders of the Swadeshi movement before retreating to the French colony of Pondicherry to dedicate his life to spiritual exercises and experiments. Aurobindo, like so many others of the nationalist period, produced a major commentary on the Bhagavad Gita. I will argue that his appeal to the Gita in the late 1910s represented, however, not a continuation of his nationalist project, but rather a radical reformulation of it in the wake of the defeat of the Swadeshi mobilization of 1905–8.
IN SEARCH OF A USABLE PAST: CONSERVATIVE THOUGHT IN AMERICA
Authors: BURNS JENNIFER
Published: July 2010

There is no conservative thought in America, only “irritable mental gestures which seek to resemble ideas,” wrote Lionel Trilling in 1950, thus providing a generation of historians with a convenient set piece to demonstrate the inadequacies of mid-century liberalism and its blindness to the nascent conservative intellectual movement gathering strength and purpose just as Trilling wrote. Two excellent new books about American intellectual history cast this quote in yet another light. Patrick Allitt'sThe Conservatives: Ideas and Personalities throughout American Historycarefully documents a centuries-long tradition of conservative thought in America, from the founding era through the end of the twentieth century. InThe Conservative Turn: Lionel Trilling, Whittaker Chambers, and the Lessons of Anti-Communism, Michael Kimmage asserts that Trilling himself be considered a source of conservative ideas in postwar America. Taken together, the books by Allitt and Kimmage indicate that a new cycle of writing about conservative thought has reached full flower. For far too long, the field of conservative intellectual history has been dominated by the figure of George Nash, author of the classic 1976The Conservative Intellectual Movement in America since 1945. These books provide an updated and more critically sophisticated way to examine the terrain Nash strode alone for so long. More significantly, they indicate that intellectual historians are ready to consider conservatism in dialogue with liberalism, bringing new balance to the study of American ideas. Furthermore, both books, Kimmage's in particular, suggest that some of what we are calling conservative and liberal might be flying under the wrong flag. The key to sorting out the confusion will be drawing a more careful distinction between conservatism as a “movement” and as a body of ideas, and looking at both conservatisms as part of a typically American response to historical change, rather than as an exotic and abberant specimen.
Pointing enhancement techniques for deep-space antennas
Authors: Besso Piermario , Bozzi Maurizio , Formaggi Marco , Perregrini Luca
Published: July 2010

The present paper presents a very efficient technique for enhancing the pointing accuracy in beam-waveguide (BWG) antennas and its application to the deep space antenna DSA2 of the European Space Agency. The proposed technique permits to achieve a twofold result: on the one hand, it provides a solution to the beam aberration issue, arising when the antenna simultaneously receives from and transmits to a spacecraft moving in the transversal direction. On the other hand, it allows to perform a fast conical scan to enhance the pointing accuracy of the antenna. Both results are achieved by simple linear displacements of feeds and mirrors located in the lower part of the BWG, with a very limited deterioration of the antenna gain. The required displacements of feeds and mirrors are determined through a fast optimization algorithm, based on a top-down approach, which requires repeated physical–optics analyses of the lower part of the beam waveguide only, with a significant reduction in the computing time.
New class of SiGe reduced-size loaded slow wave 60 GHz CPW series/shunt stubs and its applications to the design of slow wave bandpass filters
Authors: Hettak Khelifa , Morin Gilbert A. , Stubbs Malcolm G.
Published: July 2010

This paper proposes a practical approach for developing a new class of compact slow-wave coplanar waveguide (CPW) series/shunt stubs, which offer 40% reduction in size relative to a conventional design. It demonstrates that the technique using interdigitated capacitive loading can provide size and cost reductions, while also providing performance enhancements such as better return loss. The experimental prototypes presented in this paper demonstrate the validity of the design method and the ability to print interdigitated capacitors inside the center conductor of the series/shunt stubs. The principle of achieving such high-quality circuits is detailed and is also confirmed by theoretical and experimental results, which are in reasonable agreement up to at least 70 GHz. The paper also presents a family of novel topologies of slow wave bandpass filters based on the proposed capacitively loaded CPW series/shunt stubs.