bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Influence of Katharevousa on the Phonology of Modern Greek
Authors: Kofod Margaret
Published: February 2017

Much has been written on Greek diglossia and the language struggle (between katharevousa and dhimotiki). Defenders of katharevousa have emphasized the importance of the language’s roots in ancient Greek, opponents of katharevousa have emphasized the idea that the Greek language should be first and foremost ‘the language of the people’.
A suspected source of Scylitzes’ Synopsis Historion: the great Catacalon Cecaumenus
Authors: Shepard Jonathan
Published: February 2017

*‘Catacalon Cecaumenus’ is no longer a well-known name. In 1924 he was the subject of a study by N. Bänescu, and some years later Georgina Buckler proposed that he was the author of the so-called Strategicon, whose author’s surname was Cecaumenus. But the latter view no longer enjoys much support from scholars, and less attention has been paid recently to Catacalon. A symptom of his new-found obscurity is the fact that in the index of the 1973 edition of John Scylitzes’ Synopsis Historion he is cut into two persons, both called Catacalon Cecaumenus. One of these persons is represented as being slain at the battle of Diacene in 1049, while the other figures exclusively during the reign of Michael VI. In fact, the index errs. The two sets of references denote one and the same man.
An unknown post-Byzantine journey to the other world
Authors: Ivanov Sergey A. , Gerd Lora
Published: February 2017

This is the first publication of a tale about a journey to the other world from two seventeenth-century manuscripts kept in St.Petersburg. In the IS80s, the soul of a poor miner Nicholas from the Macedonian village of Izvor was mistakenly and prematurely snatched from his body by an angel who accompanied him through the heavens. After Nicholas' return to life, he described his adventures, which, although reminiscent of the famous Byzantine visions of the afterlife, still diverge from them in some important details. The tale not only helps to recreate the social life of the mining area of Siderokausia, but also portrays the infighting among the local Orthodox Christian clergy.
McLuhan in the Library
Authors: Turner Alan
Published: February 2017

‘A means or method of perceiving’ the
library through a series of McLuhanite ‘probes’
presenting ideas reflecting current library
practice supported by the theories of Marshall
McLuhan. Often quoted and misunderstood, McLuhan
during the 1960’s was criticized by many
librarians for predicting the end of the book,
however, deeper analysis of his theories and the
writings of his supporters prove that he was
somebody ‘who has, perhaps, a greater perception
of the value of books and libraries for
civilization, than many librarians.’ The theories
of McLuhan provide a blueprint for libraries into
the future and beyond, from library instruction
and teaching, professional development, media
ecologies and future technologies. Being
McLuhanite in nature the sections of this article
can be read in any sequence.
Preserving born-digital catalogues raisonnés: Web archiving at the New York Art Resources Consortium (NYARC)
Authors: Duncan Sumitra
Published: February 2017

There has been a dramatic shift in publication of scholarly art research materials from print to digital formats. In late 2013, the New York Art Resources Consortium (NYARC) was awarded a two-year grant by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to address challenges of preservation and continued access for future researchers of these materials by implementing a web archiving programme. Due to the transition of many catalogues raisonnés to online from print, born-digital catalogues raisonnés are one of the five key collecting areas of focus for NYARC’s project. The intention of this article is to provide an introduction to the key components of the implementation of NYARC’s web archiving programme, to explore the far-flung implications of the digital shift, and to demonstrate the need for a community of collaboration in building curated web archive collections to benefit the future art historian.
So you want to reuse digital heritage content in a creative context? Good luck with that.
Authors: Terras Melissa
Published: February 2017

Although there is a lot of digitised cultural heritage content online, it is still incredibly difficult to source good material to reuse, or material that you are allowed to reuse, in creative projects. What can institutions do to help people who want to invest their time in making and creating using digitised historical items as inspiration and source material?
Creative Commons and Open Access initiatives: how to stay sane and influence people
Authors: Bishop Carrie
Published: February 2017

Broadening access to the wealth of material held within the archives of galleries and museums has been a long-term goal for many arts institutions, with large-scale digitization projects gathering pace. Concerns regarding copyright, however, have often been cited1 as a barrier to sharing and reuse, and a point of confl ict between user and creator communities. Tate is currently embarked upon the digitization and public release of 52,000 items within its archives including, where possible, releasing material under a Creative Commons licence. What makes the project's scope unique is that the vast majority of the material is still within copyright, providing valuable insights into how the law, Creative Commons and differing community agendas can interact productively to secure public access whilst still respecting rights holders. The article seeks to demonstrate that, for all the importance of legal considerations, relationship management is key not only to best practice but to securing the goals of Open Access.
Contractants: A New Method for the Numerical Evaluation of Determinants
Authors: MacMillan R. H.
Published: February 2017

A new method for evaluating determinants or matrices is given; it is rather tedious to describe and awkward to prove, but is very easy to use. The chief advantages this method is believed to possess are:

(i)

It involves as few arithmetical manipulations as does the most rapid method of pivotal condensation currently used.

(ii)

It is easier than any other known method to learn and to remember.

(iii)

It can be adapted to routine computation, in such a way as to minimise the likelihood of error.

(iv)

A digital computor can readily be programmed to use it.
The Flapping Flight of Birds
Authors: Walker Gilbert T.
Published: February 2017

In connection with gliding flight enough measurements of “ lift ” and “ drag ” have been made to enable us to calculate the conditions for success of an aeroplane fitted with wings of standard sections; but no attempt has been made, as far as the present writer is aware, to ascertain what would happen if a flying machine were fitted with wings of standard section and these were flapped in a rhythmical manner. Would it support and propel itself? Several authors, including M. F. Fitzgerald and Colonel J. D. Fullerton in the previous issue of this journal, have discussed various portions of this problem; but instead of appealing to wind-tunnel determinations the latter has used such expressions as pSUV or pSUV2 for the pressure on a wing of area S, where p is the density of the air and V, U are the component velocities along and at right angles to its surface.
Some Recent Developments in Aircraft Instruments
Authors: Wimperis H. E.
Published: February 2017

Illustrations to the Appendix of this paper were unfortunately omitted in the January number. The Appendix is therefore reprinted with the illustrations.
Rearticulating a Christian-Muslim Understanding: Gennadios Scholarios and George Amiroutzes on Islam
Authors: Ziaka Angeliki
Published: February 2017

From the eighth century, the Eastern Orthodox Churches engaged in various forms of theological dialogue and debate with newly emergent Islam. Although scholars have tended to study Islamic-Christian relations in terms of confrontation and direct conflict, this aspect, dominant as it may be, must not lead us to overlook another aspect of the relationship, that of attempts at rapprochement and understanding. Despite the acerbity of Byzantium’s anti-heretical and apologetic literature against Islam, there were also attempts at communication and mutual understanding between Christianity and Islam. These efforts became more tangible after the fall of Constantinople (1453), which marked a partial change in Orthodoxy’s theological stance towards Islam. The polemical approach, which had prevailed during Byzantine times, gave way in part to an innovative and more conciliatory theological discourse towards Islam. Modern Greek research categorizes the theological discourse that was articulated during this period according to two diametrically opposing models: the model of conciliation and rapprochement with Islam, which was not widely influential, and that of messianic Utopian discourse developed by Christians who had turned to God and sought divine intervention to save the community.
Politics and the Evolution of Inquiry in Political Science
Authors: Hines Samuel M.
Published: February 2017

Although we may be pessimistic (with good reason) about contemporary politics, especially as it effects the prospects for the survival of the human species in the long run, we can be more optimistic about the study of politics from a life science perspective. Certainly the two are related. Becoming optimistic about the former may depend in part upon the further development of biopolitics and of the biobehaviorial and life sciences generally.
Research at Stony Brook: Political Science in a Biobehavioral Laboratory
Authors: Andrus D. Calvin
Published: February 2017

Political behavior, like all human behavior, can be studied using the S–O–R paradigm, where S is a particular stimulus, 0 is the human organism, and R is a response or behavior (cf. Tursky, Lodge, and Cross, 1976). Here at the Laboratory for Behavioral Research at Stony Brook we are currently conducting research projects that investigate each of these components of the paradigm and the interactions among them. Before reviewing these projects, however, I will briefly describe our laboratory facilities.
The Place of Biopolitics in the Political Science Curriculum
Authors: Kitchin William
Published: February 2017

Biopolitics should be offered as a separate, independent course in the undergraduate curriculum, and graduate training should be offered within the rubric of political science. The primary reason that biopolitical materials should be covered in the undergraduate, liberal arts curriculum is that there is a need to train students to be vigilant, i.e., to have a critical capacity to confront ideas. Since so much of their lives will be intertwined with the political and so much of the political is better explained by considering biopolitical variables than by not considering them, students need exposure and academic coverage of biopolitical concepts and findings. Biopolitics represents only minor change in the general behavioralistic framework of explaining political phenomena, but represents the introduction into political science of some concepts and variables more widely used in the life sciences. Because biopolitical materials are high in quantity and because they are per se important and increase the explanatory power of traditional behavioralism, a biopolitics course belongs in the political science curriculum. The preparation of qualified teachers and researchers argues for graduate training in biopolitics. Without such graduate training in political science departments, the biopolitical inquiry will primarily be undertaken in disciplines other than political science.
Teaching Biopolitics in a Professional Curriculum
Authors: O'Hara Patrick G.
Published: February 2017

This article considers the ways in which teachers of public administration can address biopolitical issues within an established professional curriculum. The author distinguishes between the teleological and instrumental aspects of a belief system, holding that biobehavioral explanation can be pedagogically useful and can provide public administrators with a model for assessing and responding to workplace phenomena. The article proposes that undergraduate and graduate teaching impose different standards on an instructor seeking to introduce biobehavioral and biostructural concepts. The different standards arise out of the explicit and focused career instrumentality of graduate study in public administration, as well as age graded differences in receptivity to particular propositions about human nature. Finally, this article details some ways in which biobehavioral explanation can be introduced in organizational behavior classes and in classes that consider the structure of public organizations and their decision-making processes.
An Introduction to Nonparticipant Observational Research Techniques
Authors: Barner-Barry Carol
Published: February 2017

At least since the time of Darwin, scientists have been using systematic observational techniques in the conduct of research. During the 1920s and 1930s, in psychology and zoology there was widespread use of the systematic recording of quantitative analysis of observed behavioral data. In both professions, this enthusiasm gradually gave way to an emphasis on controlled experiments. In psychology, the incidence of nonparticipant observational research dwindled to almost zero. In zoology, it became somewhat attenuated, but was preserved as a part of the ethological tradition (Hutt and Hutt, 1970).
Biosocial Predictors of Older Americans' Political Participation
Authors: Peterson Steven A.
Published: February 2017

One consequence of aging is diminished physical powers. In some cases, mental capabilities deteriorate, with concomitant rigidity of thought, impairment of intellect, emotional instability, and denial of disability (e.g., Post, 1980). Some have speculated that biological factors may have an effect on the political behavior of the elderly (see, e.g., G. Schubert, 1983). Campbell, Converse, Miller, and Stokes (1960:262) note that decline of voter turnout with age is “… undoubtedly due to infirmities that make trips to the polling place more difficult.” Hudson and Binstock (1976:370) suggest that lowered participation “… may be interpreted in terms of physical declines….” Light (1981:2343) hypothesizes that “Health and mobility problems apparently prevent the elderly from topping the middle-aged in turnout.” On the other hand, Wolfinger and Rosenstone (1980) find that with the introduction of controls for length of residence, income, education, and gender, the political effects of aging seem to disappear. However, no direct tests of the physical effects of aging upon the political orientations and behavior of the aged have appeared.
…Let No One Split Asunder: Controversy In Human Genetic Engineering
Authors: Robin Stanley S. , Markle Gerald E.
Published: February 2017

In 1980 the first recombinant genetic engineering experiments on humans were performed. These experiments sparked a major controversy, international in scope and potentially profound in its implications for genetic science. We develop four perspectives—substantive, network, organizational, and societal—from which science can be seen as a process having differing social implication and meaning. The research and controversy are discussed with attention to the conflicts and their resolutions from each perspective and among them. Taken together, the four perspectives are used as a single basis for understanding the social processes involved in this case study and the more general workings of science.
Dissent with Frustration: Coming's Response
Authors: Corning Peter A.
Published: February 2017

Although I will respond to each commentator separately, some of my responses will be applicable more generally.
Aristotle's Biopolitics: A Defense of Biological Teleology against Biological Nihilism
Authors: Arnhart Larry
Published: February 2017

Modern Darwinian biology seems to promote nihilism, for it seems to teach that there is no rationally discoverable standard in nature for giving meaning to life. The purpose of this article is to argue for a revival of Aristotle's biological teleology as a reasonable alternative to biological nihilism. The article begins with Edward Wilson's vain struggle against nihilism. Then it is argued that a teleological understanding of nature is assumed in the practice of medicine, as illustrated by one case from Oliver Sacks' neurological practice. The article then considers the importance of biological teleology for Aristotle's moral and political philosophy, and attention is given to some points of agreement and disagreement with contemporary sociobiologists. The main part of the article is then devoted to a defense of Aristotle's biology against the five objections that might be made by a Darwinian biologist. Finally, the article illustrates the practical implications of this issue for bioethics by considering the recent work of Engelhardt.
Author's Response
Authors: Arnhart Larry
Published: February 2017

“In the theatre,” Giuseppe Verdi once explained, “long is synonymous with boring. And boring is the worst of all styles.” Those who read scholarly journals must be more patient than opera audiences, and this surely must be true of those who have just read my long article and the nine commentaries. I will not test the limits of that patience, however, by responding at length to all the comments. I am grateful to all the commentators for their instructive remarks, which I will be pondering for a long time. But now I can only answer briefly some of the most prominent objections.
Ethical Dilemmas of the President's Physician
Authors: Robins Robert S. , Rothschild Henry
Published: February 2017

During the 1984 presidential campaign, questions were raised concerning President Reagan's cognitive integrity in the televised debates. He hesitated before answering questions, appeared to lack attentiveness, and had difficulty remembering and finding words to accurately express his thoughts. These signs, sometimes indicative of early dementia, were reportedly intensified during the 1987 Reykjavik Conference, at which time the President was criticized by James Reston–admittedly an unsympathetic critic–the New York Times columnist. According to Reston, there may be “a human problem at the top of the government [that] … will have to be addressed with uttermost sympathy and care” (December 21, 1986). These questions were again raised by the Iran-Contra affair. For the President of the United States to have even a hint of cognitive dysfunction carries profound implications.
Theoretical Issues in the Regulation of Genetically Engineered Organisms: The Case of Deliberate Release
Authors: Kawar Amal , Sherlock Richard
Published: February 2017

At the cutting edge of research in biotechnology is the production of special genetically engineered organisms for use in an open, agricultural environment. We argue that the standard approaches to risk assessment and management employed by regulatory agencies are inadequate to the task of properly assessing the advisability of such experiments, as well as the even more significant prospect of widespread commercial use of genetically engineered organisms in agriculture. Given the current lack of sufficient information with which to make competent assessments of the risks involved and the extreme difficulties which are likely to inhibit attempts to gain such information in a timely fashion, we conclude that a compelling case for deliberate release programs has not been made.
A Critique of the Naturalistic Fallacy Thesis
Authors: Tullberg Jan , Tullberg Birgitta S.
Published: February 2017

If the prescriptive “ought” is separated from the factual “is,” an intellectual analysis of the real world is by definition without normative value. The naturalistic fallacy thesis—maintaining that normative and descriptive spheres must remain separated—is often presented in a weak sense that seems reasonable. However, only in a strong sense—by strictly separating facts and values—are fallacy accusations supported. We claim that this naturalistic fallacy thesis is unsound and that normative statements instead should be based on rational understanding as found in the Darwinian and social sciences. The Cartesian compromise should be abandoned, since only naturalism can provide a cogent framework for better understanding and support ethics with a solid foundation. Many people nurture values based on tradition, whim, subgroup identification etc., and they demand respect for those values. However, we can demand respect for values only when they have a rational foundation. The common belief in the thesis of naturalistic fallacy is an anti-intellectual device that shields values from rational inquiry.
Population and the Demise of Cheap Energy
Authors: Ferguson Andrew R. B.
Published: February 2017

Standard of living is determined in part by the availability of ecological resources, and in part by the availability of “cheap energy.” The demise of cheap energy is likely to occur during the twenty-first century. Gradually, over this time, humans will be restricted to using renewable natural capital. Reliance on renewable energy sources will require a reduction in population to within the range of 1.5 to 3 billion people in order to maintain what most of us would regard as an adequate lifestyle. Attention is drawn to the need for nations to exercise sovereign responsibility.
A watershed in global governance? An independent assessment of the World Commission on Dams (Executive Summary)
Authors: Dubash Navroz K. , Dupar Mairi , Kothari Smitu , Lissu Tundu
Published: February 2017

In mid-2000, Medha Patkar, a leader of one of the best-known social movements in India, and Goran Lindahl, the Chief Executive Officer of one of the world's largest engineering firms, participated in a meeting together in Cape Town. The two came from different worlds. Patkar was weak from undertaking a hunger strike to protest a dam on the Narmada River in western India. Lindahl arrived at the last minute on his private jet. Before their meeting, Patkar animatedly described the recent protests, showed Lindahl pictures of the villagers, and narrated their experiences.
Evolutionary ethics: An idea whose time has come? An overview and an affirmation
Authors: Corning Peter A.
Published: February 2017

Evolutionary ethics is a subject that has been debated ever since Darwin's day. The basic issue, in a nutshell, is whether or not human ethical systems can be explained — and justified — in terms of evolutionary principles. In recent years there has been an upsurge of publications devoted to this issue, including many new books (as well as a number of books on Darwinism and religion) and countless journal articles. Indeed, an Internet search using the term “evolutionary ethics” yielded 65,400 citations of various kinds. As this outpouring of publications suggests, there has been a great diversity of views on the subject over the years.
Barriers to SCHIP enrollment: A cross-county study of the State Children's Health Insurance Program in Pennsylvania
Authors: Kelton Christina M. L. , Levitt Miriam , Pasquale Margaret K.
Published: February 2017

BACKGROUND. Enrollment in the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), created under the federal Balanced Budget Act of 1997, had a distressingly slow start and varied substantially county-to-county in many states, including Pennsylvania.

METHODS. We performed a quantitative county-level analysis of barriers to enrollment in Pennsylvania's Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) for the year 2000, seven years after it was implemented and three years after federal SCHIP legislation. Using multivariate regression analysis with a county as the unit of observation, we modeled enrollment in SCHIP as a function of accessibility to health care, availability of clinicians, and community economic health.

RESULTS. High clinic density and Medicaid managed-care membership predicted SCHIP enrollment success, while female head-of-household predicted SCHIP enrollment failure. A principal-components factor analysis revealed four underlying barriers to enrollment: accessibility, availability, affordability, and effort.

CONCLUSIONS. The most formidable barriers to SCHIP enrollment success in Pennsylvania were not programmatic; they were correlates of poverty itself.
The Best Interests of the Child in Assisted Human Reproduction: The Interplay Between the State, Professionals, and Parents
Authors: Daniels Ken R. , Blyth Eric , Hall Darrel , Hanson Kathy M.
Published: February 2017

Developments in assisted human reproduction (AHR) have aroused considerable debate and interest around the world, with most governments accepting that they are matters of public policy. This politicization of AHR is explored in the context of a consideration of the oft-used term “the best interests of the child.” This “rallying call” is frequently cited as the primary concern in the determination of policy. This article is based on the contention that it is important to examine the interplay between the three main groups directly influencing “best interest” outcomes for AHR offspring. These groups are the professionals, the parents, and the state. It seeks to examine how this high-sounding and well-meaning commitment is addressed, advanced, or ignored in the interplay of these groups.
Response of Professor Field
Authors: Field Martha A.
Published: February 2017

As Professor Hill says, there is one important respect in which he and I agree with each other and disagree with what most states would do today. Faced with a surrogacy arrangement involving a dispute over custody, most state courts would decide the dispute on its own facts, according to the court's view about which parents seemed best for the child. Hill and I both stress that custody battles should be avoided, that parties should not have to go to court to find out who will prevail, and that courts should not decide disputes by comparing the parental characteristics of the particular parties. Instead courts or legislatures should formulate a rule of law that predetermines which party will receive custody in the event of a dispute.
Birth Technologies: Prenatal Diagnosis and Abortion Policy
Authors: Brigham John , Rifkin Janet , Solt Christine G.
Published: February 2017

This study of “birth technologies” such as amniocentesis and ultrasound explores their relationship to law in a correlative area, abortion politics, in order to assess the indirect influence of politics on technology. We begin nearly twenty years ago when these technologies were emerging and trace the story to the early 1990s. Our analysis suggests that abortion politics, filtered through such activities as grant-making and basic research, influenced the development of these technologies. We therefore propose a model of policy that includes both the relatively independent march of scientific research and technical applications and the operation of constraining forces, like political interests, on science and technique. Here, law is a vehicle that itself becomes illuminated as both politics and substance.
Protecting Fetuses from Certain Harm
Authors: Abel Ernest L.
Published: February 2017

Deborah Mathieu's proposal for state intervention in the lives of pregnant substance abusers in order to prevent serious harm to their future children sparked a lively debate in this journal. The present discussion characterizes the three main arguments offered against her proposal as (a) the “uncertainty principle''—the inability to predict which fetuses will be affected, (b) the “father factor”—gender bias with respect to prenatal damage, and (c) “critical periods”—the vulnerability of the embryo/fetus at different times of pregnancy. Each of these arguments is examined in the specific context of fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS). Since the birth of a child with FAS is a virtual certainty if a woman has previously given birth to a child with FAS, since no father has ever sired a child with FAS unless his spouse is an alcoholic, and since the most damaging effects are those associated with exposure throughout and especially late in pregnancy, none of the arguments offered against Mathieu's proposal are relevant in this particularly narrow set of circumstances. While Mathieu's proposal seems pertinent in this situation, her proposal would be even more effective if modified as suggested here.
Birth Order and Personality: Is Sulloway's Treatment a Radical Rebellion or Is He Preserving the Status Quo?
Authors: Rosenberg B. G.
Published: February 2017

Frank Sulloway (1996) has stirred up great debate with his thesis that birth order explains and predicts people's proclivity to rebel. Scientists, scholars, business writers, and the broad reading and talk-television public alike all have weighed in to discuss the value and veridicality of Sulloway's thesis. Though many think he may be on to something, certain voices—Frederic Townsend's included—argue that his opus is simply bunk.
The FDA's Proposal for Public Disclosure of Adverse Events in Gene Therapy Trials
Authors: Barnbaum Deborah R.
Published: February 2017

In January 2001, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) proposed annual public disclosure of adverse events during gene therapy and xenotransplantation trials. The proposed policy raises the following questions: (1) Is the reformed policy in accord with the FDA's long-standing informed consent policies? (2) Why pair gene therapy trials and xenotransplantation trials in the revised guidelines? (3) Why single out these trials for public disclosure of adverse events? Each question is examined, and three conclusions are drawn. First, the FDA's own policies on informed consent require prompter public disclosure of adverse events. Second, the coupling of gene therapy and xenotransplantation trials entails a conceptual mistake in the types of communities that are harmed by each therapy's related adverse events. Third, all clinical trials merit such public disclosure of adverse events, not only gene therapy and xenotransplantation trials.
Famine Risk Functions at the Village Level
Authors: Vestal Theodore M.
Published: February 2017

My PLS article, “Risk Factors and Predictability of Famine in Ethiopia” (February, 1991), focused on one nation's experience with the complicated phenomenon of famine, but it suggested that microstudies were needed to investigate more fully those groups of people within a nation who are vulnerable to famine's ravages (Vestal, 1991). Alemneh Dejene's book is such an investigation based on field work that involved interviews with peasant heads of households, survey questionnaires, participant observation, and case studies of villages and families in Wollo Region and in resettlement sites (for settlers from Wollo) in Illubabor and Keffa in 1987-89. His village level data that identify local, place specific processes that fuel environmental degradation are a welcome addition to famine literature.
Book Reviews: Maxwell - The Sociobiological ImaginationMary Maxwell (ed.) Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1991, 376 pp. US$44.50 cloth. ISBN 0-7914-0767-5. US$14.95 paper. ISBN 0-7914-0768-3. State University of New York Press, P.O. Box 6525, Ithaca, NY 14851, USA.
Authors: Losco Joseph
Published: February 2017

Précis

As the editor reports in the introduction, this volume has three goals: (1) to acknowledge the influence of sociobiology in a wide number of disciplines and areas of inquiry; (2) to illustrate the ways in which practitioners of these disparate disciplines employ sociobiological approaches in their own fields of study; and (3) to introduce major principles of sociobiology.

Contributors assess the current and potential influence of sociobiology in their own fields, including psychiatry (Randolph M. Nesse), law (John H. Beckstrom), management theory (J. Gary Bernhard and Kalman Glantz), anthropology (William Irons), economics (Robert H. Frank), primatology (Birute Galdikas and Paul Vasey), history (Laura Betzig), political science (Roger D. Masters), ethical philosophy (John Chandler), cognitive psychology (Douglas Kenrick and Robert Hogan), epistemology (Michael Ruse), religious studies (Vernon Reynolds), studies of conflict (Johan M. G. van der Dennen), Marxist thought (Regina Karpinskaya), aesthetics (Charles J. Lumsden), sociology (Pierre L. van den Berghe), linguistics (James R. Hurford), and psychology (Charles Crawford). The introductory essay includes a glossary of sociobiological terms.
New Biotechnology: Potential Problems Likely Promises
Authors: Zilinskas Raymond A.
Published: February 2017

Janus-like, biotechnology, like other high technologies, presents two sides to society. On the one hand, a benign, even benevolent countenance holds forth the promise of virtually unlimited possibilities for doing good. Yet, if proper care is not taken, this same technology can present a specter of chthonic forces, difficult to contain.
Human Nature and Political Theory: Can Biology Contribute to the Study of Politics?
Authors: Masters Roger D.
Published: February 2017

As part of the continuing series of “Dialogues in Biology and Politics” panels sponsored by the Association for Politics and the Life Sciences at its annual conventions, Professor Roger D. Masters was invited to review his own work over the past decade and a half in order to illustrate how that body of scholarship contributes to the political understanding of human nature.

—The Editor

“If any person thinks the examination of the rest of the animal kingdom an unworthy task, he must hold in like disesteem the study of man.”

—Aristotle, Parts of Animals, 1.645a
Biotechnology and the Developing Countries
Authors: Lakoff Sanford
Published: February 2017

One does not have to be a natural scientist or a science writer to appreciate the possible benefits of biotechnology for the developing countries, but one cannot be a social scientist without being apprehensive about the costs and unforeseen consequences these almost miraculous advances may entail. In the past few decades, it has become obvious that development or modernization is much more complex and harder to achieve than was often supposed when decolonization inspired hope that economic growth could be achieved rapidly, and that with it would come social as well as material progress. In most, though not all, of the developing countries, sustained and balanced economic growth has so far not been attained, for reasons that include inability to control population growth, poor climate and soil conditions, inadequate energy resources, and—no less important—the difficulty of transforming and adapting traditional cultural values and social structures. These deeply entrenched social conditions often frustrate efforts of reform, whether they are aimed at increasing average per capita income or at assuring fair distribution of the benefits of economic growth.
News And Announcements
Authors: Arnhart Larry
Published: February 2017

A memorial fund in honor of Thomas C. Wiegele has been established at Northern Illinois University. Income from this endowed fund will be used to provide an annual dissertation completion award for a graduate student studying biopolitics. Those wishing to contribute to this fund should make their checks payable to the “NIU Foundation” and send them to the NIU Foundation, Thomas C. Wiegele Memorial, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL 60115, USA.
HIV and the Blood Supply: Assessing MANTRA Legislation
Authors: Thompson Carolyn R.
Published: February 2017

Despite a dramatic decline in transfusion-associated AIDS, increased safety of the national blood supply, and voluntary efforts to find alternatives to homologous blood sources, Americans remain fearful about the possibility of acquiring AIDS through a blood transfusion. Numerous states have initiated legislative efforts that would require explicit warnings about blood safety and that would direct patients to alternative sources of blood. These proposed laws—known as MANTRA bills, for “mandatory notification of transfusion alternatives”—would require physicians to advise patients of blood transfusion options prior to any surgery. Many would mandate the development of new informed consent documents and involve health departments in the implementation of new regulations regarding transfusions. This article concludes that MANTRA legislation is primarily a symbolic attempt to reassure the public about AIDS. It mandates practices that are being adopted voluntarily; it will not make the blood supply safer; it will increase the cost of health care to individuals and in the aggregate; it may diminish the number of donors to the voluntary blood supply system; and it is likely to intensify public fear about the risk of a blood transfusion.
Biological Sampling and Analysis Procedures for the United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) in Iraq
Authors: Mohr Alan J.
Published: February 2017

In June/July 1994, I was fortunate in having been selected by the United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) to be the chief inspector (CI) of one of the most interesting inspections conducted by the commission, namely UNSCOM 84/BW6. This particular inspection was fascinating because of its complexity—the team not only conducted inspections of Iraqi biological research and production facilities, it also excavated a site that UNSCOM surmised might contain materials from Iraq's former BW program. As such, this inspection was the first time that UNSCOM collected environmental samples for analysis. In this paper I discuss my experiences during this inspection and comment on the effectiveness of sampling and analysis as a verification measure.
United Nations Biological Warfare Inspectors in Iraq: Implications for Biological Arms Control—One Canadian's Perspective
Authors: St-Onge Allen A.
Published: February 2017

My contribution differs in several aspects from the others in this symposium. To begin, instead of addressing a specific element of future Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) verification operations, I have been asked for my unique “Canadian” perspective on the United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) inspections in which I have participated, and some of the lessons that I have come away with after having been a member of four inspections in 1994 and 1995.
ASM and Biological Arms Control
Authors: Berns Kenneth I.
Published: February 2017

Members of the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) have a considerable history of bringing scientific and technical knowledge to the issue of biological weapons control and being available to serve in advisory roles to the government. ASM's involvement with the biological weapons issue began in the 1940s, when microbiologists served as advisors to the government's Biological Defense Research Program and participated in the Biological Warfare Committee of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. In 1970, a controversy resulting from the ASM's involvement with this issue abated when the ASM Council approved a statement concerning non-secrecy and free movement in research. Simultaneously, the society affirmed support for President Richard M. Nixon's action to end the U.S.'s offensive biological weapons program. The society's code of ethics, published in 1985, contains two relevant sections that seek to discourage ASM members from participating in biological weapons development.
Paging Dr. Death: The Political Theater of Assisted Suicide in Michigan
Authors: Fino Susan P. , Strate John M. , Zalman Marvin
Published: February 2017

Dr. Jack Kevorkian, a retired pathologist from Royal Oak, Michigan, created an instant sensation on June 4, 1990, when he assisted Janet Adkins in committing suicide by lethal injection. Kevorkian's activities, and the ineffectual efforts of public officials to stop him, generated social conflict, issue expansion, and political theater. In this case, political theater involved acts of civil disobedience that resulted in arrests, three high-profile criminal trials, and three subsequent acquittals. As the participants in the conflict tried to generate public support for their respective positions, the debate degenerated into name-calling, hyperbole, and rights talk. This kind of public discourse limits the potential for self-governance and leads to reliance on the courts or other methods of conflict resolution.
Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge - Edward O. Wilson New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1998, 332 pp. US$26.00. ISBN 0-679-45077-7. Alfred A. Knopf, 201 E. 50th St., New York, NY 10022, USA.
Authors: Losco Joseph
Published: February 2017

Précis

Edward O. Wilson continues an argument begun in earlier works that all branches of knowledge are converging around basic fundamental laws of nature discovered through the scientific method. He eclipses earlier calls to bridge the gaps between evolutionary biology and philosophy, for example, by an appeal to involve the arts as well as the humanities in this “jumping together” of the various branches of human knowledge. Wilson draws upon his work in population genetics, entomology, and ethology to propose ways in which science can inform and transform current debates in philosophy, ethics, and aesthetics. He maintains that the sciences, humanities, and arts, properly understood, contribute to the “conviction, far deeper than a mere working proposition, that the world is orderly and can be explained by a small number of natural laws.”
Beyond Cliché – Reclaiming the Concept of Sustainability
Authors: Fuller Robert J.
Published: February 2017

In closing his 2008 Myer Lecture, the scientist and environmentalist Dr Tim Flannery said that this century will be defined by the search for sustainability. How perilous therefore that nowadays there is so much overuse of the word “sustainability” that it has become a cliché. Today's tertiary students studying architecture and energy-related subjects are so exposed to this linguistic devaluation that most of them appear to have accepted the vagueness of the term and are on their way to becoming the next generation of misusers. This paper presents a case study of an attempt to sharpen up the debate with some university students from these particular disciplines. A model of the four principles of sustainable development that has been found to be particularly useful is described. The students in question were challenged to think about the meaning of some of the words ascribed to new buildings and about the implications of the four principles to energy supply systems.
Teaching Urban Politics and Urban Policy
Authors: Rich Michael J.
Published: February 2017

We are a nation of cities. The 1980 census reported that almost three out of every four Americans lived in urban areas, and estimates are that the 1990 census will show that the proportion of the population living in urban areas will increase further. Many of the nation's most pressing domestic problems deeply affect the well being of urban residents: welfare reform, homelessness, substance abuse, education, health care for the uninsured, quality of the work force, and the like, all have significant urban dimensions. And while we may never see “urban” regain the popularity it obtained during most of the 1960s, any policy response designed to address these pressing problems will have a major urban component; whether it is called urban policy is another matter. It was interesting to observe during the past presidential campaign how frightened the candidates were of using the word urban or city. While I have not yet seen a content analysis of the 1988 election campaign, the words urban and city were noticeably absent from the debates, speeches, and sound bites. We did, however, hear a lot about community in one of the debates.

The purpose of this essay is to highlight some of the prominent issues cities and their residents are likely to face in the 1990s, with emphasis on ways in which these issues can be structured into an undergraduate urban policies and urban policy curriculum through reference to the recent book literature.
Urban Revitalization Simulation
Authors: Godek Stephen C.
Published: February 2017

I have developed and used the role playing simulation described here in discussion sections of a first-year course entitled “Introduction to the Study of Policy Problems.” The purpose of the game is to materialize concepts presented in a lecture entitled “Revitalizing Urban America: Values and Urban Policy,” which has been an organizing focus for the course. It introduces four views of the functions cities perform for those who live and work in or near them. These views include seeing the city as an engine of economic growth, a provider of services to residents, a locale for social communities, and a forum for democracy.

Before playing the game, students learn about the history of American urban development, current economic and fiscal problems in cities, and options for economic development and residential revitalization that have been suggested to make the transition from an industrial to a service-based economy. (A list of readings from the course syllabus follows.) The values to be represented by each group in the game are described as the goals of residents of a metropolitan area as well as their perceptions of themselves and their surroundings.

Students are put into four groups, each representing a distinct functional interest, or “vision” of the city. The groups represent the values identified in the lecture as answers to the question “What are cities for?” They include a “pro-growth coalition,” a “service bureaucracy,” a “social communities” and a “political officials” group.
Volunteer survey effort for high-profile species can benefit conservation of non-focal species
Authors: CROCKFORD NICOLA J. , BUCHANAN GRAEME M.
Published: February 2017

The last irrefutable record of the Critically Endangered Slender-billed CurlewNumenius tenuirostriscame from 1995. The range of the species is poorly known, but between 2009 and 2011, volunteer observers surveyed more than 680 sites in 19 countries, with additional search effort in a further 12 countries. Although there were no definite sightings (two birds that might have been Slender-billed Curlew were reported), there were other benefits. These included increased knowledge of species distributions and populations in seldom visited areas (over 500,000 birds of over 400 species were observed), the identification of threats to at least 10 Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas, the identification of sites that could qualify as Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas, and capacity building and education through involvement with local survey teams and observers and finally recommendations for future surveys. Thus, these surveys demonstrate the potential benefits of volunteer field surveys for non-focal species.
An introduction to differential linear logic: proof-nets, models and antiderivatives
Authors: EHRHARD THOMAS
Published: February 2017

Differential linear logic enriches linear logic with additional logical rules for the exponential connectives, dual to the usual rules of dereliction, weakening and contraction. We present a proof-net syntax for differential linear logic and a categorical axiomatization of its denotational models. We also introduce a simple categorical condition on these models under which a general antiderivative operation becomes available. Last, we briefly describe the model of sets and relations and give a more detailed account of the model of finiteness spaces and linear and continuous functions.
Research on the Efficacy of Sensory Integration Therapy: Past, Present and Future
Authors: Leong Han M. , Carter Mark
Published: February 2017

Research on the efficacy of sensory integration therapy (SIT) is addressed in this article. Initially, past key reviews of intervention studies until 1994 are considered. Subsequently, more recent studies from 1994 until 2007 are examined. Consistent with numerous previous reviews, no robust evidence supporting the efficacy of SIT was found. Alternative and more parsimonious explanations for purported effects of SIT are considered. In light of the accumulated lack of evidence for the effectiveness of SIT, continued use of the technique outside of research contexts does not appear to be justified.