bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
8 Grammatical features in the comprehension of Italian relative clauses by children
Authors: Arosio Fabrizio , Adani Flavia , Guasti Maria Teresa
Published: May 2009

This chapter addresses the question of how children exploit different grammatical devices in comprehending relative clauses. It shows that comprehension of relative clauses follows different developmental patterns defined by the kind of device that cue a subject or an object relative clause interpretation.
11 When Endowments and Opportunities Don't Match
Authors: Osmani S.R.
Published: May 2009

This chapter offers a new perspective in both understanding the causes of chronic poverty and looking for its solution. Instead of focusing on the level or the magnitude of endowments possessed by the poor, this new perspective focuses on the structure or composition of endowments. The crucial insight offered by this perspective is that chronic poverty can arise not just from a low level of endowments but also from a mismatch between the structure of endowments possessed by the poor and the structure of opportunities open to them. The chapter elaborates on this insight and draws out some of its implications.
2 Chronic Poverty and All That
Authors: Calvo César , Dercon Stefan
Published: May 2009

This chapter discusses a number of issues related to measuring poverty over time. It highlights some of the key normative decisions that have to be taken, in particular, the role of compensation over time (whether poverty spells can be compensated for by non-poverty spells); the issue of the discount rate (whether each spell should be given an equal weight); and the issue of the role of persistence (whether repeated spells should be given a higher weight). It offers a number of plausible poverty measures, each with different assumptions regarding these key issues, and shows how these insights can be used to construct a forward-looking measure of vulnerability. The chapter applies a number of these measures to data from rural Ethiopia, and shows that while correlations are high, there would still be considerable differences in ranking households by poverty according to different measures, especially those that have different views on the role of compensation.
4 Measuring Chronic Non‐Income Poverty
Authors: Günther Isabel , Klasen Stephan
Published: May 2009

This chapter attempts to conceptualize chronic poverty and hence also poverty dynamics from a non-income perspective and then illustrate ways to explore this topic empirically. Section 4.2 discusses the potentials as well as limitations of conceptualizing chronic poverty in a non-income perspective. Section 4.3 presents a first approach to measure empirically chronic non-income poverty, focusing on critical functionings related to health and education, using a panel survey of Vietnam from 1992/3 and 1997/8. Section 4.4 shows the results of this application. Section 4.5 concludes with highlighting open issues and suggestions for further research.
6 Looking Forward
Authors: Carter Michael R. , Ikegami Munenobu
Published: May 2009

Using guidance from the microeconomic theory of poverty traps, this chapter uses the past to identify structural patterns of change — asset dynamics — rather than past levels of poverty. The statistical identification of these patterns then permits the creation of forward-looking poverty measures that tell us where we expect the poor to be in the future, not where they have been in the past. The chapter proceeds as follows. Section 6.2 develops a theoretically grounded approach to chronic poverty that emphasizes the role of individual heterogeneity and clarifies the role that vulnerability to economic shocks plays in producing chronic poverty. Section 6.3 shows how knowledge of the Micawber Frontier can be used to generate two classes of chronic poverty measures. Section 6.4 then takes some first steps toward implementing the ideas put forward in this chapter, using estimated asset dynamics in South Africa over the 1993 to 1998 period to calculate chronic poverty measures based on distance from the asset threshold.
Primary Rules?
Authors: Morgera Elisa
Published: May 2009

This chapter argues that in the absence of international environmental obligations binding upon multinational corporations, the emergence of legal standards will allow adapting and translating inter-State obligations embodied in international environmental law into specific international criteria to determine the legitimacy of the conduct of the private sector against internationally recognized values and rules. The notion of legal standards is theoretically discussed, in order to provide the most appropriate framework to analyse the normative phenomena related to corporate environmental accountability at the international level.
Emerging Standards on Corporate Accountability in IEL
Authors: Morgera Elisa
Published: May 2009

This chapter further investigates the convergence among the international environmental standards for corporate accountability identified or proposed by the international organizations previously discussed. It proceeds to clarify further the level of detail and international acceptance of these emerging international standards, also drawing upon recent developments in multilateral environmental agreements, in particular the Convention on Biological Diversity. The following emerging standards are considered as having reached a significant level of detail and acceptance at the international level: the self-assessment of environmental impacts, environmental management system; prevention, precaution, disclosure of environmental information; public consultations, and the sustainable use of natural resources. In all, these standards remain subject to specific application on a case-by-case basis. Nevertheless, a fundamental, minimum normative benchmark, firmly rooted in international environmental law, is emerging. According to these standards, it is now possible to appraise critically corporate conduct, even in the absence of, or in the presence of ineffective, national laws to this effect.
Sharpening the Monitoring Role of Other International Organizations
Authors: Morgera Elisa
Published: May 2009

This chapter assesses the oversight role of human rights monitoring bodies: the United Nations and in particular the Security Council, and the OECD national contact points. It also addresses the question of their increased cooperation. Recommendations are then formulated to enhance the impact of international organizations' monitoring activities, whether direct or indirect, upon private companies. The importance of systematically documenting corporate harmful conducts and the actual limits of home and host States in controlling, preventing or responding to them is underscored. So is the need to ensure closer collaboration between the different international organizations currently monitoring the environmental conduct of private companies through exchange of information, joint investigations and follow-up actions.
Integrating International Standards in UN–Business Partnerships
Authors: Morgera Elisa
Published: May 2009

This chapter discusses whether the growing practice of establishing partnerships between the United Nations and the private sector could be based on the emerging standards for corporate environmental accountability. It further explores the question of strengthened UN-business partnerships by using contractual agreements, with a view to better adapting these international standards to specific industry sectors or local circumstances in a collaborative way. The chapter concludes with general recommendations to ensure timely and measurable results for partnerships and with more specific recommendations with regards to the Convention on Biological Diversity.
Between Medieval Men
Authors: Clark David
Published: May 2009

This book argues for the importance of synoptically examining the whole range of same‐sex relations in the Anglo‐Saxon period, revisiting well‐known texts and issues (as well as material often considered marginal) from a radically different perspective. The introductory chapters first lay out the premises underlying the book and its critical context, then emphasise the need to avoid modern cultural assumptions about both male‐female and male‐male relationships, and underline the paramount place of homosocial bonds in Old English literature. Part II then investigates the construction of and attitudes to same‐sex acts and identities in ethnographic, penitential, and theological texts, ranging widely throughout the Old English corpus and drawing on Classical, Medieval Latin, and Old Norse material. Part III expands the focus to homosocial bonds in Old English literature in order to explore the range of associations for same‐sex intimacy and their representation in literary texts such as Genesis A, Beowulf, The Battle of Maldon, The Dream of the Rood, The Phoenix, and Ælfric's Lives of Saints. During the course of the book's argument, it uncovers several under‐researched issues and suggests fruitful approaches for their investigation. It concludes that, in omitting to ask certain questions of Anglo‐Saxon material, in being too willing to accept the status quo indicated by the extant corpus, in uncritically importing invisible (because normative) heterosexist assumptions in our reading, we risk misrepresenting the diversity and complexity that a more nuanced approach to issues of gender and sexuality suggests may be more genuinely characteristic of the period.
5 The Changing Face of Sodom, Part II: The Vernacular Tradition
Authors: Clark David
Published: May 2009

This chapter constitutes a comprehensive investigation of the extant references to Sodom in Old English texts, except for Genesis A which is considered in Chapter 6. It divides these allusions into four categories: those using Sodom's destruction as the prime example of the punishment of sin; those where the Sodomites' behaviour exemplifies sin of an unusual gravity; those where Sodom is especially associated with sexual sin; and those in which Sodom is associated with unnatural sin. It shows that, contrary to the assumptions of many medieval scholars, not only do none of the references explicitly link Sodom to same‐sex acts, but many make quite other associations with the city.
6 Destructive Desire: Sexual Themes and Same‐Sex Relations inGenesis A
Authors: Clark David
Published: May 2009

The sixth chapter investigates how homosocial bonds are constructed in the Old English poetic version of the biblical book of Genesis, starting with the treatment of the Sodomites in Genesis A and the contrast between their relations and the ‘correct’ and praiseworthy homosocial bonds between Abraham and his kinsmen and friends. It argues that, unlike other prose treatments, in Genesis A same‐sex acts are not considered to be the primary sin of Sodom, but that they form part of a network of various forms of unsanctioned sexual desire, presented by the poet as destructive in order to promote by contrast the procreative coupling of Abraham and Sarah, the progenitors of the chosen people.
10 Unorthodox Desire: The AnonymousLife of Euphrosyneand theColloquiesof Ælfric Bata
Authors: Clark David
Published: May 2009

The final chapter then analyses at length the anonymous Life of Euphrosyne, which, although exhibiting some of the anxieties we find in Ælfric's work, is more open about the possibility of same‐sex desire within the monastery and, as such, presents rich possibilities for transgressive readings of the text and the reappropriation of the sexual desire it seeks to exclude. The chapter continues with an examination of the Colloquies of Ælfric Bata, which may exhibit a pragmatic and relaxed attitude to same‐sex relations more characteristic of many religious establishments not overseen by strict moralists such as Bata's tutor and namesake, Ælfric of Eynsham. It concludes by summarizing the findings of the individual chapters to characterize Anglo‐Saxon England's unique literary dynamic in terms of the uneasy yet productive interaction of issues of gender and sexuality, secular and religious, individual and community.
The Republic of Reasons: Public Reasoning, Depoliticization, and Non-Domination
Authors: Bellamy Richard
Published: May 2009

The ‘neo-Roman’ school of republican thought views non-domination as the central political value of republicanism. This chapter does not defend this value but rather explores some of its implications for how political decisions are made. It shows that in different ways, republican theorists all contrast a refined political process orientated towards public reasoning with a pluralist reading of the competitive party electoral system found in most advanced democracies. They argue that the latter can subvert the former in certain circumstances, so that electoral democratic processes must be constrained and depoliticized to some extent if public reason is to prevail. They suggest that such depoliticization produces a shift away from an aggregative view of democracy as reflecting the will of the people, to a more deliberative view of democracy that seeks to formulate policies that reflect shareable public reasons concerning the common good. The chapter challenges this argument — it rests on an overly pessimistic view of actually existing democracy, on the one hand, and an excessively idealized view of public reason and the deliberative processes likely to achieve it, on the other. The chapter calls for a different account of public reasoning and its relation to both non-domination and the common good to the one these republican theorists work with. Such a revised and more realistic view of public reason reveals pluralist, competitive party democracy to be far more congenial to republican goals. This connection is undermined by many of the constraints certain republicans have advocated placing on the democratic process.
Democratic Regime‐Building in Bosnia
Authors: Tansey Oisín
Published: May 2009

The exercise of international administration in Bosnia and Herzegovina dates from 1995, when a High Representative of the international community was established to oversee the implementation of the Dayton Peace Agreement. This chapter explores the international and domestic interactions in Bosnia, and highlights in detail how the international presence has combined with local forces to shape the country's political transition. The first section of this chapter provides an overview of the Dayton Agreement itself, and outlines the structure of the international mission in Bosnia. Subsequent sections examine international involvement in three key arenas of political transition, and explore the ways in which international authorities in Bosnia have shaped democratic development and contributed heavily to the development and evolution of Bosnia's complex political regime. The result has been a mode of transition in Bosnia that has at times entailed international and domestic cooperation and consensus, but that has also frequently been marked by international imposition in the face of domestic opposition. Democratic regime-building in Bosnia has been a contested process.
Conclusion
Authors: Tansey Oisín
Published: May 2009

This concluding chapter restates and further examines the findings of the book in detail. The first section explores the impact of democratic regime-building operations across the three cases, paying particular attention to the mechanisms of influence and the influence on the mode of transition. The second section identifies a range of challenges to democratic regime-building, including the inherent limitations of international democracy promotion in these settings and the role of domestic state weakness and political divisions. Subsequent sections then examine a set of further issues, including the implications of the findings for theory and for policy, and the scope of the book's findings.
Introduction
Authors: Madden Dempsey Michelle
Published: May 2009

This introductory chapter explains the context in which the author of this book became intrigued by the moral questions raised by domestic-violence prosecution and the tools employed in this book to explore such questions. It unpacks some underlying assumptions which animate the book's approach to this topic and explains the book's methodology of feminist practical reasoning. Importantly, this chapter sets out the central question that motivates the investigation undertaken in this book: What should public prosecutors do when victims withdraw their support for the prosecution of domestic violence cases? Finally, the chapter provides an analysis of different types of victim withdrawal from prosecutions and provides a brief introduction to the debates surrounding so-called ‘victimless’ prosecution of domestic violence.
Wrong Turns on the Way to an Answer
Authors: Madden Dempsey Michelle
Published: May 2009

This chapter examines and rejects two ways of answering the question: What should public prosecutors do when victims withdraw their support for the prosecution of domestic-violence cases? The first answer claims that prosecutors should simply do whatever the law requires of them. This answer is inadequate insofar as it assumes a degree of ruliness in prosecutorial decision-making which is inconsistent both with the principle of opportunity, and insofar as it rests on a mistaken assumption that legal rules provide fully determined answers to legal questions. A slightly more promising answer to the above question draws upon the framework provided by the distinction between the public and private spheres. While this approach is significantly more promising than the first, it too proves inadequate due to the public/private dichotomy's tendency to obscure rather than illuminate the very values upon which it is grounded.
Domestic-violence Prosecution: Justification and Effectiveness
Authors: Madden Dempsey Michelle
Published: May 2009

This chapter returns to the question which motivates the book's investigation: What should public prosecutors do when victims withdraw their support for the prosecution of domestic-violence cases? In answering this question, the chapter ties together the analyses and arguments set forth in Part II of the book with the account of domestic violence and patriarchy set forth thus far in Part III. Specifically, it argues that within the realm of justifiable (permissible) prosecutorial action, public prosecutors should respond in a way that constitutes the effective prosecution of domestic violence. In practical terms, the chapter seeks to demonstrate why it is important for prosecutors to make a distinction between cases of domestic violence in its strong sense and weak sense and to act on the reasons generated by this distinction.
Victims and Prosecutions
Authors: Madden Dempsey Michelle
Published: May 2009

This chapter considers the rights and duties of domestic-violence victims with respect to participating in the prosecution of domestic-violence cases. First, it revisits and expands upon the distinction briefly sketched in Chapter 5 between ‘reasons to do it yourself’ and ‘reasons to help someone else do it’ in order to identify the kinds of reasons which might ground a better understanding of the rights and duties of victims in the context of criminal prosecutions. Second, it considers the nature and scope of victims' rights to participate in domestic-violence prosecutions. Third, it considers whether victims ever have a duty to participate in domestic-violence prosecutions. Finally, the chapter argues that prosecutorial enforcement of this duty through legal mechanisms such as subpoena enforcement and contempt of court is unlikely ever to be justified, and even where justified, is self-defeating to the project of feminist prosecution defended in this book.
Between Authority and Interpretation
Authors: Raz Joseph
Published: May 2009

This book develops ideas on some of the central questions in practical philosophy: legal, political, and moral. It provides an overview of the author's work on jurisprudence and the nature of law in the context of broader questions in the philosophy of practical reason. The book opens with a discussion of methodological issues, focusing on understanding the nature of jurisprudence, asking how the nature of law can be explained, and how the success of a legal theory can be established. The book then addresses central questions on the nature of law, its relation to morality, the nature and justification of authority, and the nature of legal reasoning. It explains how legitimate law, while being a branch of applied morality, is also a relatively autonomous system, which has the potential to bridge moral differences among its subjects. The book offers responses to some critical reactions to the author's theory of authority, adumbrating and modifying the theory to meet some of them. The final part of the book brings together for the first time the author's work on the nature of interpretation in law and the humanities. It includes a new chapter explaining interpretive pluralism and the possibility of interpretive innovation.
On the Nature of Law
Authors: Raz Joseph
Published: May 2009

This chapter begins with a discussion of the universality of the theses of the general theory of law. It argues that all successful legal theories are parochial; that success can be obtained only through being parochial. It then focuses on the consequences of parochialism, law as the authoritative voice of a political community, and the instrumental and the non-instrumental views of law. The chapter also discusses the connection between authority and interpretation. First, it discusses the way in which the connection between law and authority leads to a dual interest in the study of law: an interest in the process leading to the authoritative laying down or endorsement of a standard, and an interest in how the fact that a standard has authoritatively been laid down affects its standing. Second, it considers consider the main way in which the fact that law is authoritative affects its interpretation. Finally, it considers the way in which the authoritative nature of law makes interpretation central to legal reasoning.
The Problem of Authority: Revisiting the Service Conception
Authors: Raz Joseph
Published: May 2009

This chapter considers the problem of authority and examines moderately critical claims. Section I begins by explaining some background methodological points. Section II briefly restates the service conception and the way it deals with the problem of authority. Section III develops the service conception and elaborates some of its implications by dealing with a series of only loosely connected questions and doubts to which it is open. Section IV examines in general terms the argument that authority, at any rate political authority, presupposes a special link, missing in the service conception, between government and the governed. Section V considers the possibility that such a link is forged by consent, whereas section VI comments on the possibility that the link is constituted by identification with or membership of the political community (or some other group).
Mood and Music
Authors: Kivy Peter
Published: May 2009

Chapter 3 showed how musical formalism came into full flower in Hanslick's ‘little book’ along with the denial that absolute music could, or, therefore was meant to, arouse or ‘represent’ so-called ‘garden-variety emotions’. It was also shown how this denial of the emotive connection drew an immediate reply from Ambros, to the effect that the loss of emotion could be made up for by the substitution of ‘mood’. This move on Ambros's part presaged a similar move in contemporary philosophy. This chapter explores that move in one of its contemporary manifestations.
Persona Non Grata
Authors: Kivy Peter
Published: May 2009

Literary interpreters of the absolute music canon tend to fall into two distinct groups. Those who throw caution to the winds and impute to pure instrumental music narratives in startling detail, even to the extent of naming names; and those of a more circumspect disposition, who put narrations to the music that are vague or sketchy enough to slip by without striking the average music lover as wildly implausible or ‘off the wall’. The most popular and most frequently resorted to artifice, for those narrative interpreters of the more moderate stripe, to underwrite their readings of the absolute music canon, is a shadowy figure that has become known as the musical ‘persona’. This character is the subject of this chapter.
The Failure of Formalism and the Failure of its Foes
Authors: Kivy Peter
Published: May 2009

This chapter explores the possibility of the kinds of narrative interpretation put on absolute music by Robinson, Maus, and Newcomb being offered as attempts to provide an explanation for the interest and pleasure that we take in absolute music. It argues that if they are so offered, they fail in their purpose. But one thing those failed answers to the failure of formalism have right, if indeed they were so intended: formalism's defenders have failed to give an adequate explanation for the deep interest and pleasure that absolute music, in the Western canon, provides to its devotees — interest and pleasure to such a degree that it emboldens them to put the masterpieces of the canon alongside those masterpieces of the great poets, novelists, painters, and sculptors, from antiquity to the present.
Musical Morality
Authors: Kivy Peter
Published: May 2009

This chapter examines the moral claims of absolute music. It argues that absolute music shares with many other human activities the propensity to produce, in human beings, a kind of ecstasy that might seem appropriate to describe as character-enhancing, consciousness-raising and, therefore, in some vague, perhaps attenuated sense, morally improving, while it lasts. However, being just one of many such activities, absolute music seems to lose that special, magical connection to morality that goes back, one suspects, to its Pythagorean and Orphic roots.
Right Action for Virtue Ethics
Authors: Russell Daniel C.
Published: May 2009

This chapter explores the basic shape of virtue ethical approaches to right action and develops a framework for assessing them for adequacy without begging any questions against them. It focuses on two main issues: whether we should take seriously the idea that the virtues have anything to do with rightness, and the role of consequences and outcomes in a virtue ethical theory of action. It also develops an account of what conditions are necessary and sufficient for an account of right action to count as a kind of virtue ethics.
Right Action and Virtuous Motives
Authors: Russell Daniel C.
Published: May 2009

In his recent book Morals from Motives, Michael Slote defends what he calls “agent-based virtue ethics”. This view consists of two theses: one about the nature of rightness and one about the nature of virtuousness. The thesis about rightness is that a right action is right solely on account of the virtuous motivations that produced it. The thesis about virtuousness is that, on the one hand, actions become virtuous only on account of the virtuousness expressed by the agent in doing the action, and on the other that the virtuousness of an agent and an agent's motives is a “fundamental” notion and not grounded in anything else. Although most critiques of Slote's view have focused on his thesis about rightness, this chapter focuses instead on Slote's thesis about virtuousness. In particular, it rejects Slote's view that deliberation and phronesis are redundant if one really is virtuous, and argues instead that virtuous persons need to deliberate so as to find virtuous actions. The chapter also argues that making the virtuousness of agents fundamental in Slote's sense raises several perilous problems for agent-based virtue ethics. Phronesis is necessary for virtue on the grounds that virtuous persons are so on account of their appropriate responsiveness to reasons to act virtuously.
Situations and Broad‐Based Dispositions
Authors: Russell Daniel C.
Published: May 2009

Philosophical psychologists have told us that “situationism” is bad news for virtue ethics and virtue theory more generally. Situationism is a research paradigm in social psychology that holds that situational variables have an impact on behavior that tells against disposition-based explanations of behavior. Some philosophical psychologists have argued that since there is little evidence for psychological dispositions, and since virtue theory as such is a normative theory about such dispositions, therefore virtue theory as such is empirically misguided. And since virtue ethics presupposes some theory of the virtues, virtue ethics is empirically misguided, too, and therefore of little practical value to creatures like us. This chapter begins a sustained argument that while situationism is plausible; it is not bad news for virtue theory provided that virtues are understood as forms of responsiveness to reasons. While situationism is bad news for “dispositions” of a certain type, virtues need not and indeed should not be understood as dispositions of this type. The chapter closely examines the contrast between situationism and the more traditional research program it means to replace, namely dispositionism. It then reviews situationism as motivating a positive alternative in personality theory and some positive evidence in favor of that alternative.
Unjust Enrichment: Nearer to Tort than Contract
Authors: Smith Stephen A
Published: May 2009

This chapter argues that unjust enrichments are structurally closer to torts than contracts. As is true of torts and damages (but not contracts and contractual obligations), the relationship between unjust enrichments and restitution is normative rather than logical. The duty to make restitution, like the duty to pay damages, is logically distinct from the event that, as a matter of law, gives rise to it. Further, the normative structures of the unjust enrichment/restitution and tort/damages relationships are similar: although an unjust enrichment is not a wrong, it is, like a wrong, a problem, and the restitutionary duty to which it gives rise is, like the duty to pay damages, a duty to remedy that problem. The structure of the unjust enrichment/restitution relationship explains, inter alia, why courts never award damages for failing to make restitution (namely because the relevant duty is, like the duty to pay damages, a duty to make things right, not a duty not to commit a wrong). It also explains why Peter Birks' thesis that all unjust enrichments are unjust because they lack a legal basis is controversial.
Two Kinds of Enrichment
Authors: Chambers Robert
Published: May 2009

This chapter argues that there are two different kinds of enrichment: pecuniary value and assignable rights. While most enrichments are valuable rights, enrichment can consist of value without rights or rights without value. When enrichment is an assignable right, its value is irrelevant to the claim for restitution. It has been assumed that there are two different kinds of restitution, either of the enrichment itself or its value in money. However, if there are two kinds of enrichment, then there is really only one kind of restitution, which always consists of giving up the actual enrichment received, which is either value or rights. The difficulty is not in deciding which kind of restitution is available, but in deciding which kind of unjust enrichment has occurred. This problem affects mistaken payments and failure of consideration in particular. Also, if change of position is concerned with disenrichment, then what counts as a relevant change of position will depend on whether the enrichment is value or rights.
Value, Property, and Unjust Enrichment: Trusts of Traceable Proceeds
Authors: Penner James
Published: May 2009

This chapter begins with an analysis of the concept of value, and claims that it is incoherent to say that to own property is to own the value of it, for value is realised by the actions of the owner; it is not something an owner possesses. It therefore follows that value can neither be exchanged or transferred, and any theory which attempts to explain unjust enrichment using the idea of a defective transfer or exchange of value is misconceived. Turning to trusts of traceable proceeds, the chapter proposes and defends a theory of tracing which relies upon treating an interest in a fund as a particular kind of property interest. The consequences of this analysis are then considered, in particular its consequences for our understanding of the nature of the trust obligation, remedies against third parties in cases of breach of trust, and the nature of resulting trusts. Perhaps the most provocative claim is that, on the correct understanding of restitutionary principles, the typical remedy against a innocent volunteer recipient of trust property would be a personal remedy, and not a proprietary one, which not only reverses the traditional received wisdom, but undermines the claims of restitution theorists seeking to justify trusts of traceable proceeds on unjust enrichment reasoning.
Unconscionable Enrichment?
Authors: Saprai Prince
Published: May 2009

This chapter claims that unconscionability and its cognate exploitation offer a plausible account of the duty to make restitution particularly in the context of undue influence and unconscionable dealing. It begins by claiming that the application criteria of the undue influence and unconscionable dealing doctrines, judicial language, and the facts and outcomes of these cases support the view that restitution is awarded to prevent exploitation or unfair advantage taking. It is claimed that unjust enrichment theory, which is rooted in defective consent, cannot explain the fact that in many of these cases the promisor (or transferor) did consent. In reply to the objection that no ‘actively’ exploitative behaviour is involved in some of these cases, the chapter claims that exploitation has a ‘passive’ form which involves the retention of benefits in circumstances where the promisee becomes aware that their receipt of them was unfair. This leads to the chapter's most provocative claim, that a ‘defendant-sided’ analysis is available for unjust enrichment's core case, the mistaken payment. The chapter concludes by considering the consequences of this analysis for substantive fairness, change of position, corrective justice theory and the morality of the duty to make restitution.
Generating linkage mapping files from Affymetrix SNP chip data
Authors: Bahlo M. , Bromhead C. J.
Published: May 2009

Summary: LINKDATAGEN is a perl tool that generates linkage mapping input files for five different linkage mapping tools using data from all 11 HAPMAP Phase III populations. It provides rudimentary error checks and is easily amended for personal linkage mapping preferences.

Availabilitiy and Implementation: LINKDATAGEN is available from http://bioinf.wehi.edu.au/software/linkdatagen/ with accompanying annotation files, reference manual and test dataset.

Contact:  bahlo@wehi.edu.au
A Real-Time PCR Assay for the Detection of Clavibacter michiganensis subsp. sepedonicus Based on the Cellulase A Gene Sequence
Authors: Gudmestad Neil C. , Mallik Ipsita , Pasche Julie S. , Anderson Nolan R. , Kinzer Kasia
Published: May 2009

Clavibacter michiganensis subsp. sepedonicus, causal agent of bacterial ring rot (BRR) of potato (Solanum tuberosum), is a globally important quarantine pathogen that is managed in North America using zero tolerance regulations in the certified seed industry. C. michiganensis subsp. sepedonicus is well documented to cause symptomless infections in potato, contributing to its persistence in certified seed stocks. Reliable laboratory methods to detect symptomless infections with a high degree of sensitivity could assist in the reduction of inoculum in certified seed potato stocks. A real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay was developed using the cellulase A (CelA) gene sequence as the basis for primer design. CelA primers were specific to C. michiganensis subsp. sepedonicus grown in vitro and did not detect any other coryneform bacteria or potato pathogenic bacteria but did detect 69 strains of C. michiganensis subsp. sepedonicus. The CelA real-time PCR assay was more sensitive than immunofluorescence (IFA) and Cms50/72a PCR assays in detecting C. michiganensis subsp. sepedonicus in infected potato tuber cores blended with healthy tuber cores in simulated seed lot contamination experiments. CelA primers detected nonmucoid and mucoid strains with equivalent sensitivity. In naturally infected seed lots, CelA PCR primers also were more sensitive in detecting symptomless infections of C. michiganensis subsp. sepedonicus in seed tubers prior to planting compared to Cms50/72a PCR primers, IFA, and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. A real-time PCR format using the newly developed CelA primers proved to be a very robust detection tool for C. michiganensis subsp. sepedonicus with the added advantage of detecting only virulent strains of the ring rot bacterium.
First Report of Choke Disease Caused by Epichloë typhina on Orchardgrass (Dactylis glomerata) in China
Authors: Li C. J. , Wang Z. F. , Chen N. , Nan Z. B.
Published: May 2009

Orchardgrass or cocksfoot (Dactylis glomerata L.) has been widely cultivated as a forage crop in many provinces of China (1). It is also a native perennial forage grass, which grows at the edge of forests, shrubs, and mountainous grasslands in Xinjiang and Sichuan (2). In September of 2007, signs of choke disease on orchardgrass were observed in a native grassland under birch woodland near Altai City, Xinjiang, China. Stromata, which formed on culms of diseased grass, enclosing the inflorescence and leaf sheath, were 4.5 to 5.5 mm long, smooth or wrinkled, white and later becoming yellowish or yellow, tuberculate, dry, and covered with perithecia. Inflorescences surrounded by fungal stromata were choked and failed to mature, thus restricting seed production. Pure cultures were obtained by directly scraping stromata from the surface and incubating it on antibiotic potato dextrose agar (PDA). The colonies were cottony, white on the upper surface, and white to yellow on the reverse. The growth rate was 13 to 21 mm per week at 25°C on PDA. Conidia were hyaline, lunate to reniform, and measured 4.1 ± 0.5 × 2.2 ± 0.5 μm. They accumulated in small globose heads at the tips of conidiogenous cells and were produced singly on conidiophores of 13 to 33 μm long and 2.7 to 4.1 μm wide at the base. Internal transcribed spacer (ITS) sequence by BLAST search had 99% similarity with an Epichloë typhina isolate of orchardgrass in Spain (GenBank Accession No. AM262420.1). Cultural characteristics, microscopic examination, and phylogenetic analysis showed that this choke disease on D. glomerata was caused by the fungus E. typhina (Pers.) Tul. & C. Tul. as described by White (4). To our knowledge, this is the first report of E. typhina causing choke disease on orchardgrass in China. The pathogen has been identified in France, England, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States (3,4) with the same symptoms as those reported here. In 1997, choke disease was found in 70% of the fields in the Willamette Valley of Oregon, with disease incidences ranging from 0.05 to 28%. It was predicted to increase and spread under the prevailing climatic conditions (3). This new disease report is to provide observational and diagnostic information to help with recognition and prevention of disease spread in orchardgrass cultivation regions of China.

References: (1) X. R. Chao et al. Shandong Agric. Sci. 1:7, 2005. (2) S. X. Jia, ed. China Forage Plant Flora. China Agriculture Press, Beijing, 1987. (3) W. F. Pfender and S. C. Alderman. Plant Dis. 83:754, 1999. (4) J. W. White. Mycologia 85:444, 1993.
First Report of Strawberry vein banding virus on Strawberry in Italy
Authors: Ratti C. , Pisi A. , Rubies Autonell C. , Babini A. , Vicchi V.
Published: May 2009

In the summers of 2007 and 2008, diseased strawberry plants (Fragaria x ananassa Duch.) were observed in production fields in Ferrara and Forlì-Cesena districts (Emilia-Romagna Region) in northern Italy. Plants exhibited poor growth, leaf chlorosis, decline, and reduced fruit production. Older leaves sometimes displayed a premature purplish discoloration, while the younger leaves appeared chlorotic and were reduced in size with a marked yellow edge. Symptom severity was dependent on the cultivar and growing conditions. Sixty-one leaf samples were collected from diseased plants from production fields and cultivar collections. Each sample was tested by grafting on Fragaria vesca (clone ‘UC4 and UC5’) and F. virginiana (clone ‘UC10’ and ‘UC11’). Forty-five days after indexing different symptoms, characteristic of viral diseases, appeared on indicator plants. In particular, 24 samples showed Strawberry vein banding virus (SVBV)-like symptoms with chlorotic streaks along and on both sides of the main leaf veins of UC5, UC10, and UC11 indicator plants. Molecular methods were also used to better investigate the causal agent. Nucleic acids were extracted from young leaves of field and indicator plants by the cetyltrimethylammoniumbromide method (1). PCR analyses were performed with primer pair SVBVdeta/SVBVdetb as previously described to specifically amplify a product of 423 bp (2). SVBV was detected on all symptomatic indicator plants and corresponding field samples as well as on the positive control sample (supplied by J. D. Postman, National Clonal Germplasm Repository, Corvallis, OR and I. E. Tzanetakis, Oregon State University, Corvallis). No amplicons were detected from nucleic acids extracted from symptomless strawberry plants. PCR products, amplified from four Italian SVBV isolates, were cloned and sequenced and represent part of ORF IV of the SVBV genome that codes for the coat protein (CP). Italian SVBV isolates were more similar to the U.S. isolates than to the Chinese isolates (Genbank Accession Nos. AY862389, AY955374, X97304, AY605662, AY605663, and AY605664), showing 93 and 86% nt sequence identity, respectively. Strawberry vein banding disease has been reported previously in Italy in 1986 (3), but to our knowledge, this is the first finding of SVBV on strawberry field plants in Italy. SVBV was listed as a quarantine pest by the European and Mediterranean Plant Protection Organization (OEPP/EPPO) in 1978, but its spread has been increasing within European countries. Further studies should be done to ensure that strawberry propagating material is free of known viruses including SVBV.

References: (1) N. Boonham et al. J. Virol. Methods 101:37, 48, 2000. (2) J. R. Thompson et al. J. Virol. Methods 111:85, 93, 2003. (3) A. Pisi. EPPO Bull. 16:353, 358, 1986.
Experimental study of the behavioural mechanisms underlying self-organization in human crowds
Authors: Moussaïd Mehdi , Helbing Dirk , Garnier Simon , Johansson Anders , Combe Maud , Theraulaz Guy
Published: May 2009

In animal societies as well as in human crowds, many observed collective behaviours result from self-organized processes based on local interactions among individuals. However, models of crowd dynamics are still lacking a systematic individual-level experimental verification, and the local mechanisms underlying the formation of collective patterns are not yet known in detail. We have conducted a set of well-controlled experiments with pedestrians performing simple avoidance tasks in order to determine the laws ruling their behaviour during interactions. The analysis of the large trajectory dataset was used to compute a behavioural map that describes the average change of the direction and speed of a pedestrian for various interaction distances and angles. The experimental results reveal features of the decision process when pedestrians choose the side on which they evade, and show a side preference that is amplified by mutual interactions. The predictions of a binary interaction model based on the above findings were then compared with bidirectional flows of people recorded in a crowded street. Simulations generate two asymmetric lanes with opposite directions of motion, in quantitative agreement with our empirical observations. The knowledge of pedestrian behavioural laws is an important step ahead in the understanding of the underlying dynamics of crowd behaviour and allows for reliable predictions of collective pedestrian movements under natural conditions.
Analysis of the genome sequences of three Drosophila melanogaster spontaneous mutation accumulation lines
Authors: Keightley Peter D. , Trivedi Urmi , Thomson Marian , Oliver Fiona , Kumar Sujai , Blaxter Mark L.
Published: May 2009

We inferred the rate and properties of new spontaneous mutations in Drosophila melanogaster by carrying out whole-genome shotgun sequencing-by-synthesis of three mutation accumulation (MA) lines that had been maintained by close inbreeding for an average of 262 generations. We tested for the presence of new mutations by generating alignments of each MA line to the D. melanogaster reference genome sequence and then compared these alignments base by base. We determined empirically that at least five reads at a site within each line are required for accurate single nucleotide mutation calling. We mapped a total of 174 single-nucleotide mutations, giving a single nucleotide mutation rate of 3.5 × 10−9 per site per generation. There were no false positives in a random sample of 40 of these mutations checked by Sanger sequencing. Variation in the numbers of mutations among the MA lines was small and nonsignificant. Numbers of transition and transversion mutations were 86 and 88, respectively, implying that transition mutation rate is close to 2× the transversion rate. We observed 1.5× as many G or C → A or T as A or T → G or C mutations, implying that the G or C → A or T mutation rate is close to 2× the A or T → G or C mutation rate. The base composition of the genome is therefore not at an equilibrium determined solely by mutation. The predicted G + C content at mutational equilibrium (33%) is similar to that observed in transposable element remnants. Nearest-neighbor mutational context dependencies are nonsignificant, suggesting that this is a weak phenomenon in Drosophila. We also saw nonsignificant differences in the mutation rate between transcribed and untranscribed regions, implying that any transcription-coupled repair process is weak. Of seven short indel mutations confirmed, six were deletions, consistent with the deletion bias that is thought to exist in Drosophila.
Arabidopsis ASA1Is Important for Jasmonate-Mediated Regulation of Auxin Biosynthesis and Transport during Lateral Root Formation
Authors: Sun Jiaqiang , Xu Yingxiu , Ye Songqing , Jiang Hongling , Chen Qian , Liu Fang , Zhou Wenkun , Chen Rong , Li Xugang , Tietz Olaf , Wu Xiaoyan , Cohen Jerry D. , Palme Klaus , Li Chuanyou
Published: May 2009

Plant roots show an impressive degree of plasticity in adapting their branching patterns to ever-changing growth conditions. An important mechanism underlying this adaptation ability is the interaction between hormonal and developmental signals. Here, we analyze the interaction of jasmonate with auxin to regulate lateral root (LR) formation through characterization of an Arabidopsis thaliana mutant, jasmonate-induced defective lateral root1 (jdl1/asa1-1). We demonstrate that, whereas exogenous jasmonate promotes LR formation in wild-type plants, it represses LR formation in jdl1/asa1-1. JDL1 encodes the auxin biosynthetic gene ANTHRANILATE SYNTHASE α1 (ASA1), which is required for jasmonate-induced auxin biosynthesis. Jasmonate elevates local auxin accumulation in the basal meristem of wild-type roots but reduces local auxin accumulation in the basal meristem of mutant roots, suggesting that, in addition to activating ASA1-dependent auxin biosynthesis, jasmonate also affects auxin transport. Indeed, jasmonate modifies the expression of auxin transport genes in an ASA1-dependent manner. We further provide evidence showing that the action mechanism of jasmonate to regulate LR formation through ASA1 differs from that of ethylene. Our results highlight the importance of ASA1 in jasmonate-induced auxin biosynthesis and reveal a role for jasmonate in the attenuation of auxin transport in the root and the fine-tuning of local auxin distribution in the root basal meristem.