bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Equality vs. Liberty: Advantage, Liberty
Authors: Narveson Jan
Published: January 2009

The subject of this essay is political, and therefore social, philosophy; and therefore, ethics. We want to know whether the right thing for a society to do is to incorporate in its structure requirements that we bring about equality, or liberty, or both if they are compatible, and if incompatible then which if either, or what sort of mix if they can to some degree be mixed. But this fairly succinct statement of the issue before us requires considerable clarification, even as a statment of the issue. For it is widely, and in my view correctly, held thatsomesort of equality is utterly fundamental in these matters. We seek a principle, or principles, that apply to all, are the same for all. In that sense, certainly, equality is fundamental and inescapable. But this is a very thin sort of “equality.”

It will almost equally widely be agreed that the principles in question should in some more interesting sense “treat” people equally, e.g., by allotting to all the same set of rights, and moreover, rights that are – again we have to say “in some sense” – nonarbitrary, so that whatever they are, persons of all races, sexes, and so on will have the same fundamental rights assigned to them. Taking this to be, again, essentially uncontroversial, though not without potentially worrisome points of unclarity, it needs, now, to be pointed out that this characterization does not settle the issue that this essay is concerned with. That issue is abouteconomicmatters in particular.
Communities of Judgment
Authors: Gibbard Allan
Published: January 2009

Walk across a campus on a beautiful fall day and observe what a conversing species we are. Chimpanzees can be taught to talk a little, in sign language. Put educated chimpanzees together, though, and they turn out to have nothing to say to each other. We humans are different; we can even find silence awkward.

Language does many things for us; conveying straight information is the most obvious. I want to stress, though, some of the ways that talk adjusts our terms for living together. What I say will be speculative and some of it will no doubt be wrong, but I suspect it is not completely off-base. Much of talk we can see as securing and adjusting terms of association – terms, among other things, of cooperation and mutual restraint. In part, this is a matter of governing our feelings toward each other. Feelings tend toward action; they can make for social glue or social bombshells. Nature, in the form of Darwinian evolution, has given us various ways to mesh feelings, and some of these. I think, are a matter of language.
Civil Rights Vs. Civil Liberties: The Case of Discriminatory Verbal Harassment
Authors: Grey Thomas C.
Published: January 2009

American liberals believe that both civil liberties and civil rights are harmonious aspects of a basic commitment to human rights. But recently these two clusters of values have seemed increasingly to conflict – as, for example, with the feminist claim that the legal toleration of pornography, long a goal sought by civil libertarians, actually violates civil rights as a form of sex discrimination.

Here I propose an interpretation of the conflict of civil rights and civil liberties in its latest manifestation: the controversy over how to treat discriminatory verbal harassment on American campuses. I was involved with the controversy in a practical way at Stanford, where I helped draft a harassment regulation that was recently adopted by the university.

Like the pornography issue, the harassment problem illustrates the element of paradox in the conflict of civil-liberties and civil-rights perspectives or mentalities. This problem does not simply trigger familiar disagreements between liberals of a classical or libertarian orientation as against those of a welfare state or social democratic one – though it does sometimes do that. In my experience, the issue also has the power to appear to a single person in different shapes and suggest different solutions as it oscillates between being framed in civil-liberties and in civil-rights terms. At the same time, however, it remains recognizably the same problem. It is thus a very practical and political example of the kind of tension noted by Wittgenstein in the aphorism that heads this essay – a puzzle of interpretive framing, of “seeing-as.”
Black and White Together: A Reconsideration
Authors: Allen W. B.
Published: January 2009

Principled discussions of civil rights became inherently less likely as a direct result of the observation by Earl Warren, in Brown v. Board of Education, that, respecting freedmen, “Education of Negroes was almost non-existent, and practically all of the race were illiterate,” and in proportion as that observation increasingly became the foundation of common opinion on the subject. Warren's observation was not true in any meaningful or non-trivial sense. Nevertheless, it served to perpetuate the myth of a backward people needing help to catch up instead of the truth of a people being held back. That is the perspective – the disadvantaged group perspective – that ultimately infected all discussion of civil rights, even after the designation of so-called “disadvantaged groups” had been extended beyond American blacks.

To define civil rights, we may well begin with what all mankind would likely recognize. Thus the dictionary definition of “civil rights” stands: “the rights that belong to all individuals in a nation or community touching property, marriage, and the like.” In that definition the term “rights” may be further expanded to mean “legitimate claims,” following the definition of right as law – as “a claim or title or interest in anything whatever that is enforceable by law.” This definition applies with minimal distinction of regimes intruding and, therefore, without the host of recent complications in the United States that create the impression that civil rights have something to do with pluralism. Previously, the generic definition was thought to exhaust the meaning of the term in the United States.
On There Being Some Limits to Morality
Authors: Kekes John
Published: January 2009

It is doubtful that our age can lay claim to having formulated a significant moral ideal, but perhaps the most promising candidate is the ideal of pluralism. It involves rejection of the destructive quest for a summum bonum, and the growing recognition that the legitimate ends of life are many, that there is a wide variety of good and admirable lives, and that there is no blueprint drawn in heaven which would provide those who gained access to it with the knowledge of how to live well.

The implications of pluralism are many, and some of them are subversive of widely accepted values. The aim of this essay is to discuss one unsettling consequence of pluralism. Pluralism is a thesis about values, and it is part of this thesis that many values are incommensurable and conflicting. It is usual to interpret the plurality of incommensurable values, and the conflicts thereby produced, as obtaining within morality. Incommensurability is taken to hold between moral values, and the resulting conflicts are regarded as moral. Much has been written about this, and I do not propose to add to it. My interest is in discussing pluralism as it affects a particular type of conflict between moral and nonmoral values.

Since it will be central to the discussion, I must now indicate what I mean by “moral” and “nonmoral” values. All values derive from benefits and harms to sentient beings, but I shall ignore other sentient beings here and concentrate on benefits and harms for human beings.
The Individual, The State, and The Common Good
Authors: Haldane John
Published: January 2009

Let me begin with what should be a reassuring thought, and one that may serve as a corrective to presumptions that sometimes characterize political philosophy. The possibility, which Aquinas and Madison are both concerned with, of wise and virtuous political deliberation resulting in beneficial and stable civil order, no more depends upon possession of aphilosophical theory of the state and of the virtues proper to it, than does the possibility of making good paintings depend upon possession of an aesthetic theory of the nature and value of art.
Community, Diversity, and Civic Education: Toward a Liberal PoliticalScience of Group Life
Authors: Macedo Stephen
Published: January 2009

Although liberals too often forget it, the health of the liberal publicorder depends on our ability to constitute not only political institutions and limits on power, but appropriate patterns of social lifeand citizen character. Liberal character traits and political virtuesdo not, after all, come about “naturally” or by the deliverance of an “invisible hand.” Even Adam Smith did not think that, as we will see below. Harry Eckstein gets closer to themark by suggesting that “stable governments…are the productof 'accidental' (extremely improbable) conjunctions of conditions which do sometimes, but rarely, occur in actual societies.”
Self-Love and Altruism
Authors: Brink David O.
Published: January 2009

Whether morality has rational authority is an open question insofar as we can seriously entertain conceptions of morality and practical reason according to which it need not be contrary to reason to fail to conform to moral requirements. Doubts about the authority of morality are especially likely to arise for those who hold a broadly prudential view of rationality. It is common to think of morality as including various other-regarding duties of cooperation, forbearance, and aid. Most of us also regard moral obligations as authoritative practical considerations. But heeding these obligations appears sometimes to constrain the agent's pursuit of his own interests or aims. If we think of rationality in prudential terms–as what would promote the agent's own interests–we may wonder whether moral conduct is always rationally justifiable. Indeed, we do not need to think of rationality in exclusively prudential terms to raise this worry. The worry can arise even if there are impartial reasons–that is, nonderivative reasons to promote the welfare of others.
“This Enormous Army”: The Mutual Aid Tradition of American Fraternal Societies before the Twentieth Century
Authors: Beito David T.
Published: January 2009

The social-welfare world of the poor has changed considerably since the turn of the century. It is not difficult to find dramatic evidence of progress. Most obviously, there has been a substantial reduction in the percentage of Americans who are poor. Even in 1929, about 40 percent of the population still lived in poverty. The corresponding figure for 1993 was 15.1 percent. The poor have also enjoyed notable material and physical gains in terms of income, diet, health, and housing conditions.
Standards Versus Struggle: The Failure of Public Housing and the Welfare-State Impulse
Authors: Husock Howard
Published: January 2009

In considering the development and course of the American welfare state, there are some places which are better starting points than others. One such place is the State Street corridor, the series of high-rise Chicago Housing Authority public-housing projects which loom over Lake Michigan. Most Chicagoans, like their counterparts in other cities, have become inured to conditions there: a murder rate far in excess of that of the city as a whole, a society of unemployed single mothers, deferred maintenance that makes stairwells, plazas, and elevators places of danger. Author Alex Kotlowitz decribes the situation of a mother of two boys in Chicago's Henry Horner Homes: “She lived in daily fear that something might happen to her young ones.… Already that year, 57 children had been killed in the city, five in the Horner area, including two, aged eight and six, who died from smoke inhalation when firefighters had to climb the 14 stories to their apartment. Both of the building's elevators were broken.”
Can Old-Age Social Insurance Be Justified?
Authors: Shapiro Daniel
Published: January 2009

While in America most people think of “welfare” as means-tested programs such as Aid to Families with Dependent Children, in reality in the United States and other affluent democracies the heart of the welfare state is social insurance programs, such as health insurance, old-age or retirement pensions, and unemployment insurance. They are insurance programs in the sense that they protect against common risks of a loss of income if and/or when certain events come to pass (illness, old-age or retirement, unemployment); they are “social” because unlike market insurance they are not run on a sound actuarial basis, the premiums are not voluntarily incurred but compulsory, and there is very limited choice or flexibility concerning the type of policy one can purchase. Why have social insurance rather than market insurance? In this essay, I take up this question with regard to old-age or retirement pensions, which at present absorb around 9 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) and 25 percent of government spending of the affluent industrial countries comprising the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). My aim is to show that old-age or retirement social insurance (henceforth “SI”) is worse in virtually every relevant normative respect than its alternative, some form of market or private pensions. By relevant normative respect, I mean those values or principles which are used by contemporary political philosophers in their discussions and justifications of welfare-state policies, and which are applicable to assessments of different systems of old-age or retirement pensions. (Although they areapplicable, almost no contemporary political philosophers have in fact applied them—an amazing state of affairs which I hope to remedy here.)
Privatization of Social Security: The Transition Issue
Authors: Ferrara Peter J.
Published: January 2009

The possible privatization of Social Security has long been a matter of theoretical interest to those who ideologically favor free markets and maximum personal autonomy. But in the spirit of an age when the Berlin Wall fell and the totalitarian Soviet empire collapsed through a peaceful revolution from within, the politics of Social Security has been remade in recent years in a similarly dramatic fashion.
Deconstructing Privacy: And Putting It Back Together Again
Authors: Epstein Richard A.
Published: January 2009

It is a common conceit of academic writing to insist that progress in some given area of law or political theory is hampered by hopeless confusion over the meaning of certain standard terms. My usual attitude toward such claims is one of passionate rejection. Because the English language has served us well for such a long period of time, I bring a strong presumption of distrust to any claim of the conceptual poverty of ordinary language. The persistent fears of lack of understanding are in general refuted by the success of communication in ordinary life, as measured by the coordination of human behavior that language facilitates.
Privacy and Constitutional Theory
Authors: Gerber Scott D.
Published: January 2009

There has been a flood of scholarship over the years on whether there is a “right to privacy” in the Constitution of the United States.Griswold v. Connecticut(1965) was, of course, the Supreme Court decision that opened the floodgates to this river of commentary. A subject search for “privacy, right of” in the College of William and Mary's on-line library catalog located 360 book titles. A perusal of the leading law review bibliographic indices turned up still more. Whether the Constitution contains some sort of “right to be let alone” is plainly one of the central questions of contemporary constitutional discourse.
Flourishing Egoism
Authors: Hunt Lester H.
Published: January 2009

Early in Peter Abelard's Dialogue between a Philosopher, a Jew, and a Christian, the philosopher (that is, the ancient Greek) and the Christian easily come to agreement about what the point of ethics is: “[T]he culmination of true ethics … is gathered together in this: that it reveal where the ultimate good is and by what road we are to arrive there.” They also agree that, since the enjoyment of this ultimate good “comprises true blessedness,” ethics “far surpasses other teachings in both usefulness and worthiness.” As Abelard understood them, both fundamental elements of his twelfth-century ethical culture — Greek philosophy and Christian religion — held a common view of the nature of ethical inquiry, one that was so obvious to them that his characters do not even state it in a fully explicit way. They take for granted, as we take the ground we stand on, the premise that the most important function of ethical theory is to tell you what sort of life is most desirable, or most worth living. That is, the point of ethics is that it is good for you, that it serves your self-interest.
Causation and Responsibility
Authors: Moore Michael S.
Published: January 2009

In various areas of Anglo-American law, legal liability turns on causation. In torts and contracts, we are each liable only for those harms we havecausedby the actions that breach our legal duties. Such doctrines explicitly make causation an element of liability. In criminal law, sometimes the causal element for liability is equally explicit, as when a statute makes punishable any act that has “caused… abuse to the child….” More often, the causal element in criminal liability is more implicit, as when criminal statutes prohibitkillings, maimings, rapings, burnings, etc. Such causally complex action verbs are correctly applied only to defendants who have caused death, caused disfigurement, caused penetration, caused fire damage, etc.
Some Ethical Implications for Capitalism of the Socialist Calculation Debate
Authors: Kirzner Israel M.
Published: January 2009

The debate that raged in the interwar period between the Austrian economists (who argued the thesis that under socialism it would not be possible to engage in rational economic calculation) and socialist economists (who rejected that thesis) was, narrowly conceived, a debate in positive economics. What was being discussed was certainly not the morality of capitalism or of socialism. Nor, strictly speaking, was the debate even about society's economic well-being under socialism; it concerned the ability of central planners to make decisions that take appropriate account of relevant resource scarcities, in the light of consumer preference rankings. To be sure, the extraordinary interest which surrounded the debate and the passions that lurked barely below its surface testified to the powerful implications of the debate for crucial issues in welfare economics. The Austrians were not merely exploring the economies of socialism; they were in effect demonstrating that, as an economic system attempting to serve the needs of its citizens, socialism must inevitably fail. But, even if the debate is interpreted in its broadest terms, as a debate in welfare economics, it represented a sharp break widi traditional polemics relating to the socialism-capitalism issue. Traditionally the arguments for or against capitalism had, until 1920, been deeply involved in ediical questions. Mises's 1920 challenge to socialism, in contrast, was explicit in making no attempt to address any claims concerning the alleged moral superiority of socialism. He simply argued that, as an economic system, socialism was inherendy incapable of fulfilling the objectives of its proponents; central planners are unable to plan centrally.
The Value of Life for Decision Making in the Public Sector
Authors: Usher Dan
Published: January 2009

The Ministry of Transport is planning for the construction of new roads in its territory. Many projects are being considered, and the Ministry needs to identify the worthwhile projects for which the benefits exceed the costs. Among costs and benefits are the expense of constructing the road, the time saved by motorists using the new road rather than some other road, the time saved through the reduction of congestion on other roads, and the expected increase or decrease in the number of deaths due to traffic accidents. I am concerned in this paper with the last item on the list. It is, of course, difficult to estimate fatalities accurately, but this difficulty is neither unique nor central to our problem. The problem is how best to place a monetary value on fatalities, so that the expected number of fatalities can be compared with other costs and benefits in deciding whether to build a road. However chosen, the monetary value of fatalities for use in this context is what the economist means by “the value of life.” The term is almost a joke, a bit of gallows humor to exorcise the ghoulishness that inevitably clings to analysis of life and death in monetary terms.
Germ-Line Genetic Engineering and Moral Diversity: Moral Controversies in a Post-Christian World
Authors: Engelhardt H. Tristram
Published: January 2009

The prospect of germ-line genetic engineering, the ability to engineer genetic changes that can be passed on to subsequent generations, raises a wide range of moral and public policy questions. One of the most provocative questions is, simply put: Are there moral reasons that can be articulated in general secular terms for accepting human nature as we find it? Or, at least in terms of general secular moral restraints, may we reshape human nature better to meet our own interests, as we define them? This question in turn raises the further question of whether human nature as it now exists has a moral standing akin to sacredness that can be understood in nonreligious terms. This essay will take as a given that it is not possible to show in general secular moral terms that human nature has a sanctity or special moral standing that should guide secular health-care policy. In addition, as this essay shows, it is not possible through appeals to considerations of authorizing consent or beneficence toward others to remedy this failure to establish a sanctity or special moral standing for human nature. Absent a religious or culturally normative understanding of human nature and given the availability of germline genetic engineering, there is a plurality of possibilities for refashioning our nature. The unavailability of substantive secular moral constraints on germ-line genetic engineering discloses a secularly licit plurality of possibilities for human nature. The likelihood that we will be able to refashion our human nature reveals how few general secular moral constraints there are to guide us. Paradoxically, the more we are able to reengineer our human nature, the less guidance is available. The plurality of possible conceptions of human well-being that can be pursued through germ-line genetic engineering challenges our self-understanding as humans. Given human freedom, and in the absence of taken-for-granted religious or cultural moral constraints, the likelihood of germ-line genetic engineering opens the possibility of human nature in the plural.
Some Causes and Consequences of the Bifurcated Treatment of Economic Rights and “Other” Rights Under the United States Constitution
Authors: Macey Jonathan R.
Published: January 2009

The existence of a meaningful distinction between economic rights and “other rights” has been a cornerstone of constitutional law for the past sixty years. During this period, the federal courts consistently have taken the position that Congress is free to abuse citizens’ economic liberties, but is not permitted to interfere with such other, noneconomic “rights” as freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, and freedom of religion.
Evolutionary Ethics and the Search for Predecessors: Kant, Hume, and All the Way Back to Aristotle?
Authors: Ruse Michael
Published: January 2009

Hopes of applying the findings and speculations of evolutionary theorizing to the problems of ethics have yielded a program with a (deservedly) bad reputation. At the level of norms – substantival ethics – it has been a platform for some of the more grotesque socio-politico-economic suggestions of our times. At the level of justification – metaethics – it has opened the way to some of the more blatant fallacies in the undergraduate textbook. Recently, however, a number of people, philosophers and biologists, have sensed that a more adequate evolutionary ethics might be possible. United in the conviction that it simply has to matter that we humans are modified monkeys rather than the creation of a Good God, in His image, on the Sixth Day, they argue that recent developments in evolutionary biology, especially those dealing with the genetic basis of social behavior (“sociobiology”), open the way to a satisfactory biological understanding of morality.
The Feminist Revelation
Authors: Sommers Christina
Published: January 2009

In the Proceedings of the American Philosophical Association for the fall of 1988, we find the view that “the power of philosophy lies in its radicalness.” The author, Tom Foster Digby, tells us that in our own day “the radical potency of philosophy is particularly well-illustrated by contemporary feminist philosophy” in ways that “could eventually reorder human life.” The claim that philosophy is essentially radical has deep historical roots.

Aristotle and Plato each created a distinctive style of social philosophy. Following Ernest Barker, I shall call Aristotle's way of doing social philosophy “whiggish,” having in mind that the O.E.D. characterizes ‘whig’ as “a word that says in one syllable what ‘conservative liberal’ says in seven.” Later whigs shared with Aristotle the conviction that traditional arrangements have great moral weight, and that common opinion is a primary source of moral truth. The paradigm example of a whig moral philosopher is Henry Sidgwick, with his constant appeal to Common Sense and to “established morality.” On the more liberal side, we have philosophers like David Hume who cautions us to “adjust [political] innovations as much as possible to the ancient fabric,” and William James who insists that the liberal philosopher must reject radicalism.

In modern times, many social philosophers have followed the more radical example of Plato, who was convinced that common opinion was benighted and in need of much consciousness-raising. Looking on society as a Cave that distorted real values, Plato showed a great readiness to discount traditional arrangements. He was perhaps the first philosopher to construct an ideal of a society that reflected principles of justice, inspiring generations of utopian social philosophers.
Urinary tract infections in older people
Authors: Nicolle Lindsay E
Published: January 2009

Urinary tract infection is the most common bacterial infection in older populations. It is an important clinical problem across the full spectrum – from elderly persons who are well and living in the community to highly functionally impaired residents of long-term care facilities. Symptomatic urinary infection is a frequent cause of morbidity, and urinary infection is responsible for substantial antimicrobial use. This review summarizes current knowledge relevant to both asymptomatic and symptomatic urinary infection in older populations, and identifies unresolved issues for further study. The discussion is relevant to older individuals without indwelling urethral catheters, unless it is specifically stated that the older person with an indwelling catheter is being addressed.
Editors' note: bibliometrics and the curators of orthodoxy
Authors:   MSCS Editorial Board
Published: January 2009

Have you ever seen the Citation Indexes (CIs) for the year 1600? At that time, a very active community was working on the reconstruction of planetary movements by means of epicycles. In principle, any ellipse around the Sun may be approximated by sufficiently many epicycles around the Earth. This is a non-trivial geometrical task, especially given the lack of analytical tools (sums of series). And the books and papers of many talented geometers quoted one another. Scientific knowledge, however, was already taking other directions. Science has a certain ‘inertia’, it is prudent (at times, it has been exceedingly so, mostly for political or metaphysical reasons), but even under the best of conditions, we all know how difficult it is to accept new ideas, to let them blossom in time, away from short-term pressures.
Streambed gravel sampling and frequency base conversion: A solution to data set sharing
Authors: Shirazi Mostafa A. , Faustini John M. , Kaufmann Philip R.
Published: January 2009

The analysis of streambed particle size distribution is fundamental to geology, geomorphology, engineering, ecology, and hydrology. There is a continued need for standard analytical methods to accommodate different practices in sample collection, particle size characterization, frequency analysis, and frequency base conversion. We focus upon two related topics: (1) quantitative description of size of irregular particles and (2) frequency base conversion procedures. The first is needed to accurately determine physical particle properties (diameter, surface area, volume, and weight), and the second to determine the statistical influence on one or more of these properties of each particle in a mixture. We collected natural streambed particles, measured various calipered diameters including a nominal diameter using each particle volume, and calculated a shape factor for each diameter that converts it to an equivalent sieved diameter. Next, we extended a model originally derived in 1929 for a lognormal distribution to a streambed particle size distribution that severely deviated from a lognormal distribution. After successfully converting from number to weight frequency (and the reverse) of samples collected by grid, area, and volume, we extended the conversion to apply across these collection methods. These results make streambed frequency analysis independent of the particular diameter used, the observed frequency base, and the sample collection procedure. The immediate utility of our analysis is to facilitate data sharing among disciplines. The ultimate benefit is to free researchers to select the most convenient diameter measurement, size frequency classification, frequency base, and sample collection procedure from the many alternative strategies available.
Nature of opaque components on Mercury: Insights into a Mercurian magma ocean
Authors: Riner M. A. , Lucey P. G. , Desch S. J. , McCubbin F. M.
Published: January 2009

Analysis of Mariner 10 and MESSENGER data sets reveal the importance of opaque components on Mercury's surface. A global darkening agent, suggested to be ilmenite or other Fe‐, Ti‐bearing opaque mineral, has been invoked to explain the lower albedo of Mercury relative to the lunar highlands. Separately, a low‐reflectance material (LRM) has been recognized as one of three dominant color terrains. We present laboratory reflectance spectra of ilmenite size separates and other candidate Fe‐, Ti‐bearing oxide minerals. These oxides cannot sufficiently darken Mercury without violating neutron spectrometer constraints on surface iron content. The spectra of all samples exhibit negative spectral slopes shortward of 500 nm, consistent with the LRM. We review models of crystallization of an FeO‐poor Mercurian magma ocean and show that lack of a plagioclase flotation crust could lead to a thin quench crust with near surface layers of incompatible‐ and Ti‐rich late stage cumulates, consistent with Mercury's albedo and LRM.
Signature of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation in sea level along the east coast of North America
Authors: Bingham Rory J. , Hughes Chris W.
Published: January 2009

In this letter we examine the relationship between the North Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (MOC) and sea level (SL) along the east coast of North America. In the eddy permitting ocean model OCCAM we find a distinctive, topography‐following pattern of SL variability in the western North Atlantic that is closely linked with the changing strength of the MOC, with a 2 cm drop in SL along the US east coast corresponding to a 1Sv increase in the MOC. We find a similar pattern of SL variability in the altimetry record and show that this meridionally coherent SL mode dominates interannual SL variability at tide gauges along the North American east coast between 40–50°N. Hence we conclude that North American coastal sea‐level may indeed be a useful indicator of MOC variability on interannual timescales, allowing an observationally‐based estimate of the likely range of interannual MOC fluctuations to be determined.
How declining aerosols and rising greenhouse gases forced rapid warming in Europe since the 1980s
Authors: Philipona Rolf , Behrens Klaus , Ruckstuhl Christian
Published: January 2009

Mainland Europe's temperature rise of about 1°C since the 1980s is considerably larger than expected from anthropogenic greenhouse warming. Here we analyse shortwave and longwave surface forcings measured in Switzerland and Northern Germany and relate them to humidity‐ and temperature increases through the radiation‐ and energy budget. Shortwave climate forcing from direct aerosol effects is found to be much larger than indirect aerosol cloud forcing, and the total shortwave forcing, that is related to the observed 60% aerosol decline, is two to three times larger than the longwave forcing from rising anthropogenic greenhouse gases. Almost tree quarters of all the shortwave and longwave forcing energy goes into the turbulent fluxes, which increases atmospheric humidity and hence the longwave forcing by water vapour feedback. With anthropogenic aerosols now reaching low and stable values in Europe, solar forcing will subside and future temperature will mainly rise due to anthropogenic greenhouse gas warming.
A regional perspective on trends in continental evaporation
Authors: Teuling A. J. , Hirschi M. , Ohmura A. , Wild M. , Reichstein M. , Ciais P. , Buchmann N. , Ammann C. , Montagnani L. , Richardson A. D. , Wohlfahrt G. , Seneviratne S. I.
Published: January 2009

Climate models suggest that enhanced greenhouse gas concentrations and aerosols have major impacts on the land energy and water cycles, and in particular on evapotranspiration (ET). Here we analyze how the main external drivers of ET (incident solar radiation and precipitation) vary regionally, using recent data from a eddy‐covariance flux tower network (FLUXNET) and a multi‐model re‐analysis (GSWP‐2). Trends in radiation (global “dimming” and “brightening”) are expected to impact ET only in regions where ET correlates with radiation. In central Europe this correlation is particularly strong, and trends derived from weighing lysimeters and river‐basin water budgets follow trends in radiation. In central North America the correlation is weak, and trends in precipitation rather than radiation explain trends in ET. Our results reconcile previous hypotheses by demonstrating the strongly regional and temporal differentiation of trends in evaporation.
Role of interchange reconnection in convection at small interplanetary magnetic field clock angles and in transpolar arc motion
Authors: Watanabe Masakazu , Sofko George J.
Published: January 2009

When the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) clock angle θc ≡ atan2(BY, BZ) lies in the range 0° < ∣θc∣ < 30°, there only persist IMF‐lobe and lobe‐closed reconnection (both of which we call interchange‐type), with Dungey‐type reconnection (IMF‐closed and lobe‐lobe) being absent. Reconnection for IMF BY > 0 (BY < 0) occurs in the northern dusk (dawn) quadrant and in the southern dawn (dusk) quadrant. The IMF‐lobe reconnection in one quadrant is coupled to the lobe‐closed reconnection in the other quadrant by magnetic flux reciprocation, and in the ionosphere, that reconnection pair produces an “interchange‐type merging cell” in the hemisphere of IMF‐lobe reconnection and a reciprocal cell in the other hemisphere. When the polar cap is completely divided into two parts by the transpolar plasma sheet (the theta aurora configuration), the interchange‐type merging cell transports open magnetic flux from one part of the polar cap to the other without affecting the theta aurora configuration, causing the dawn‐dusk motion of the transpolar plasma sheet. This type of flux transport is destroyed if any Dungey‐type reconnection occurs. Thus a necessary condition for the theta aurora configuration to be maintained during the dawn‐dusk travel of the transpolar plasma sheet is the absence of Dungey‐type reconnection. This condition is reasonably satisfied for 0° < ∣θc∣ < 30°. The absence of Dungey‐type reconnection in the presence of IMF BY can be understood as a transitional state of the magnetic flux circulation when the IMF rotates from due northward to dawnward or duskward.
On the occurrence of large earthquakes: New insights from a model based on interacting faults embedded in a realistic tectonic setting
Authors: Marzocchi Warner , Selva Jacopo , Cinti Francesca Romana , Montone Paola , Pierdominici Simona , Schivardi Renata , Boschi Enzo
Published: January 2009

Earthquake occurrence stems from a complex interaction of processes that are still partially unknown. This lack of knowledge is revealed by the different statistical distributions that have been so far proposed and by the different beliefs about the role of some key components as the tectonic setting, fault recurrence, seismic clusters, and fault interaction. Here, we explore these issues through a numerical model based on a realistic interacting fault system. We use an active fault system in central Italy responsible for moderate to large earthquakes, where geometric and kinematic parameters of each structure can be confidently assessed. Then, we generate synthetic catalogs by modeling different seismogenic processes and allowing coseismic and postseismic fault interaction. The comparison of synthetic and real seismic catalogs highlights many interesting features: (1) synthetic seismic catalogs reproduce the short‐term clustering and the long‐term modulation observed in the historical catalog of the last centuries; (2) a recurrent model of earthquake occurrence on faults is more effective than a Poisson model to explain such short‐term and long‐term time features; (3) a realistic fault pattern is a key component to generate stochasticity in the seismic catalog, preventing a systematic time “synchronization” of strongly coupled faults; (4) such a stochasticity may put strong limits to the forecasting capability of models based on fault interaction, even though the latter is a key component of the process. Finally, the model allows explicit predictions on future paleoseismological observations to be made.
Stable carbon isotope composition of secondary organic aerosol from β‐pinene oxidation
Authors: Fisseha Rebeka , Spahn Holger , Wegener Robert , Hohaus Thorsten , Brasse Gregor , Wissel Holger , Tillmann Ralf , Wahner Andreas , Koppmann Ralf , Kiendler‐Scharr Astrid
Published: January 2009

A chamber study was carried out to investigate the stable carbon isotopic composition (δ13C) of secondary organic aerosol (SOA) formed from ozonolysis of β‐pinene. β‐Pinene (600 ppb) with a known δ13C value (−30.1‰) and 500 ppb ozone were injected into the chamber in the absence of light and the resulting SOA was collected on preheated quartz fiber filters. Furthermore, δ13C values of the gas‐phase β‐pinene and one of its oxidation products, nopinone, were measured using a gas chromatograph coupled to an isotope ratio mass spectrometer (GC‐IRMS). β‐Pinene was progressively enriched with the heavy carbon isotope due to the kinetic isotope effect (KIE). The KIE of the reaction of β‐pinene with ozone was measured to be 1.0026 2.6 ± 1.5‰). The δ13C value of total secondary organic aerosol was very similar to that of its precursor (average = −29.6 ± 0.2‰) independent of experiment time. Nopinone, one of the major oxidation products of β‐pinene, was found in both the gas and aerosol phases. The gas‐phase nopinone was heavier than the initial β‐pinene by 1.3‰ but lighter than the corresponding aerosol‐phase nopinone. On average, the gas‐phase nopinone was lighter by 2.3‰ than the corresponding aerosol‐phase nopinone. The second product found in the SOA was detected as acetone, but it desorbed from the filter at a higher temperature than nopinone, which indicates that it is a pyrolysis product. The acetone showed a much lower δ13C (−36.6‰) compared to the initial β‐pinene δ13C.
A novel method to estimate model uncertainty using machine learning techniques
Authors: Solomatine Dimitri P. , Shrestha Durga Lal
Published: January 2009

A novel method is presented for model uncertainty estimation using machine learning techniques and its application in rainfall runoff modeling. In this method, first, the probability distribution of the model error is estimated separately for different hydrological situations and second, the parameters characterizing this distribution are aggregated and used as output target values for building the training sets for the machine learning model. This latter model, being trained, encapsulates the information about the model error localized for different hydrological conditions in the past and is used to estimate the probability distribution of the model error for the new hydrological model runs. The M5 model tree is used as a machine learning model. The method is tested to estimate uncertainty of a conceptual rainfall runoff model of the Bagmati catchment in Nepal. In this paper the method is extended further to enable it to predict an approximation of the whole error distribution, and also the new results of comparing this method to other uncertainty estimation approaches are reported. It can be concluded that the method generates consistent, interpretable and improved model uncertainty estimates.
Neuronal plasticity: cell-based strategy for target identification and validation
Authors: Mingorance-Le Meur Ana , O'Connor Timothy
Published: January 2009

While growing neurites are relatively plastic during development, their plasticity levels drop rapidly as neurons mature and become integrated into neuronal networks. As a consequence, the central nervous system ability to reorganize itself in response to injury or disease is insufficient. One of the main limitations for the design of therapeutic strategies to enhance neurite sprouting following neurological diseases is our poor understanding of the mechanisms underlying neurite structural plasticity. To overcome this limitation, we have implemented a strategy to identify, characterize and validate the most therapeutically relevant drug targets to modulate neuronal plasticity. This strategy is based on the hypothesis that the molecular regulation of the neurite shaft (controlling its ability to sprout) shares similarities with other cell systems. In an initial selection step (1), candidate targets are identified from the literature based on predetermined criteria (e.g. involvement in cell migration and growth cone collapse). (2) Compounds acting on those targets are tested in a neuronal cell-based assay for their effects on neurite sprouting as well as for early detection of undesired effects. (3) The selected targets are further analyzed during a verification step where their subcellular expression and activity is assessed. The regulation of the activity of the potential targets by branching factors is also determined at this point. (4) Once the biological relevance has been established, the signalling pathway in which the potential targets operates within neurons is mapped using activity reporters to uncover additional potential targets. This candidate approach, combined with the use of primary neurons, is designed to increase the probability of identifying suitable targets at the same time that it minimizes costs and time to validation. By using this strategy, we have been able to identify a set of proteins controlling neuronal sprouting together with an unsuspected mechanism of regulation of structural plasticity in neurons.
Loss of Total and Visceral Adipose Tissue Mass Predicts Decreases in Oxidative Stress After Weight‐loss Surgery
Authors: Gletsu‐Miller Nana , Hansen Jason M. , Jones Dean P. , Go Young‐Mi , Torres William E. , Ziegler Thomas R. , Lin Edward
Published: January 2009

It is not known whether there are mechanisms linking adipose tissue mass and increased oxidative stress in obesity. This study investigated associations between decreasing general and abdominal fat depots and oxidative stress during weight loss. Subjects were severely obese women who were measured serially at baseline and at 1, 6 (n = 30), and 24 months (n = 18) after bariatric surgery. Total fat mass (FAT) and volumes of visceral (VAT) and subcutaneous abdominal adipose tissue (SAT) were related to plasma concentrations of derivatives of reactive oxidative metabolites (dROMS), a measure of lipid peroxides and oxidative stress. After intervention, BMI significantly decreased, from 47.7 ± 0.8 kg/m2 to 43.3 ± 0.8 kg/m2 (1 month), 35.2 ± 0.8 kg/m2 (6 months), and 30.2 ± 1.2 kg/m2 (24 months). Plasma dROMS also significantly deceased over time. At baseline, VAT (r = 0.46), FAT (r = 0.42), and BMI (r = 0.37) correlated with 6‐month decreases in dROMS. Similarly, at 1 month, VAT (r = 0.43) and FAT (r = 0.41) correlated with 6‐month decreases in dROMS. Multiple regression analysis showed that relationships between VAT and dROMS were significant after adjusting for FAT mass. Increased plasma dROMS at baseline were correlated with decreased concentrations of high‐density lipoprotein (HDL) at 1 and 6 months after surgery (r = −0.38 and −0.42). This study found longitudinal associations between general, and more specifically intra‐abdominal adiposity, and systemic lipid peroxides, suggesting that adipose tissue mass contributes to oxidative stress.
The Reliability of a Survey Question on Television Viewing and Associations With Health Risk Factors in US Adults
Authors: Pettee Kelley K. , Ham Sandra A. , Macera Caroline A. , Ainsworth Barbara E.
Published: January 2009

Research into the accuracy of self‐reported measures used to quantify physical inactivity has been limited. The purposes of the current report were to examine the reliability of a survey question assessing time spent watching television and to describe associations between television watching and physical activity and health risk factors. Data from this cross‐sectional investigation were obtained from a study designed to evaluate a physical activity module for potential use in the 2001 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. Participants were 93 men and women (aged 45.9 (15.4) years) who answered the question pertaining to television watching during an initial visit and three follow‐up visits to the study center. Intra‐class correlation coefficients (ICCs) between administrations of the survey question were used to assess test‐retest reliability. Spearman rank order correlation coefficients were used to examine the associations of television viewing with physical activity and health risk factors. The test‐retest reliability of the television‐watching question suggested moderate agreement (ICCs of 0.42 and 0.55 over a 3‐week and 1‐week period, respectively). After adjustment for age and sex, reported television‐watching hours were positively associated with BMI (P = 0.0002), percentage fat (P = 0.0001), and light‐intensity physical activity (P = 0.006) and negatively associated with cardiorespiratory fitness (P = 0.004) and moderate‐intensity and hard‐intensity physical activity (P = 0.03 and P = 0.003, respectively). Increased time spent in sedentary behaviors has been identified as a major modifiable risk factor in the development of chronic diseases and conditions. The single‐item survey question evaluated in this study was shown to be a reliable measure of television watching and was associated with physical activity and health risk factor outcomes.