bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Macrostratigraphy and Its Promise for Paleobiology
Authors: Peters Shanan E.
Published: June 2019

Macrostratigraphy is the study and statistical analysis of sediment packages that formed continuously at a specified scale of temporal resolution and that are bound by gaps recognizable at that same scale. The temporal ranges of gap-bound packages, compiled separately for different geographic locations, permit area-weighted, survivorship-based measures of rock quantity and spatio-temporal environmental continuity to be measured. Analytical basin fill models suggest that the parameters controlling sedimentation and sequence stratigraphic architecture, such as base level and sediment supply, can be detected quantitatively by macrostratigraphy.

Macrostratigraphic analysis of the marine sedimentary rock record in the United States at a temporal resolution of ~106years reproduces most of the well-known Sloss sequences, but it also identifies two prominent megasequences, the Paleozoic and Modern megasequences, which are separated by a Permian-Triassic discontinuity and Phanerozoic minimum in rock quantity. Many short- and long-term features of the macroevolutionary history of marine animals are reproduced by macrostratigraphy, including 1) many patterns in genus richness, 2) patterns in rates of genus extinction and, to a lesser degree, rates of origination, and 3) patterns of extinction selectivity and the shifting relative richness of Sepkoski's Paleozoic and Modern evolutionary faunas. The extent to which macrostratigraphy reproduces the macroevolutionary history of marine animals transcends what is expected by geologically-controlled sampling biases. Instead, the processes which control the spatio-temporal dynamics of shelf sedimentation, including expansions and contractions of shallow epicontinental seas, have probably exerted a consistent influence on the macroevolutionary history of marine animals. Exploring the common cause hypothesis by putting fossils back into rocks and rocks into a new quantitative framework for physical environmental change holds considerable promise for paleobiology.
Beyond the Big Five: Extinctions as Experiments in the History of Life
Authors: Lockwood Rowan
Published: June 2019

The past century has witnessed a number of significant breakthroughs in the study of extinction in the fossil record, from the discovery of a bolide impact as the probable cause of the end-Cretaceous (K/T) mass extinction to the designation of the “Big 5” mass extinction events. Here, I summarize the major themes that have emerged from the past thirty years of extinction research and highlight a number of promising directions for future research. These directions explore a central theme—the evolutionary consequences of extinction— and focus on three broad research areas: the effects of selectivity, the importance of recovery intervals, and the influence of spatial patterns. Examples of topics explored include the role that trait variation plays in survivorship, the comparative effects of extinctions of varying magnitudes on evolutionary patterns, the re-establishment of macroevolutionary patterns in the aftermath of extinction, and the extent to which spatial autocorrelation affects extinction patterns. These topics can be approached by viewing extinctions as repeated natural experiments in the history of life and developing hypotheses to explicitly test across multiple events. Exploring the effects of extinction also requires an interdisciplinary approach, applying evolutionary, ecological, geochronological, geochemical, tectonic, and paleoclimatic tools to both extinction and recovery intervals.
Comparative Paleoecology of Fossils and Fossil Assemblages
Authors: Bush Andrew M. , Daley Gwen M.
Published: June 2019

Generating and testing hypotheses is an integral part of any science, and some of the most stimulating paleobiological hypotheses of the past few decades relate to the ecological properties of fossils or fossil assemblages. Here, we outline recent methods for framing paleoecological questions that should facilitate the further quantitative evaluation of paleoecological hypotheses. First, we describe theoretical ecospaces, which are frameworks for classifying the ecologic properties of individuals or species based on multiple characters. We discuss the utility of theoretical ecospace in understanding evolutionary constraints and biodiversification, among other topics. Second, we discuss the reconstruction of high-resolution paleoecological gradients using ecological ordination techniques. Ordination can help uncover the paleoenvironmental factors that controlled fossil assemblage composition, track these factors through time, and evaluate the environmental and ecological context of major biotic changes. As an example, we present a new gradient analysis of the Yorktown Formation (Pliocene) of Virginia in which substrate and disturbance controlled molluscan assemblage composition. As a further example, we ordinate samples of mid-Paleozoic and late Cenozoic marine fossil assemblages based on their ecological content (as determined using a theoretical ecospace) to test whether the same environmental and ecological factors controlled the distribution of ecological lifestyles in both time intervals, despite the many differences between them. Although depth-related variation is evident in both data sets, the Cenozoic samples show stronger evidence of environmental control on ecologic content within depth zones. In contrast, Paleozoic gradients are consistent with a more random component in assemblage content. These analyses are quite preliminary, however, and should be verified with more extensive data.
On the Adaptive Cycle of Transformational Change: A Proposal for a Panarchical Expansion of Escalation Theory
Authors: Dietl Gregory P.
Published: June 2019

An outstanding challenge with broad implications for an ecologically sustainable future is to understand how living systems—whether natural or social—balance opportunity and constraint in a given environment. In this paper, I compare the proposed mechanics of a heuristic developed to explain transformational change in systems ecology with various paleontological patterns and hypotheses for its conceptual homology and thus explanatory power in causal terms. The adaptive cycle heuristic, which has potential to influence current environmental and natural resources law and policy, has two components: 1) cycles that alternate between long periods of growth and shorter periods that create opportunities for innovation (new structures or conditions that become economically successful), and 2) the interaction of nested sets of such cycles (panarchies) across space and time scales. I critically evaluate three basic underlying tenets of the adaptive cycle related to the circumstances of innovation—empty niche space, competition and availability of resources—because of their importance to the development of a theoretical framework for understanding the ecological dimension of opportunity in biological evolution. I conclude that not all of the proposed mechanics and observed phenomenology of the adaptive cycle are appropriate in biological evolution. I draw insight, however, from the hierarchical nature of the heuristic to outline a “panarchical” conceptualization of the escalation hypothesis; I identify self-organization, emergence, selection and adaptation, and feedback as phenomena that are held in common across systems and scales, which influence how entities in the economic hierarchy of life arise, interact and evolve.

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I, I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.Robert Frost.

Every system either finds a way to develop or else collapses.Aleksander Solzhenitsyn
Carbon isotope stratigraphy of the Neoproterozoic-Cambrian transition: An introduction
Authors: Corsetti Frank A.
Published: June 2019

Carbonate units deposited during the Precambrian-Cambrian transition records a unique δ13C profile that is useful for chemostratigraphic correlation. However, the Precambrian-Cambrian boundary is currently defined within siliciclastic units where δ13C data are not available. The mixed siliciclastic-carbonate succession from the southern Great Basin, USA, records the appropriate fossils in the siliciclastic strata interbedded with carbonate strata that record the appropriate shifts in δ13C to facilitate correlation between the lithologic end-members. Ultimately, the integrated dataset demonstrates that vertical burrowing and the onset of widespread biomineralization was essentially synchronous.
The early Cambrian experiment in reef-building by metazoans
Authors: Rowland Stephen M. , Hicks Melissa
Published: June 2019

A consortium dominated by archaeocyaths and calcified microorganisms (calcimicrobes) constructed the first metazoan reefs during an eleven-million-year interval of the Early Cambrian. However, archaeocyaths were not the first metazoan reef dwellers; the weakly calcified organismNamacalathus, and the more heavily biomineralized organismNamapoikia, occupied microbial reef environments during the late Neoproterozoic, but they were not involved in reef construction. Throughout the late nineteenth century, and during most of the twentieth century, the biological affinities of archaeocyaths were unsettled, which caused paleobiologists to avoid including them in analyses of the Cambrian fauna. However, in the late twentieth century the discovery of living, aspiculate sponges led to a consensus among archaeocyathan workers that these fossils represent an extinct class of aspiculate, calcareous sponges. The majority of archaeocyathan-calcimicrobial reefs are relatively small, lenticular mounds, typically about a meter thick and a few meters in diameter, but the archaeocyathan-calcimicrobial consortium also constructed massive, ecologically zoned, wave-resistant, framework reefs. The Great Siberian Cambrian Reef Complex is 200-300 km wide and stretches for 1500 km across northern Siberia. A consensus has not yet been found among Cambrian reef workers concerning photosymbiosis, which is such an important aspect of the ecology of modern coralgal reefs. Two extinction events hit during the Early Cambrian, the second of which is associated with a eustatic sea-level drop. The attendant marine regression eliminated reefs, and the archaeocyathan-calcimicrobial reef community disappeared. While the disappearance of reefs at this time is perfectly understandable, it is nevertheless surprising that the metazoan-calcimicrobe reef-building consortium was not able to recover within a few million years. Approximately forty million years passed æ from the end of the Early Cambrian to the beginning of the Middle Ordovician æ before metazoans finally returned to reef-building. We present seven hypotheses to explain this metazoan-reef-free window. The testing of these hypotheses will, in part, be the challenge of the next phase of research on Early Cambrian reefs.
Ancient Bug Bites on Ancient Plants Record Forest Ecosystem Response to Environmental Perturbations
Authors: Currano Ellen D.
Published: June 2019

Leaf-compression fossils with insect feeding traces are unique in providing rich, direct evidence of two levels in a fossil food web. Plant-insect associations dominate terrestrial trophic interactions, emphasizing the need to understand their ecological and evolutionary history. This paper first discusses methods of recognizing insect herbivore damage on fossil leaves and quantifying fossil insect herbivory. By conducting an unbiased insect damage census, damage frequency (percent of leaves with insect feeding damage), percent of leaf surface area removed by insects, and damage diversity (the number of discrete damage morphotypes, or DTs, found on a fossil flora or individual host plant) can all be measured. Three examples of responses of past plant-insect trophic interactions to environmental stresses are examined. In the first case study, late Oligocene fossil floras from Ethiopia document forest response to local perturbation and key characteristics to recognize disturbance in the plant fossil record. The second case study considers the terrestrial ecosystem response to the catastrophic global perturbation at the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary. In the third case study, the impact of past global warming events—including the Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum—on insect herbivory is discussed. Productive avenues for further research include: insect damage studies conducted outside the North American Cretaceous and Paleogene, actualistic and taphonomic studies of insect herbivory, and tighter collaboration across paleobotany, paleoentomology, botany, and entomology.
Modeling 400 Million Years of Plant Hydraulics
Authors: Wilson Jonathan P.
Published: June 2019

Mathematical models of fluid flow thorough plant stems permit quantitative assessment of plant ecology using anatomy alone, allowing extinct and extant plants to be measured against one another. Through this process, a series of patterns and observations about plant ecology and evolution can be made. First, many plants evolved high rates of water transport through the evolution of a diverse suite of anatomical adaptations over the last four hundred million years. Second, adaptations to increase hydraulic supply to leaves tend to precede, in evolutionary time, adaptations to increase the safety margin of plant water transport. Third, anatomical breakthroughs in water transport function tend to occur in step with ecological breakthroughs, including the appearance of leaves during the Devonian, the evolution of high leaf areas in early seed plants during the Carboniferous, and the early radiation of flowering plants during the Cretaceous. Quantitative assessment of plant function not only opens up the plant fossil record to ecological comparison, but also provides data that can be used to model fluxes and dynamics of past ecosystems that are rooted in individual plant anatomy.
Tapping Educational Resources: An Introduction
Authors: Breithaupt Brent H.
Published: June 2019

Although People are enthusiastic about science, it is appalling when a recent survey by the National Science Foundation indicates that only about 25 percent of American adults can correctly answer basic science questions. Interestingly, those surveyed admitted that they were not well-informed about technical subjects. Presumably, this contrast of enthusiasm versus actual knowledge translates to children as well as adults. With these points in mind, the importance of presenting scientific concepts in a variety of creative ways utilizing multiple approaches is critical if we are to have a scientifically literate society – a society that we expect to make informed decisions concerning matters related to science. Although textbooks present various scientific topics, commonly it is difficult for students to understand the concepts, appreciate the importance, and retain the information relating to relevant scientific subjects. Paleontology has the unique advantage of not only being a mixture of two very important areas of science (biology and geology), but perhaps more than any other area of science, it can be used as a “lure” to present fundamental concepts in the sciences through the study of prehistoric animals.
Dinosaurs over Distance: An Integrated Program Using Distance Learning Technology in the Classroom
Authors: Johnson R.E.
Published: June 2019

Dinosaurs are recognized as one of the most ubiquitous groups of fossil organisms in the classroom curriculum. There are many resources (books, videotapes, posters, etc.) available to the classroom teacher, but an actual visit to a natural history museum with dinosaur and related paleontological exhibits is out of the reach of the majority of schools unless located near large urban centers or near universities. Advances in distance learning technologies now provide the opportunity to reach audiences unable to visit museums during the course of the school year. These technologies also lend themselves to the evaluation of various pedagogical techniques that bring scientific content to widely dispersed audiences.
Who's on First? A Relative Dating Activity
Authors: Barber Marsha , Bartos Diana Scheidle
Published: June 2019

Paleontology, and in particular the study of dinosaurs, is an exciting topic to people of all ages. Although most attention in today's world focuses on dinosaurs and why they became extinct, the world of paleontology includes many other interesting organisms that tell us about Earth's past history. The study of fossils and what they tell scientists about past climates and environments on Earth can be an interesting study for students of all ages.
Determining Age of Rocks and Fossils
Authors: McKinney Frank K.
Published: June 2019

The Age of fossils intrigues almost everyone. Students not only want to know how old a fossil is, but they want to know how that age was determined. Some very straightforward principles are used to determine the age of fossils. Students should be able to understand the principles and have that as a background so that age determinations by paleontologists and geologists don't seem like black magic.
Sequencing Time
Authors: Scotchmoor Judy
Published: June 2019

Telling the history of the earth requires placing events in sequence so that reference can be given to the relative and/or numerical time at which each event occurred. This helps to make sense out of the enormous expanse of time that has elapsed since the origin of the earth. This activity will help students to understand the methods used by geologists in creating the Geologic Time Scale.
Microfossils
Authors: Lipps Jere H.
Published: June 2019

Microfossils are the tiny remains of bacteria, protists, fungi, animals, and plants. Microfossils are a heterogeneous bunch of fossil remains studied as a single discipline because rock samples must be processed in certain ways to remove them and microscopes must be used to study them. Thus, microfossils, unlike other kinds of fossils, are not grouped according to their relationships to one another, but only because of their generally small size and methods of study. For example, fossils of bacteria, foraminifera, diatoms, very small invertebrate shells or skeletons, pollen, and tiny bones and teeth of large vertebrates, among others, can be called microfossils. But it is an unnatural grouping. Nevertheless, this utilitarian subdivision of paleontology, first recognized in 1883, is very significant in geology, paleontology, and biology.
Some Resources on Fossils for K-12 Teachers and Students
Authors: McKinney F. K.
Published: June 2019

This compilation of resources has no pretensions of being complete. Whereas some commercially-produced materials are included, the focus is on free and inexpensive materials and opportunities available both nationwide and locally. A large number of governmental organizations such as state geological surveys and professional organizations of paleontologists, geologists, and biologists have produced materials for distribution at minimal cost. In addition, many professional societies, state geological surveys, county to federal parks, and amateur societies provide educational opportunities “in the field”, where classes can visit fossils where they occur in nature, either to observe them or, where fossils are abundant and conditions are safe, to collect them to take back to the classroom for further study.
How to Find the Neural Correlate of Consciousness
Authors: Block Ned
Published: June 2019

There are two concepts of consciousness that are easy to confuse with one another, access-consciousness and phenomenal consciousness. However, just as the concepts of water and H2O are different concepts of the same thing, so the two concepts of consciousness may come to the same thing in the brain. The focus of this paper is on the problems that arise when these two concepts of consciousness are conflated. I will argue that John Searle's reasoning about the function of consciousness goes wrong because he conflates the two senses. And Francis Crick and Christof Koch fall afoul of the ambiguity in arguing that visual area V1 is not part of the neural correlate of consciousness. Crick and Koch's work raises issues that suggest that these two concepts of consciousness may have different (though overlapping) neural correlates – despite Crick and Koch's implicit rejection of this idea.
Perceptual Intentionality. Attention and Consciousness
Authors: Eilan Naomi
Published: June 2019

A representative expression of current thinking on the ‘problem of consciousness’ runs as follows. There is one, impenetrably hard problem; and a host of soluble, and in this sense easy problems. The hard problem is: how could a physical system yield subjective states? How could there be something it is like to be a physical system? This problem corresponds to a concept of consciousness invariably labelled ‘phenomenal consciousness’. It is here, with respect to phenomenal consciousness, that we encounter an ‘explanatory gap’, where it is this gap that makes the problem so hard. Nothing we can say about the workings of a physical system could begin to explain the existence and nature of subjective, phenomenal feel.
The Modality of Freedom
Authors: Peacocke Christopher
Published: June 2019

The classical problem of free will is one instance of the Integration Challenge. The Integration Challenge in its general form is that of reconciling our metaphysics of any given area with our epistemology for that same area. In the case of free will, the challenge is that of reconciling our seeming first-person knowledge of our exercise of free thought, deliberation, choice and action with a description of what is really going on in the world as characterized in terms of causation, determination, explanation and causal possibility.
The Limits of Explanation: Limited Explanations
Authors: Clark Stephen R. L.
Published: June 2019

When I was first approached to read a paper at the conference from which this volume takes its beginning I expected that Flint Schier, with whom I had taught a course on the Philosophy of Biology in my years at Glasgow, would be with us to comment and to criticize. I cannot let this occasion pass without expressing once again my own sense of loss. I am sure that we would all have gained by his presence, and hope that he would find things both to approve, and disapprove, in the following venture.
Supervenience and Singular Causal Statements
Authors: Woodward James
Published: June 2019

In his recent book, Causation: A Realistic Approach, Michael Tooley discusses the following thesis, which he calls the ‘thesis of the Humean Supervenience of Causal Relations’:

(T) The truth values of all singular causal statements are logically determined by the truth values of statements of causal laws, together with the truth values of non-causal statements about particulars (p. 182).

(T) represents one version of the ‘Humean’ idea that there is no more factual content to the claim that two particular events are causally connected than that they occur, instantiate some law or regularity, and perhaps bear some appropriate non-causal (e.g. spatio-temporal) to each other. This is an idea that is tacitly or explicitly assumed in most familiar accounts of singular causal statements. For example (T) is assumed by many probabilistic theories of singular causal statements, by theories which attempt to analyse singular causal statements in terms of necessary and sufficient conditions, and, as I shall argue below, by David Lewis' counterfactual theory.
Objective Prescriptions
Authors: Hare R. M.
Published: June 2019

I offer no apology for presenting a simple paper about what is essentially a simple subject: the objectivity of moral judgments. Most of the complications are introduced by those who do not grasp the distinctions I shall be making. I am afraid that they include the majority of moral philosophers at the present time. These complications can be unravelled; but not in a short paper. I have tried to do it in my other writings (see esp. Hare 1981: chs 1, 12 and refs).
The Better Part
Authors: Clark Stephen R. L.
Published: June 2019

According to Aristotle, the goal of anyone who is not simply stupid or slavish is to live a worthwhile life. There are, no doubt, people who have no goal at all beyond the moment's pleasure or release from pain. There may be people incapable of reaching any reasoned decision about what to do, and acting on it. But anyone who asks how she should live implicitly agrees that her goal is to live well, to live a life that she can think worth living. That goal, eudaimonia, is something that is sought for its own sake, and for nothing else. Anyone who asks herself how she should live can answer that she should live well. The answer, admittedly, needs further comment. Aristotle went on to suggest that ‘living well’ amounted to living in accordance with virtue, or if there is more than one virtue, in accordance with the best and most complete. Eudaimonia, happiness, is virtuous activity over a whole life. To live a worthwhile life we must acquire and practice habits of doing the right thing, for the right reason. Equivalently, we must do what a virtuous person would, and in the way she would, for the sake of to kalon, or beauty.
Who Needs Ethical Knowledge?
Authors: Williams Bernard
Published: June 2019

An old question, still much discussed in moral philosophy, is whether there is any ethical knowledge. It is closely related, by simple etymology, to the question of cognitivism in ethics. Despite the fact that the terms ‘cognitivism’ and ‘objectivism’ seem sometimes to be used interchangeably, I take it that the question whether there can be ethical knowledge is not the same as the question whether ethical outlooks can be objective. A sufficient reason for this is that an ethical outlook might be taken to consist of rules or principles, which do not admit of truth or falsehood and so cannot be objects of knowledge, but which can be seen as having an objective basis.
The Sirens' serenade
Authors: Savile Anthony
Published: June 2019

How are the beautiful and the good related? A popular answer to this ancient question takes it that to call something beautiful is just to bring it under the most general term of favourable aesthetic assessment and that since the good is in general what we reflectively want then, crudely put, the beautiful is the good's aesthetic dimension. Following this train of thought, we avoid the suggestion that there is any intimate connection between the beautiful and some more narrowly conceived moral or ethical good, since that is, again crudely put, restricted to the good's practical dimension, a dimension supposedly alien to aesthetic concerns.
Do the Successes of Technology Evidence the Truth of Theories?
Authors: Smithurst Michael
Published: June 2019

Borrowing perhaps from mathematics, there is a custom of speaking of science as pure science and applied. Platonism, and other classical positions in the philosophy of mathematics, did not think of the applications of mathematics as a test of the truth of its theorems. 1 But the picture is otherwise for science and technology. It is initially tempting to say that the theories of pure science are empirical generalizations and that the applications of these theories in the makings and doings of technology, accordingly as they succeed or fail, test the theories. Qualifying factors and counter-acting causalities needing to be allowed for, falsification will not be immediate, but inexplicable and apparently irremediable technological failure is likely to be taken as falsifying a theory, and a continued and expanding pattern of technological achievement, a triumph of technology, as the superannuated trope has it, will be taken as a confirmation of a theory, from the inductivist perspective, adding in spadesful to the evidence for its truth.
Instrument and Reality: The Case of Terrestrial Magnetism and the Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis)
Authors: Hackmann Willem
Published: June 2019

In recent years there has been an increasing focus on the role of instruments in the study of nature, both by historians and by philosophers of science, and even by a few art historians who are interested by the images produced by these devices.
Acts, Omissions and Keeping Patients Alive in a Persistent Vegetative State
Authors: Botros Sophie
Published: June 2019

There are many conflicting attitudes to technological progress: some people are fearful that robots will soon take over, even perhaps making ethical decisions for us, whilst others enthusiastically embrace a future largely run for us by them. Still others insist that we cannot predict the long term outcome of present technological developments. In this paper I shall be concerned with the impact of the new technology on medicine, and with one particularly agonizing ethical dilemma to which it has already given rise.
Question Time
Authors: Bambrough Renford
Published: June 2019

It makes straightforward sense to ask a person ‘Why did you decide to become a solicitor?’ (or a carpenter, shopkeeper, teacher or professional musician). There is no mystery about the question ‘Why did you decide to become a British citizen?’ (or a member of the Liberal Party, the Roman Catholic Church or the Aristotelian Society). It may be difficult to answer any of these questions. We may not remember, or may be unable to articulate, what first led us to seek ordination, join the Army or stand for Parliament; but the questions themselves are clear, and they ask for fair comment on matters of public or private interest. There are other questions that sound like these but raise difficulties of another order.
“Desire Formation and Human Good”
Authors: Arneson Richard
Published: June 2019

InWuthering Heightsa man and a woman fall in love and their passion for each other wreaks havoc on several lives, theirs included. Long after his beloved is dead, Heathcliff's life revolves entirely around his love for her. Frustrated by events, his grand romantic passion expresses itself in destructive spasms of antisocial behavior. Catherine, the object of this passion, marries another man on a whim, but describes her feelings for him as like superficial foliage, whereas ‘her love for Heathcliff resembles eternal rocks beneath.’ ‘IamHeathcliff,’ she declares, shortly before dying at the age of nineteen.
Narrative and Understanding Persons
Authors: Hutto Daniel D.
Published: June 2019

Our world is replete with narratives—narratives of our making that are uniquely appreciated by us. This can hardly be denied, certainly if by ‘narratives’ we have in mind only those of the purely discursive variety—i.e. those complex representations that relate and describe the course of some unique series of events, however humble, in a coherent but selective arrangement. Our capacity to create, enjoy and benefit from narratives so defined—be they factual or fictive—surely sets us apart from other creatures. Some, impressed by the prominence of this phenomenon in the traffic of human life, have been tempted to deploy that famous Aristotelian formula, holding that we are,inter alia, not just social or rational or political animals but that we are also rightly distinguished asnarrative or story-tellinganimals.
Framing Narratives
Authors: Currie Gregory
Published: June 2019

Marianne Dashwood was well able to imagine circumstances both favourable and unfavourable to her. But for all her romantic sensibility she was not able to imagine these things from anything other than her own point of view.‘She expected from other people the same opinions and feelings as her own, and she judged of their motives by the immediate effect of their actions on herself.’ Unlike her sister, she could not see how the ill-crafted attentions of Mrs.Jennings could derive from a good nature. And when Elinor had to explain her troubles with Edward Ferrars, she knew that Marianne would feel it as a reminder of her own relations to Willoughby, judging Edward's behaviour as equivalent to that of Willoughby himself. Without the capacity to shift her point of view, Marianne can get no ironic distance from herself; she cannot see the unrealism of her later determination ‘to live solely for my family’.
The Narrative Practice Hypothesis: Origins and Applications of Folk Psychology
Authors: Hutto Daniel D.
Published: June 2019

Psychologically normal adult humans make sense of intentional actions by trying to decide for which reason they were performed. This is a datum that requires our understanding. Although there have been interesting recent debates about how we should understand ‘reasons’, I will follow a long tradition and assume that, at a bare minimum, to act for a reason involves having appropriately interrelated beliefs and desires.
Episodic Ethics
Authors: Strawson Galen
Published: June 2019

I guess I wont send that note now, for the mind is such a new place, last night feels obsolete (Emily Dickinson, 1830–1886).

She said: ‘Rejoice, for God has brought you to your fiftieth year in the world!’ But she had no inkling that, for my part, there is no difference at all between my own days which have gone by and the distant days of Noah about which I have heard. I have nothing in the world but the hour in which I am: it pauses for a moment, and then, like a cloud, moves on. (Samuel Hanagid, 996–1056, Vizier to the King of Granada)
The challenge of genetic change in the broiler chicken
Authors: McKay J.C. , Barton N.F. , Koerhuis A.N.M. , McAdam J.
Published: June 2019

Genetic progress in poultry species for meat production has contributed to the consistent growth in world production of poultry meat. The poultry species have a number of advantages over the larger species used for meat production. It is possible to maintain large pedigreed populations and use their high reproductive rates to transfer genetic progress to the production generations in less than five years. These populations continue to maintain high heritabilities despite, in some cases, prolonged selection. The history of selection progress in broiler chickens (Gallus gallus domesticus) is reviewed and compared with rates of progress in the duck (Anas platyrhyncos) and the turkey (Meleagris gallopavo).

The rates of genetic change for production traits such as growth, feed efficiency and yield have changed the physiology of the birds. Changes in selection criteria have been made to improve the robustness of the production stock. This allows them to perform well in a wider range of environments. These have been combined with improved definitions of the optimum environments for the birds to minimise any impact on welfare and health. This paper describes examples of selection in the broiler chicken aimed at improving skeletal quality and resistance to ascites. A number of the factors influencing future selection criteria are discussed. Breeding programmes have adapted to respond quickly to adverse genetic correlated responses. The need to combine selection for a large number of traits requires that the programmes are very efficient and use the best statistical techniques available for multivariate breeding value estimation.
Consumer requirements for milk and milk products - current and future trends
Authors: White N.
Published: June 2019

Consumer requirements for milk and milk products have changed dramatically over the last 30 years and will continue to develop. Key drivers of change are explored and opinions given on what will be the impact of these changes in the make up of the population, lifestyles and attitudes on food purchasing and consumption in general and on the dairy sector in particular. The dairy sector has the opportunity to meet many of the requirements of current and future consumers in terms of diversity, healthiness, method of production and value for money. Processors will then have to ensure that they can modify existing products in terms of composition and packaging/presentation to meet the needs of various niches in each consumer product sector. Functional properties will become ever more important for the emerging food-service and food manufacturing sectors. Underpinning the development of all new technologies and methods of production must be a recognition that systems must be environmentally friendly, provide healthy and high quality products and deliver real consumer benefits in terms of taste, value or some other parameter. It is not sufficient for the technology simply to deliver production cost benefits if these are not to be passed on to the consumer - particularly if the technology of doing this is seen as being “unnatural”.

It is also suggested that the industry and its core products already possess a number of key attributes relevant to today's consumer in terms of such parameters as “natural”, “healthy” and “diversity” but that insufficient funds are being expended in communicating these benefits to consumers and opinion formers.
Composition and processability of bovine milk from herds with different calving patterns
Authors: O’Brien B.
Published: June 2019

The chemical composition and processing characteristics of milks from spring and autumn calving herds were investigated to establish if an autumn/winter milk supply would overcome the variation in composition and quality which is characteristic of a seasonal milk supply. Three herds of 26 cows were established with mean calving dates of 22 February, 28 September and a 50:50 combination of both. The experimental period was from 5 August to 22 December. Bulk milks were collected separately from each of the three herds at one consecutive am and pm milking each week. Spring and autumn milks were also bulked in proportions of 70:30, 50:50 and 30:70, respectively. All milks were analysed for gross composition, protein fractions, renneting properties (rennet coagulation time [RCT], rate of curd aggregation [K20] and curd firmness [A60]), free fatty acids (FFA) and somatic cell count (SCC). Total protein and casein of spring milk were reduced (P<0.001) from 38.1 and 28.7 g/kg, respectively in the period 14 October-24 November to 33.8 and 25.9 g/kg in the period 25 November-22 December. This was accompanied by a deterioration (minimum P<0.01) in RCT from 21.7 to 33.3 min, in K20 from 8.2 to 15.2 min and in A60 from 43.8 to 30.8 mm. Autumn milk had higher fat (P<0.01) and lactose (P<0.001) concentrations, lower FFA levels (P<0.001), improved (P<0.001) RCT, K20 and A60 values compared to spring milk in the period 25 November-22 December. During this period, the 70:30 milk had improved RCT (P<0.01) and K20 (P<0.05) values and reduced (P<0.01) FFA levels compared to spring milk. It is concluded that the composition and processing characteristics of spring milk deteriorated after 275 days in milk. Changes in total protein and casein were closely associated with changes in renneting properties. Blending of autumn milk with spring milk improved the processing characteristics of the mix compared to those of spring milk. Thus, the introduction of early lactation autumn milk at the end of the spring lactation would maintain good milk processability and allow continuous product manufacture.
Potential for economic benefits to the producer from altering the composition of milk
Authors: D.J. Garrick  , N. Lopez-Villalobos
Published: June 2019

Cost–price models were developed to describe milk collection, manufacture and marketing of standardised fluid milk, butter, cheese, casein, and milk powders. Market constraints were modelled by fixing fluid milk demand to 10% or 70% of milk production. Milks representative of New Zealand Holstein-Friesian (HF) and Jersey (J) breeds, and novel technologies were considered. The true value of each milk was assessed from its own processing performance on the basis of fat, protein, lactose and volume considerations. Average milk was worth £0.193/kg when a significant fluid market exists, reducing to £0.112/kg when most milk was manufactured into concentrated dairy products for sale on the world market. Milk from different breeds varied in true value. On a per kilogram basis, HF milk was less valuable than J milk.

Single and multiple component payment systems were quantified for various subsets of milk components and used to obtain predicted values of a range of milks for comparison to their true values. Values of milks that differ in composition from average milk tend to have predicted values that deviate from their true value. The extent of such bias varies depending upon the payment system considered. For example, volume-based payment over-valued HF milk and penalised J milk. Other payment systems undervalued HF milk and over–valued J milk.

Payment systems should be fair, discourage unfavourable changes in composition and provide opportunities for shifts towards the production of more valuable milk. The marketing mix and the choice of payment system have major impact on the potential for economic benefits to the producer from modifying the composition of milk. Payment systems need careful, thorough investigation in concert with market research and studies into breeding and other management opportunities for modifying milk composition.

A value-based payment system can encourage producers to alter the composition of their milk in order to increase revenue.
Changes in the conjugated linoleic acid content of milk from dairy cows throughout the year
Authors: Lock A.L. , Garnsworthy P.C.
Published: June 2019

Conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) is a naturally occurring anticarcinogen found in dairy products which is produced in the rumen as an intermediate in the biohydrogenation of polyunsaturated fatty acids by the bacteria Butyrivibrio fibrivsolvens. An experiment was conducted to examine the changes in CLA concentration in bovine milk throughout the year. 338 milk samples were taken from the University of Nottingham's commercial dairy herd between December 1997 and March 1999. All animals followed the same dietary regime throughout the study. Samples were analysed for fat and CLA content. Morning and evening samples were pooled to calculate daily fat and CLA concentrations and yields. There was a small variation in milk yield (P<0.05) whereas CLA content and yield varied considerably (P<0.001) throughout the year (CLA = 0.91 to 2.81 mg/g of fat). The highest concentrations were found during the summer months when the cows were mainly eating fresh grass as opposed to conserved forages. Fat content and yield followed by the month were the predominant factors affecting CLA output. Results indicate that, if required, CLA in milk could be increased through suitable dietary management practices.
The effect of whole linseed or xylose treated whole linseed on dairy cow performance and level of the fatty acids C18:3, C20:5and C22:6in milk fat
Authors: Mansbridge R.J. , Blake J.S. , Collins C.A.
Published: June 2019

The Committee on Medical Aspects of Food Policy report Nutritional Aspects of Cardiovascular Disease recommended increased dietary intakes of the long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids eicosapentaenoic acid and docosahexaenoic acid to help protect against cardiovascular disease. There is some evidence that a-linolenic acid can be elongated and desaturated by mammalian enzyme systems to produce small amounts of eicosapentaenoic and docosahexaenoic acids. Whole linseeds are rich in a–linolenic acid, and it has been suggested that feeding this oilseed to dairy cows may result in higher levels of the long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids in bovine milk. To examine this hypothesis, the effect of feeding whole ground linseed and xylose treated whole ground linseed on the performance and milk composition of dairy cows was investigated.

Either form of whole linseed reduced dry matter intakes and milk protein concentration. The xylose treated whole linseed increased milk yield, but neither linseed source changed milk fat concentration. Levels of milk a-linolenic acid increased to 1.2 g/100 g fatty acid when whole ground linseed was fed, and to 1.5 g/100 g fatty acid with the xylose treated linseed compared with 0.7 g/100 g fatty acid for cows fed the control diet. The efficiency of incorporation of additional dietary a-linolenic acid into milk fat was estimated to be 1.6 and 3.4% for the whole ground and xylose treated whole ground linseed respectively. Feeding whole ground linseed increased the proportion of a-linolenic acid in milk fat, but there was no evidence of eicosapentaenoic and docosahexaenoic acids in milk fat, suggesting that if any elongation and desaturation of a-linolenic acid occurs in dairy cows, none is transferred to milk.
Synthesis of milk protein and opportunities for nutritional manipulation
Authors: MacRae J.C. , Bequette B.J. , Crompton L.A.
Published: June 2019

Dietary manipulation of milk fat content and/or fatty acid composition is becoming a feasible, and for certain niche–markets, attractive means of boosting the nutritive value and acceptability of milk and its secondary products. However it is not yet possible to indicate equivalent ways of manipulating milk protein content and/or composition. This paper will consider current knowledge on milk protein biosynthesis and the opportunities for nutritional manipulation. Recent infusion studies which have linked changes in mammary amino acid metabolism with changes in milk protein content will be examined in an attempt to elucidate key features of the metabolic regulation of the dairy cow which need to be addressed if the British consumer is to have the choice of higher protein (possibly designer protein) milk products. This review will (in part) utilise data from a joint project at the Rowett Institute and Reading University funded by a consortium comprising government (MAFF, BBSRC and SOAEFD) and agribusiness (MDC, Purina Mills and Hendrix).
Dietary effect on bovine milk fat conjugated linoleic acid content
Authors: Lawless F. , Murphy J.J. , Fitzgerald S. , O’Brien B. , Devery R. , Stanton C.
Published: June 2019

Conjugated linoleic acid (cis-9, trans-11-C18:2; CLA) in milk arises as a result of microbial biohydrogenation of dietary linoleic and linolenic acids in the rumen (Kepler and Tove, 1967). Milk fat CLA concentrations were significantly (P<0.05) higher when cows were fed silage supplemented with pulp’n brew (a mixture of brewers grains, a by-product of the brewing industry, and sugar beet pulp in dry matter proportions of 0.65:0.35), compared with silage alone (Trial 1). Intake of spring grass resulted in a 2.1–fold increase in milk fat CLA concentrations over cows receiving autumn grass. Throughout lactation in Trial 2, spring calving cows produced higher milk fat CLA concentrations (from 0.5-2.7 g/100 g fatty acid methyl esters (FAME)) than autumn calving cows (0.3-1.7 g/100 g FAME); the former having spent 80% and the latter 50% of lactation on pasture. The CLA content was higher in late lactation milk compared with early lactation milk in both herds. There were no significant differences in milk yields or milk constituent yields between the herds. Manufacturing milk obtained between March and September was analyzed for milk fatty acid composition and the data correlated with grass growth throughout the season. Significant positive correlations were obtained between grass growth rates and concentrations of CLA and linolenic acid in milk fat. The data indicate that seasonal variation in milk fat CLA concentrations may be attributed to variation in pasture growth rates.