bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Exploring strategic priorities for regional agricultural R&D investments in East and Central Africa
Authors: You Liangzhi , Johnson Michael
Published: March 2010

The 11 countries of East and Central Africa have diverse but overlapping agroclimatic conditions, and could potentially benefit from spillovers of agricultural technology across country borders. This article uses high‐resolution spatial data on actual and potential yields for 15 major products across 12 development domains to estimate the total benefits available from the spread of new agricultural technologies around the region. Market responses and welfare gains are estimated using the Dynamic Research Evaluation for Management model, taking account of current and future projections of local and international demand. Results suggest which crops, countries, and agroclimatic regions offer the largest total benefits. Downloadable data and program files permit different assumptions and additional information to be considered in the ongoing process of strategic priority setting.
The impact of migration on rural poverty and inequality: a case study in China
Authors: Zhu Nong , Luo Xubei
Published: March 2010

Large numbers of agricultural labor moved from the countryside to cities after the economic reforms in China. Migration and remittances play an important role in transforming the structure of rural household income. This article examines the impact of rural‐to‐urban migration on rural poverty and inequality in a mountainous area of Hubei province using the data of a 2002 household survey. Since migration income is a potential substitute for farm income, we present counterfactual scenarios of what rural income, poverty, and inequality would have been in the absence of migration. Our results show that, by providing alternatives to households with lower marginal labor productivity in agriculture, migration leads to an increase in rural income. In contrast to many studies that suggest that the increasing share of nonfarm income in total income widens inequality, this article offers support for the hypothesis that migration tends to have egalitarian effects on rural income for three reasons: (1) migration is rational self‐selection—farmers with higher expected return in agricultural activities and/or in local nonfarm activities choose to remain in the countryside while those with higher expected return in urban nonfarm sectors migrate; (2) households facing binding constraints of land supply are more likely to migrate; (3) poorer households benefit disproportionately from migration.
Seasonal protection of F&V imports in the EU: impacts of the entry price system
Authors: Garcia‐Alvarez‐Coque Jose‐Maria , Martinez‐Gomez Victor , Villanueva Miquel
Published: March 2010

The measures of border protection applied by the European Union (EU) to imports of fruits and vegetables (FV) are complex and usually not well represented in trade models, not only because of the range of instruments still constraining trade, but also because of product differentiation and seasonality in these products. This article assesses the impact of eliminating entry price (EP) constraints applied to a group of FV products. The proposed model is of a partial equilibrium nature and takes seasonality into account. We have applied the model to imports of tomatoes, cucumbers, clementines, and table grapes. Trade impacts of eliminating EP are significant for particular origins, during specific seasons, most notably for Moroccan tomatoes. The volumes and prices of products originating in the EU experience moderate reductions.
Does fertilizer use respond to rainfall variability? Panel data evidence from Ethiopia
Authors: Alem Yonas , Bezabih Mintewab , Kassie Menale , Zikhali Precious
Published: March 2010

In this article, we use farmers' actual experiences with changes in rainfall levels and their responses to these changes to assess whether patterns of fertilizer use are responsive to changes in rainfall patterns. Using panel data from the Central Highlands of Ethiopia matched with corresponding village‐level rainfall data, the results show that the intensity of current year's fertilizer use is positively associated with higher rainfall levels experienced in the previous year. Rainfall variability, on the other hand, impacts fertilizer use decisions negatively, implying that variability raises the risks and uncertainty associated with fertilizer use. Abundant rainfall in the previous year could depict relaxed liquidity constraints and increased affordability of fertilizer, which makes rainfall availability critical in severely credit‐constrained environments. In light of similar existing literature, the major contribution of the study is that it uses panel data to explicitly examine farmers' responses to actual weather changes and variability.
Effects of desmopressin on the sleep of children suffering from enuresis
Authors: Rahm C , Schulz‐Juergensen S , Eggert P
Published: March 2010

Aim:  To evaluate the effect of 1‐desamino‐8‐D‐Arginine Vasopressin (DDAVP) on sleep architecture and arousal reactions in children with primary monosymptomatic nocturnal enuresis (PME).

Methods:  A prospective, placebo‐controlled, randomized, double‐blind, cross‐over study was performed on children suffering from bed‐wetting. Placebo and DDAVP were given for 7 days each after which an unattended home polysomnography (PSG) was recorded. After lifting the blinding, the PSGs were compared.

Results:  A total of 20 children with PME, aged 6–15 years, were enrolled in the study. The number of wet nights decreased significantly with DDAVP treatment. Delta power, distribution of sleep stages, number of arousals, arousal index and the effect of arousals on sleep stages did not differ significantly. Bed‐wetting occurred within each sleep stage and did not follow any particular pattern. In most cases, it was preceded by an arousal reaction, but no awakening occurred.

Conclusion:  DDAVP has no effect on the sleep architecture of children with PME when analysed by classical PSG, which is determined by collecting the electric activity of cortical neurons. Taking recent research findings into account, this supports the thesis that the disturbances causing PME occur at brain stem level and do not reach consciousness.
Insights into early brain development from modern brain imaging and outcome studies
Authors: Weindling Michael
Published: March 2010

Recent brain imaging and outcome studies of infants born at very early gestation have cast new light on brain development at a vulnerable stage. Some of these new developments are reviewed in this editorial.

Conclusion:  The anatomical differences between the brains of babies born extremely prematurely and those born at term appear to translate into disturbances of function. The challenge for paediatricians is to discover the causes, with the aim of promoting normal brain development.
Doing Away with the Drab Age: Research Opportunities in Mid‐Tudor Literature (1530–1580)
Authors: Pincombe Mike , Shrank Cathy
Published: March 2010

This article surveys recent developments in the study of mid‐Tudor literature; some of the problems the area has traditionally faced and still faces; and the opportunities for new research it offers, especially that which exploits new technology. It traces the deleterious effect that C. S. Lewis’ epithet ‘Drab Age’ has had upon the field, and how this has been compounded by institutional and market pressures in university education and academic publishing in the second half of the twentieth century. Nonetheless, interest in mid‐16th century literature is being revived by historicist readings. The article maps out a number of areas ripe for future study, including life‐writing, women’s writing, miscellanies, anonymous writing, cheap/ephemeral print, Inns of Court writing, translation, Tudor poetics, manuscripts, non‐dramatic dialogue, paratext and anthologies of ‘tragical tales’. It calls for an unprejudiced reassessment of the aesthetics of mid‐Tudor literature and draws attention to its humour and generic hybridity.
Notes Toward a Dialectical Method: Modernities, Modernisms, and the Crossings of Empire
Authors: Doyle Laura
Published: March 2010

The last few decades of postcolonial, national, and transnational studies make it possible to do fuller justice to the layered histories that have shaped literature's circulation. Recent historical work on the medieval period through the 18th century establishes that both inter‐imperial jockeying and anti‐colonial resistance have shaped literature as it travels. Historians' accounts of these interconnected histories enable us to construct a transnational ‘histoire croisée’ with a highly dialectical accent. Building on this scholarship, this essay first of all foregrounds the interactive co‐production of modern empires, including Ottoman and European empires. It then surveys some of the complex histories of cultural transmission by which Ottoman, Asian, and African cultures have formed ‘the West’ at its cultural foundations, whether through modeling ‘public sphere’ spaces, such as coffeehouses or western philosophers' study of Asian ideals of ‘organic’ esthetic form and political ethics. The essay then closes with a brief consideration of global modernisms in the light of this long history, highlighting new scholarship that moves toward the dialectical methodology conceptualized here.
Body Mass Index But Not Pulse Pressure Is Associated with Lesser Penile–Vaginal Intercourse Frequency in Healthy Young Men
Authors: Brody Stuart
Published: March 2010

Introduction

A growing literature links aspects of sexual and cardiovascular function. Recent research revealed that pulse pressure (systolic minus diastolic) was associated with poorer erectile function (and hypogonadism) in male patients with erectile dysfunction. It is unclear to what degree pulse pressure (and body mass index) would be associated with aspects of sexual function in a younger, healthy sample (controlling for possible confounders).

Aims

To examine the associations of frequency of specific sexual behaviors with both resting pulse pressure and body mass index.

Methods

Sixty-five healthy young men (mean age 25.2 ± 4.6 years) had their resting blood pressure, weight, and height recorded, and reported the frequency of their various sexual activities.

Main Outcome Measures

Correlations of pulse pressure with different sexual behaviors (univariate and adjusted for possible confounding variables including age, mean blood pressure, body mass index, social desirability responding score, and cohabitation status).

Results

For these healthy young men, on univariate and adjusted analyses, pulse pressure was not significantly associated with frequencies of penile–vaginal intercourse, other partnered sexual activity, or masturbation. In contrast, body mass index was associated with lesser frequency of penile–vaginal intercourse but not other sexual behaviors.

Conclusions

The association of pulse pressure with sexual function previously observed in older men was not observed in this younger healthy sample. Other measures of arterial stiffness might be indicated in a healthy young population. Even within the normal range and adjusted for possible confounders, increasing body mass index (a rough proxy for body fat) is associated with reduced frequency of specifically penile–vaginal intercourse, which might be a result of some combination of characterological and hormonal factors.
Chronic Treatment with an Oral Rho-Kinase Inhibitor Restores Erectile Function by Suppressing Corporal Apoptosis in Diabetic Rats
Authors: Li Wen Ji , Park Kwanjin , Paick Jae-Seung , Kim Soo Woong
Published: March 2010

Introduction

It has been suggested that the up-regulation of the contractile RhoA/Rho-kinase (ROCK) signaling pathway is one of the important mechanisms for diabetes-associated erectile dysfunction (ED). However, the exact role of RhoA/ROCK signaling in the pathogenesis of diabetes-related ED has not been fully delineated.

Aim

To determine whether the RhoA/ROCK pathway is involved in the regulation of corporal apoptosis and whether administration of insulin or fasudil, a specific ROCK inhibitor, could ameliorate ED in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats.

Main Outcome Measures

At 16 weeks after diabetes induction, erectile function was assessed by cavernous nerve stimulation. Penile tissue was assessed for apoptosis with terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated 2′-deoxyuridine 5′-triphosphate (dUTP) nick end labeling assay. Expression of myosin phosphatase target subunit 1 (MYPT1), protein kinase B (Akt), and phospho-endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) were evaluated by Western blot. Immunohistochemical study was carried out for smooth muscle alpha-actin, B-cell leukemia/lymphoma 2 (Bcl-2), and Bcl-2-associated X Protein (Bax). Activity of caspase-3 and phosphatase and tensin homolog deleted on chromosome ten (PTEN) was also determined.

Methods

Male Sprague-Dawley rats (8 weeks old) were randomly divided into four groups: age-matched controls, diabetic controls, and diabetic rats treated with insulin (10 U/day, subcutaneous injection) or fasudil (30 mg/kg/day, oral) for the last 4 weeks of the 16 weeks after diabetes induction.

Results

Diabetic rats showed impairment of erectile function, increased MYPT1 phosphorylation, and corporal apoptosis. Expression of phospho-Akt, phospho-eNOS, and Bcl-2 were decreased, whereas activity of PTEN and caspase-3 and expression of Bax were increased. Treatment with fasudil normalized these molecular and histologic alterations, and restored erectile function. Insulin treatment showed similar effects to those of fasudil, however, the effects were smaller than fasudil.

Conclusions

This study indicates that up-regulation of the penile RhoA/ROCK pathway in diabetic rats enhances corporal apoptosis via the PTEN/Akt pathway resulting in ED, which could be prevented by chronic treatment with fasudil.
Effects of Surgical and Adjuvant Therapies for Breast Cancer on Sexuality, Cognitive Functions, and Body Weight
Authors: Biglia Nicoletta , Moggio Giulia , Peano Elisa , Sgandurra Paola , Ponzone Riccardo , Nappi Rossella E. , Sismondi Piero
Published: March 2010

Introduction

Breast cancer and its treatment negatively affect the important aspects of a woman’s life such as sexual health, cognitive functions, body image, and weight. Abrupt estrogen deficiency following chemotherapy and/or hormonal therapy plays an important role in worsening of sexuality.

Aim

To evaluate the impact of breast cancer treatment on sexual functioning, cognitive function, and body weight in premenopausal women.

Methods

Thirty-five women with a premenopausal diagnosis of breast cancer who are candidate to adjuvant treatment completed validated questionnaires on menopausal symptoms, sexuality, partner relationship, depression, body image, and cognitive functions after surgery (T0), then after chemotherapy or at least 6 months of endocrine therapy (T1), and after 1 year (T2). In addition, gynecological and dietological examinations were performed.

Main Outcome Measure

The following validated questionnaires were used: Greene Climacteric Scale, Beck Depression Inventory, Body Attitude Test, McCoy revised Italian version McCoy Female Sexuality Questionnaire, Cues for Sexual Desire Scale, Dyadic Adjustment Scale, Numeric Matrix Test and Rey uditory-verbal learning test, to measure cognitive functions, a recall 24 H questionnaire to evaluate food intake, Minnesota Leisure Time Physical Activity questionnaire and Eating Attitude Test-40, while anthropometric and plicometry data were assessed by a dietitian.

Results

Low levels of sexual functioning were registered at baseline; a further decrease in sexual activity, quality of the partnered relationship, desire, and arousability was demonstrated at T1 and T2. We found a significant increase in hot flushes and anxiety. Nonsignificant deterioration of body image was demonstrated. Although women reported losing memory and concentration, “chemobrain” effect was not demonstrated as cognitive tests improved after 6 months, probably because of “learning effect.” Women who had undergone chemotherapy gained weight and fat disposition was typically android.

Conclusions

Young women undergoing adjuvant breast cancer therapy experience a heavy impairment in important quality of life domains as sexuality and targeted support interventions are needed.
Patterns of regular use of mammography—Body weight and ethnicity: The Multiethnic Cohort
Authors: Edwards Quannetta T. , Li Arthur , Pike Malcolm C. , Kolonel Laurence , Henderson Brian E. , McKean‐Cowdin Roberta
Published: March 2010

Purpose: To describe the association between body mass index (BMI) and frequency of regular mammography over an approximate 6‐year period after controlling for the influence of demographic factors, behavioral factors, and medical history. This association was examined overall and by race/ethnicity in a multiethnic cohort of women including African American, Japanese American, Hispanic, Native Hawaiian, and non‐Hispanic White women.

Data source: Analysis of 81,722 women from the Hawaii and Los Angeles Multiethnic Cohort (MEC) using unconditional logistic regression to obtain odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for the association between BMI and regular annual or biennial (every 1–2 years) mammography overall and by race/ethnicity.

Results: Overall, 36% of MEC women reported regular annual mammography over an approximate 6‐year period of follow‐up. African American, Hispanic, and Native Hawaiian women had significantly lower annual and biennial mammography use compared to White women even after controlling for age, education, family history, BMI, menopausal status, and hormone therapy. Women who were overweight (OR = 0.96; 95% CI 0.92–1.01) or obese (OR = 0.88; 95% CI 0.84–0.93) were less likely to have regular annual mammography compared to women of normal weight. Similar findings were noted among women who had mammograms every 1–2 years (biennial).

Conclusions: BMI is associated with the frequency of regular annual and biennial mammography in multiethnic women, especially among women who are overweight and obese.

Implications for practice: Culturally sensitive educational strategies that promote healthy behaviors toward regular mammography and maintenance of normal BMI are warranted.
Comparison of population estimators and indices for monitoring house mice in sorghum crops
Authors: KABOODVANDPOUR Shahram , FREE Carissa , LEUNG Luke K.‐P.
Published: March 2010

House mice (Mus musculus domesticus Schwarz & Schwarz, 1943) are monitored in Australia and China to track changes in mouse population densities and forecast their potential damage to cereal crops. The present study compared population indices based on the number of different mice caught and overall trap success from live‐trapping with an oil card index (OC) and a tracking index (T) for monitoring mice in sorghum crops immediately before crop maturation. T was measured as the percentage of track board covered with mouse footprints night−1, and OC as the percentage of card removed by mice night−1. The reliability of these abundance indices was quantified by Pearson correlation coefficient with the trappable population size (Ñ), which was estimated by capture–recapture over eight consecutive nights on 175 × 5 trapping grids, in sorghum crops on two properties on the Darling Downs, Queensland. Because of differences among individual mice in capture probability, Model Mh of program MARK was used to account for such heterogeneity and to estimate the size of each mouse population. The number of individual animals caught was more strongly correlated with Ñ than trap success and, therefore, might be a more reliable index; the data suggest that three trapping occasions provide optimal precision for this index. T correlated significantly with Ñ only at sites where the canopy of sorghum plants was closed, and its use should, therefore, be restricted to this habitat. OC did not correlate with Ñ because none or very little of the cards was eaten at low to moderate mouse densities. T and the number of animals caught over three trapping nights are recommended for monitoring mice in sorghum crops immediately prior to crop maturation.
Efficacy of anticoagulant‐free alternative bait products against house mice (Mus musculus) and brown rats (Rattus norvegicus)
Authors: SCHMOLZ Erik
Published: March 2010

The attractiveness and efficacy of four anonymous anticoagulant‐free alternative rodenticides (active ingredients cellulose or plaster) were tested on wild strain groups of house mice (Mus musculus Linnaeus) and brown rats (Rattus norvegicus Berkenhout) in laboratory choice and no‐choice experiments. In no‐choice tests, the rodenticide product was offered ad libitum to the animals for 21 days (mice) and 10 days (rats), respectively. In choice tests, the rodenticide product and non‐poisoned food were offered for 28 days (mice) and 14 days (rats). Two products with cellulose (C1 and C2) as the active ingredient were tested against both mice and rats. In two no‐choice tests with mice, all animals died within 14 days (C1) and 21 days (C2); in a third no‐choice test, 11% (2/18) of mice survived (C1: 21 days). In all three tests, numerous incidents of cannibalism were observed. The attractiveness of cellulose baits was tested for one product (C1) in three trials against normal food pellets. In all trials, bait consumption was low and all mice survived (15–34 days). Two no‐choice trials with cellulose baits (C1) were conducted on groups of Rattus norvegicus; 11 of 12 rats survived the bait feeding period and no cannibalism or sign of aggression between conspecifics was observed. Two plaster‐based (CaSO4·0.5H2O) products (P1 and P2) were tested against both mice and rats; in no‐choice tests, only one mouse (n= 20) and no rats (n= 8) were killed, although the baits proved to be attractive for rats and mice in choice tests. The results of these experiments suggest that neither cellulose‐based nor plaster‐based rodenticides are suitable agents for the control of Mus musculus and Rattus norvegicus.
Semantic Underspecification
Authors: Egg Markus
Published: March 2010

Semantic underspecification is a technique to capture several readings of an ambiguous expression in one single representation by deliberately omitting the differences between the readings in the representation. First, underspecification formalisms will be presented to introduce underspecification in general and to outline important properties of these formalisms that allow their classification into subgroups. After expounding the kinds of ambiguity to which underspecification can be applied, the article then presents various motivations for the use of underspecification, and shows how underspecified semantic representations can be further processed.
Impact of pulmonary tuberculosis on menstrual pattern and fertility
Authors: Hassan Wafaa Ali , Darwish Atef Mohamad
Published: March 2010

Introduction and Study Objective:  The association between pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) and female reproductive health problems is not well addressed. This study was done at Assiut University and Woman's Health University Hospitals to estimate the effect of pulmonary TB on menstrual patterns and fertility of women in childbearing age.

Patients and Methods:  This study composed of 429 women with pulmonary TB of childbearing age (study group) and 100 age‐matched healthy women (control group). A detailed medical history was obtained, and a clinical examination, routine investigations of pulmonary TB and transvaginal ultrasonography (TVS) were performed for all cases. Hysterosalpingography, combined laparoscopy and hysteroscopy were done for infertile women whenever indicated.

Results:  Menstrual abnormalities were reported in 66% of women in the study group. Secondary amenorrhea (112 cases, 26.5%, P < 0.001) and hypomenorrhea (86 cases, 20%, P < 0.001) were significantly higher in the study group than controls (2% and 3%, respectively). TVS diagnosed functional ovarian cysts in 85 patients in the study group (19.8%). After completing anti‐tuberculosis treatment, 76% of women with menstrual abnormalities (162/213) resumed normal menstrual cycles. Among the 68 cases who sought fertility within 1 year after completion of treatment, TB peritubal and fine intrauterine adhesions were confirmed by laparoscopy and hysteroscopy in two and one infertile woman, respectively (0.7% of study group).

Conclusions:  TB had marked reversible effect on the menstrual cycle but minimal association with genital TB and infertility. Pretreatment counseling of pulmonary TB women should include information on these reversible changes. Persistence of menstrual abnormalities or presence of infertility after completion of treatment should stimulate investigation for the possibility of genital tract involvement.

Please cite this paper as: Hassan WA and Darwish AM. Impact of pulmonary tuberculosis on menstrual pattern and fertility. The Clinical Respiratory Journal 2010; 4: 157–161.
Predictors of age at onset of tobacco and cannabis use in Danish adolescents
Authors: Wium‐Andersen Ida Kim , Wium‐Andersen Marie Kim , Becker Ulrik , Thomsen Simon Francis
Published: March 2010

Introduction:  Early onset of tobacco and cannabis use predicts later substance abuse and risk behaviour and has large health consequences.

Objectives:  The aim of this study was to examine risk factors for the age at onset of smoking and cannabis use among a group of Danish children between 7 years and 18 years of age.

Methods:  Four hundred and eighty randomly selected children and their parents participated in a study about the prevalence of asthma. The study included questions about alcohol, tobacco and cannabis use. The children were interviewed face‐to‐face while the parents answered a questionnaire.

Results:  The age at onset of daily smoking was significantly associated with the adolescents' tendency to binge drink [hazard ratio 4.78, 95% confidence interval (CI) (1.85–12.34), P = 0.001) and to use hard drugs [hazard ratio 2.81, 95% CI (1.03–7.78), P = 0.047], whereas the age at onset of cannabis use was significantly associated with binge drinking [hazard ratio 3.29, 95% CI (1.51–7.20), P = 0.003] and cigarette smoking [hazard ratio 2.51, 95% CI (1.26–5.00), P = 0.009]. There were no significant effect of the parents' smoking and alcohol habits, their socioeconomic or marital status on the adolescent' age at onset of smoking or cannabis.

Conclusion:  This study shows a close connection between adolescent tobacco and cannabis use and alcohol habits. Knowledge of this is important when planning future prevention strategies.

Please cite this paper as: Wium‐Andersen IK, Wium‐Andersen MK, Becker U and Thomsen SF. Predictors of age at onset of tobacco and cannabis use in Danish adolescents. Clin Respir J 2010; 4: 162–167.
The One and Only Argument for Radical Millianism
Authors: Deutsch Max
Published: March 2010

Radical Millianism agrees with less radical varieties in claiming that ordinary proper names lack “descriptive senses” and that the semantic content of such a name is just its referent but differs from less radical varieties of Millianism in claiming that any pair of sentences differing only in the exchange of coreferential names cannot differ in truth‐value. This is what makes Radical Millianism radical. The view is surprisingly popular these days, and it is popular despite the fact that, until very recently, there was not a single argument for it. Theodore Sider and David Braun (2006) have tried to provide the missing argument, but, I argue, their attempt fails. I conclude that we (still) have no reason to be Radical Millians.
Whose Metaphysics of Presence? Heidegger's Interpretation of Energeia and Dunamis in Aristotle
Authors: Gonzalez Francisco J.
Published: March 2010

In the recently published 1924 course, Grundbegriffe der aristotelischen Philosophie, Martin Heidegger offers a detailed interpretation of Aristotle's definition of kinesis in the Physics. This interpretation identifies entelecheia with what is finished and present‐at‐an‐end and energeia with being‐at‐work toward this end. In arguing against this interpretation, the present paper attempts to show that Aristotle interpreted being from the perspective of praxis rather than poiesis and therefore did not identify it with static presence. The paper also challenges later variations of Heidegger's interpretation, in particular his account of dunamis in the 1931 course on Metaphysics Theta, which insists that its mode of being is presence‐at‐hand. By arguing that this reading too is untenable, the paper concludes that Aristotle's metaphysics is not a metaphysics of presence and that his texts instead point toward a possibility of metaphysics ignored by the attempts of Heidegger and others to overcome it.
Aretaic Appraisal and Practical Reasons
Authors: Mason Michelle
Published: March 2010

When we criticize someone for being unjust, deceitful, or imprudent—or commend him as just, truthful, or wise—what is the content of our evaluation? On one way of thinking, evaluating agents in terms that employ aretaic concepts evaluates how they regulate their actions (and judgment‐sensitive attitudes) in light of the reasons that bear on them. On this virtue‐centered view of practical reasons appraisal, evaluations of agents in terms of ethical virtues (and vices) are, inter alia, evaluations of them as practical reasoners. Here I consider and respond to an objection that threatens to debunk the virtue‐centered view.
Social Epistemology, Theory of Evidence, and Intelligent Design: Deciding What to Teach
Authors: Goldman Alvin
Published: March 2010

Social epistemology is the normative theory of socioepistemic practices. Teaching is a socioepistemic practice, so educational practices belong on the agenda of social epistemology. A current question is whether intelligent design should be taught in biology classes. This paper focuses on the argument from “fairness” or “equal time.” The principal aim of education is knowledge transmission, but evidence renders it doubtful that giving intelligent design equal time would promote knowledge transmission. In making curricular decisions, boards of education should consult the experts. Are novices capable of identifying genuine experts? This social epistemological question is answered affirmatively.
Evolution and the Kantian Worldview
Authors: Risjord Mark
Published: March 2010

Nonhuman animals seem to make inferences and have mental representations. Brandom articulates a Kantian (and Hegelian) account of representation that seems to make nonhuman mental content impossible: animals are merely sentient, not sapient. His position is problematic because it makes it impossible to understand how our cognitive capacities evolved. This essay discusses experimental and ethological work on transitive inference. It argues that to fit such evidence within the Kantian framework, there must be degrees of normativity. This invites us to understand the distinction between sapience and sentience as endpoints of a continuum, not as a dichotomy.
Group Doxastic Rationality Need Not Supervene on Individual Rationality
Authors: Ross Don
Published: March 2010

There is a strong formal analogy between proposition‐wise supervenience of collective doxastic rationality on individual doxastic rationality and supervenience of social choice functions on individual choice functions. In light of this analogy, the basis for List and Pettit's impossibility theorems can fruitfully be compared with the basis for Arrow's. This helps to explain why List and Pettit can derive no impossibility theorem for set‐wise supervenience. However, there are empirical reasons for doubting that set‐wise supervenience of collective doxastic rationality on individual doxastic rationality is necessary; a systematic feedback relationship between the former and some individual behavioral dispositions is probably sufficient to dissolve mysteries about group agency. Group doxastic rationality need not supervene on individual rationality.
The Epistemic Costs and Benefits of Collaboration
Authors: Fallis Don
Published: March 2010

In “How to Collaborate,” Paul Thagard tries to explain why there is so much collaboration in science, and so little collaboration in philosophy, by giving an epistemic cost‐benefit analysis. In this paper, I argue that an adequate explanation requires a more fully developed epistemic value theory than Thagard utilizes. In addition, I offer an alternative to Thagard's explanation of the lack of collaboration in philosophy. He appeals to its lack of a tradition of collaboration and to the a priori nature of much philosophical research. I claim that philosophers rarely collaborate simply because they can usually get the benefits without paying the costs of actually collaborating.
The Role of Ontology in the Philosophy of Gilles Deleuze
Authors: Hammer Taylor
Published: March 2010

This essay discusses the role of being and ontology in the work of Gilles Deleuze. Starting from an examination of Alain Badiou's ontology and theory of the event, I discuss the possible opposition of being and the event in Deleuze's work. Though famous for his discussions of the univocity of being, Deleuze does discuss the event as that which is not being. Deleuze's theory of the event is similar to that of Badiou in that he considers the event to be extra‐ontological. The essay closes by considering the differences between Deleuze and Badiou on the subject of the event.
Responding to Evil
Authors: Dauenhauer Bernard P.
Published: March 2010

In this paper, I argue that moral and institutional evils, even though they are all contingent, are so pervasive and persistent that there is no practical way of responding to them that would lead eventually to the eradication of all of them. Instead, our practical task is to respond to these evils in ways that respect both the basic capabilities and their associated vulnerabilities that are constitutive of each human being. To do this most effectively, one should offer unconditional forgiveness to the perpetrators of evil. The attitude that can best underpin this forgiveness is one of a properly understood indefeasible hope, a hope that always insists that each person is of greater worth than whatever he or she does.
Externalism and Token‐Identity
Authors: Genova A. C.
Published: March 2010

This study has two goals. The first is to identify three desiderata required for a successful defense of a version of nonreductive physicalism: semantic externalism, token‐identity between mental and physical events, and nonrelational type‐individuation of physical states. In this context, the paper also presents a refutation of recent challenges to content‐externalism by those who attempt to resuscitate internalism by focusing on narrow content associated with the fundamental phenomenology, rather than the intentionality, of mental states. The second goal is to defend the token‐identity thesis from Tyler Burge's argument to the effect that token‐identity is incompatible with semantic externalism. An account is also offered as to why Burge's argument, albeit fallacious, might seem persuasive under a certain interpretation of possible worlds.
Derrida's Worldly Responsibility: The Opening between “Faith” and the “Sacred”
Authors: O'Connor Patrick
Published: March 2010

This article will theorize how Derrida's deconstruction signifies a fundamental ontological alterity. We will examine the use of both the tropes of “sacred” and “faith” as tropes to express this possibility. We will articulate how deconstruction, as a development of phenomenology, provides a theoretical nexus where the alterity of things and persons may be thought. We will arrive at the paradoxical formulation of “ontological alterity” as a key moment in deconstructive thinking. Essentially we will argue that deconstruction offers the resources to think the relation between other person and things in the world as motivated by a firm radicalization of Heideggerean worldliness and Levinasian alterity.
The Meno's Metaphilosophical Examples
Authors: King Matthew
Published: March 2010

I propose that an ill‐appreciated contrast between the examples Socrates gives Meno, to show him how he ought to philosophize, is the key to understanding the Meno. I contend that Socrates prefers his definitions of shape to his account of color because the former are concerned with what shape is, while the latter is concerned with how color comes to be. This contrast suggests that Plato intends an analogous contrast between the (properly philosophical) way of inquiry that leads to Socrates' definition of knowledge as “true belief tied down with an account” and the (not properly philosophical) way of inquiry that leads to Socrates' account of how knowledge comes to be, that is, the “theory of recollection.”
How Not to Refute Quine: Evaluating Kim's Alternatives to Naturalized Epistemology
Authors: Bayer Benjamin
Published: March 2010

This paper offers an interpretation of Quine's naturalized epistemology through the lens of Jaegwon Kim's influential critique of the same. Kim argues that Quine forces a false choice between traditional deductivist foundationalism and naturalized epistemology and contends that there are viable alternative epistemological projects. However it is suggested that Quine would reject these alternatives by reference to the same fundamental principles (underdetermination, indeterminacy of translation, extensionalism) that led him to reject traditional epistemology and propose naturalism as an alternative. Given this interpretation of Quine, it is essential that a successful critic of naturalism also examine Quine's aforementioned principles. The divide between naturalist and nonnaturalist epistemology turns out to be defined by the divide between more fundamental naturalist and nonnaturalist approaches to semantics.
Objective Reasons
Authors: Pendlebury Michael
Published: March 2010

In order to establish that judgments about practical reasons can be objective, it is necessary to show that the applicable standards provide an adequate account of truth and error. This in turn requires that these standards yield an extensive set of substantive, publicly accessible judgments that are presumptively true. This output requirement is not satisfied by the standards of universalizability, consistency, coherence, and caution alone. But it is satisfied if we supplement them with the principle that desire is a source of minimal reasons. This principle is justified despite currently fashionable arguments against the claims of desire.
Schopenhauer on the Values of Aesthetic Experience
Authors: Vandenabeele Bart
Published: March 2010

In this essay, I argue that Schopenhauer's view of the aesthetic feelings of the beautiful and the sublime shows how a “dialectical” interpretation that homogenizes both aesthetic concepts and reduces the discrepancy between both to merely quantitative differences is flawed. My critical analysis reveals a number of important tensions in both Schopenhauer's own aesthetic theory—which does not ultimately succeed in “merging” Plato's and Kant's approaches—and the interpretation that unjustly reduces the value of aesthetic experience to a merely preliminary stage of ethical will‐less salvation.
Why Naturalize Consciousness?
Authors: Wright Wayne
Published: March 2010

This paper examines the relevance of philosophical work on consciousness to its scientific study. Of particular concern is the debate over whether consciousness can be naturalized, which is typically taken to bear on the prospects for its scientific investigation. It is not at all clear that philosophers of consciousness have properly identified and evaluated the assumptions about scientific activity made by both naturalization and antinaturalization projects. I argue that there is good reason to think that some of the assumptions about physicalism and explanation made by the parties to the debate are open to serious doubt. Thus this paper is an invitation for those inquiring into whether consciousness can be naturalized to more carefully consider the expected payoff of such efforts.
The First‐Person: Participation in Argument and the Intentional Relationship
Authors: Barber Michael D.
Published: March 2010

This paper supports Charles Siewert's criticism of those criticizing first‐person approaches because they disagree by arguing that such critics adopt a noncommittal, third‐person observer standpoint on the debates themselves before recommending only third‐person natural scientific approaches to mind and that they oversimplify when they portray philosophy as contentious and natural science as ruled by consensus. Further, a complete account of first‐person intentionality in terms of acts and their correlative objects in their temporal and bodily interrelationships make it possible to defend Siewert's theses: that thought is phenomenally conscious, that there is a phenomenal consciousness beyond sensing, that the Protean view that equates change in a shape's appearance with an apparent change in the shape of what appears is incorrect, and that Hume's two‐dimensional phenomenalism is mistaken.
Reply to Drummond
Authors: Conway Daniel
Published: March 2010

Drawing creatively on the resources of transcendental philosophy, John Drummond makes a persuasive case for the importance of the first‐person perspective in philosophical explanations of consciousness.
Comments on Nicholas Georgalis's “First‐Person Methodologies: A View from Outside the Phenomenological Tradition”
Authors: Harvey Charles W.
Published: March 2010

Three problems are raised for Nicholas Georgalis's recent work: (1) a problem with regard to the supposed noninferential knowledge of minimal content, (2) a problem with the “necessary condition” Georgalis stipulates for the legitimate application of a first‐person methodology to a science of the mind, and (3) a problem with regard to denying phenomenal content to intentional acts.
The Prereflective Cogito as Contaminated Opacity
Authors: Westphal Merold
Published: March 2010

The “I think” that accompanies all my intentional acts is the prereflective cogito. It can be declined in the nominative, genitive, dative, and accusative cases: nominative because I am given to myself as a subject, genitive because each experiential awareness is mine, dative because the content of each awareness is given to me, and accusative because even as subject I am always given to myself as the object of the look and address of another. But it is a mistake to think of consciousness as “pure” by virtue of the formality of this structure. Even at the transcendental level, consciousness is contaminated by contingency and particularly in ways that render it opaque to itself in its relation to nature, society, and God.
Comments on Merold Westphal: The Prereflective Cogito as Contaminated Opacity
Authors: Kaehler Klaus Erich
Published: March 2010

The intention of my comments is mainly to draw attention to a necessary distinction between that prereflective cogito of post‐metaphysical subjectivity that is analysed in Westphal's paper and the subject of the cogito that can be identified and verified as the very principle of modern philosophy from Descartes to Hegel, namely, as the subject of reason. This means first of all to step back from the conviction, taken as self‐evident, that the subject of reason — and thereby the truth claims of that entire philosophical epoch — are illusionary, that is, without any right of their own. Instead we should be ready to ask how it is brought about philosophically that the subject is “shattered,” “humiliated,” “declared forfeit,” etc. My thesis is that post‐metaphysical subjectivity with its contaminated opacity can be made understandable in principle out of the endogenous crisis of the fully developed “absolute” subject of reason, if this crisis is carried out and decided as the transformation of the subject from its absolute to its decentered status.
Material Objects, Constitution, and Mysterianism
Authors: Benbaji Hagit
Published: March 2010

It is sometimes claimed that ordinary objects, such as mountains and chairs, are not material in their own right, but only in virtue of the fact that they are constituted by matter. As Fine puts it, they are “only derivatively material” (2003, 211). In this paper I argue that invoking “constitution” to account for the materiality of things that are not material in their own right explains nothing and renders the admission that these objects are indeed material completely mysterious. Although there may be metaphysical contexts in which mysterianism can be accepted with equanimity, I further argue, the question of the materiality of quotidian objects is not one of them.
The Main Argument for Value Incommensurability (and Why It Fails)
Authors: Ellis Stephen
Published: March 2010

Arguments for value incommensurability ultimately depend on a certain diagnosis of human motivation. Incommensurablists hold that each person's basic ends are not only irreducible but also incompatible with one another. It isn't merely that some goals can't, in fact, be jointly realized; values actually compete for influence. This account makes a mistake about the nature of human motivation. Each value underwrites a ceteris paribus evaluation. Such assessments are mutually compatible because the observation that there is something to be said for an outcome from a particular perspective allows for any ultimate evaluation of that outcome; Values can be irreducible without thereby being incommensurable.
Disappearing Appearances: On the Enactive Approach to Spatial Perceptual Content
Authors: Jagnow René
Published: March 2010

Many viewers presented with a round plate tilted to their line of sight will report that they see a round plate that looks elliptical from their perspective. Alva Noë thinks that we should take reports of this kind as adequate descriptions of the phenomenology of spatial experiences. He argues that his so‐called enactive or sensorimotor account of spatial perceptual content explains why both the plate's circularity and its elliptical appearance are phenomenal aspects of experience. In this paper, I critique the phenomenal adequacy of Noë's sensorimotor account of spatial perceptual content. I begin by showing that some of its central claims are in conflict with the phenomenology of perceptual experience. I then argue that shape appearances have no phenomenal reality, thus undermining this central motivation for his account.
Higher‐Order Thought and the Problem of Radical Confabulation
Authors: Lane Timothy , Liang Caleb
Published: March 2010

Currently, one of the most influential theories of consciousness is Rosenthal's version of higher‐order‐thought (HOT). We argue that the HOT theory allows for two distinct interpretations: a one‐component and a two‐component view. We further argue that the two‐component view is more consistent with his effort to promote HOT as an explanatory theory suitable for application to the empirical sciences. Unfortunately, the two‐component view seems incapable of handling a group of counterexamples that we refer to as cases of radical confabulation. We begin by introducing the HOT theory and by indicating why we believe it is open to distinct interpretations. We then proceed to show that it is incapable of handling cases of radical confabulation. Finally, in the course of considering various possible responses to our position, we show that adoption of a disjunctive strategy, one that would countenance both one‐component and two‐component versions, would fail to provide any empirical or explanatory advantage.