Beyond contested elections: the processes of bill creation and the fulfillment of democracy's promises

Long before 1996, earlier promises of 'development' had splintered into a million shards. Development -- defined as the use of state power to bring about social, political, and economic change in favor of the mass of the population almost everywhere had seemingly imploded. 5 Babies in the poorer countries could expect to live from ten to thirty years fewer than those born in industrialized countries. [TRUNCATED

Numerical investigation of aeroelastic mode distribution for aircraft wing model in subsonic air flow

In this paper, the numerical results on two problems originated in aircraft wing modeling have been presented. The first problem is concerned with the approximation to the set of the aeroelastic modes, which are the eigenvalues of a certain boundary-value problem. The affirmative answer is given to the following question: can the leading asymptotical terms in the analytical formulas be used as reasonably accurate description of the aeroelastic modes? The positive answer means that these leading terms can be used by engineers for practical calculations. The second problem is concerned with the flutter phenomena in aircraft wings in a subsonic, incompressible, inviscid air flow. It has been shown numerically that there exists a pair of the aeroelastic modes whose behavior depends on a speed of an air flow. Namely, when the speed increases, the distance between the modes tends to zero, and at some speed that can be treated as the flutter speed these two modes merge into one double mode

The substantial first impact of bottom fishing on rare biodiversity hotspots: a dilemma for evidence-based conservation

The present study set out to describe the impact of a single first passage of two types of bottom fishing gear on rare protected shellfish beds formed by the horse mussel Modiolus modiolus. From the available evidence it was clear that one of the study sites had been trawled and the other had been scallop-dredged. Divers collected high-resolution video imagery of epifauna from quadrats at the two study sites and directed infaunal samples at one. The total number of epifaunal organisms was substantially less after a single pass of a trawl (90%) or scallop dredge (59%) as was the diversity of the community and the total number of Modiolus modiolus. A year later no recovery was evident at the site where the trawl had passed and substantially less infauna were recorded in the trawl track. The relative severity of the impact of the two types of fishing gear is unexpected and may reflect differences in community between the two sites or the undisturbed status of the habitats compared to previous studies. As a ‘priority habitat’ the nature of the impacts described on M. modiolus communities are important to the development of indicators of ‘Good Environmental Status’ under the European Union Marine Strategy Framework Directive.Conservation managers are under pressure to support decisions with good quality evidence. Elsewhere indirect studies have shown declines of M. modiolus communities in fishing grounds but, given the protected status of the habitat, premeditated demonstration of direct impact is unethical and / or illegal in Marine Protected Areas. The present study therefore provides a unique opportunity to directly investigate the scale of the impact from bottom fishing gear whilst also to reflect on the paradox of evidence – based conservation management

Natural enemies and biodiversity : the double-edged sword of trophic interactions

Natural enemies, that is, species that inflict harm on others while feeding on them, are fundamental drivers of biodiversity dynamics and represent a substantial portion of biodiversity as well. Along the life history of the Earth, natural enemies have been involved in probably some of the most productive mechanisms of biodiversity genesis; that is, adaptive radiation mediated by enemy-victim coevolutionary processes. At ecological timescales, natural enemies are a fundamental piece of food webs and can contribute to biodiversity preservation by promoting stability and coexistence at lower trophic levels through top-down regulation mechanisms. However, natural enemies often produce dramatic losses of biodiversity, especially when humans are involved

1998 Sewall Wright Award: William Donald Hamilton

Journal ArticleThe Sewall Wright Award was established in 1991 to honor active investigators who have contributed in especially significant ways to the conceptual unification of the biological sciences. This year's recipient is William D. Hamilton of Oxford University. Beginning in the 1960s with his papers on the theory of inclusive fitness and the evolution of eusociality, Bill Hamilton's publications have permanently changed the landscape of ideas and interpretation surrounding a wide range of biological phenomena. His papers have clarified murky problems, generated new research agendas, and unified our understanding of many central concepts, on a truly revolutionary scale