Professor McGrath Offers a Scholarly Take \u3cem\u3eOn Religion and Doctor Who\u3c/em\u3e

Take TV viewers on trips through time and space for 50 years and you’re going to pick up some admirers—including some scholarly ones. That’s what’s happened with Doctor Who, the British series that is celebrating 50 years this month.Two of the show’s fans—Butler University Professor of Religion James McGrath and Andrew Crome, a lecturer in the history of modern Christianity at the University of Manchester (England)—have compiled a new book, Time and Relative Dimensions in Faith: Religion and Doctor Who, in which 19 scholars who also are Doctor Who fans weigh in on how the longest-running science fiction series in television history deals with religious topics

Complexity, Collective Effects and Modelling of Ecosystems: formation, function and stability

We discuss the relevance of studying ecology within the framework of Complexity Science from a statistical mechanics approach. Ecology is concerned with understanding how systems level properties emerge out of the multitude of interactions amongst large numbers of components, leading to ecosystems that possess the prototypical characteristics of complex systems. We argue that statistical mechanics is at present the best methodology available to obtain a quantitative description of complex systems, and that ecology is in urgent need of ``integrative'' approaches that are quantitative and non-stationary. We describe examples where combining statistical mechanics and ecology has led to improved ecological modelling and, at the same time, broadened the scope of statistical mechanics.Comment: 11 pages and 1 figur

Estimating Consumers' Willingness-To-Pay for Country-Of-Origin Labels in Fresh Apples and Tomatoes: A Double-Hurdle Probit Analysis of American Data Using Factor Scores

Data are collected from primary shoppers in Gainesville Florida, Atlanta Georgia and Lansing Michigan using a Vickrey (fifth-priced sealed bid) experimental auction and a survey questionnaire to provide a sample of 311 observations useable for analysis. The average willingness to pay (WTP) for country of origin labeling (COOL) "Grown in the U.S." in apples and tomatoes are calculated then tested for equivalence to assess if WTP is produce specific. A double-hurdle probit model is then estimated to ascertain the prominent determinants of WTP for COOL. Independent variables include demographics, food safety and factor scores derived from a factor analysis of food quality and food preference variables. Results show that on average consumers are willing to pay $0.49 and$0.48 for COOL in apples and tomatoes respectively with 79% of the consumers willing to pay more than $0.00 for apples labeled "Grown in the U.S." and 72% in the case of tomatoes. Premiums are found to be statistically equivalent suggesting that WTP for COOL is not produce specific. The double hurdle probit estimation finds most independent variables insignificant with the exception of the food quality factor scores and consumer trust levels for information they receive from U.S. government agencies. Location, age and income also turn out to be significant factors in the case of the truncated part of the estimation as do food quality and food safety concerns.Consumer/Household Economics,

Stand Structure and Productivity of the \u3ci\u3eRhizophora mangle\u3c/i\u3e in Hawaii

Since its introduction in the early part of this century, Rhizophora mangle L. has spread extensively through most of the main islands of the Hawaiian Archipelago. We investigated the structural properties and estimated productivity of a R. mangle population at Nuupia Ponds Wildlife Management Area (NPWMA), on windward Oahu, where the mangroves were being controlled due to their propensity to overgrow archaeological sites and the habitat of endangered Hawaiian waterbirds. Mangroves within NPWMA were very dense (\u3e 24,000 trees ha-1) and most were relatively small (only 3.3% of the trees were ≥ 10 cm DBH). Mean basal area, aboveground biomass, and number of seedlings were all high, at 37.2 m z ha ~, 279 t (dry wt) ha-1, and 121 m-2, respectively. The seedling density may be particularly unusual and appears to be due to extremely high rates of propagule production coupled with low rates ot\u27 propagule predation. Stand productivity was estimated by stem growth (allometry), litterfall, and a fight attenuation approach to determining net canopy photosynthetic production. All three methods yielded estimates that are higher than previously reported for R. mangle and comparable with estimates of highly productive Rhizophora spp.-dominated stands in Australia and Asia. The high density, biomass, and productivity of this stand relative to stands within the species\u27 native range may be due to a combination of favorable site conditions, lack of competition from other woody plants, ;rod very low rates of herbivory and propagule predation

A Different Paradigm for the Initial Colonisation of Sahul: Archaeological, genetic, demographic and geographic perspectives

pre-print manuscriptThe questions of when and how humans reached Sahul, the Pleistocene continent of Australia and New Guinea, has remained a central issue of Australian archaeology since its development as an academic discipline in the mid-twentieth century. Additionally, this has been a dominant theme linking Australian and world archaeology. Modelling this event has persistently appealed to minimal assumptions - the simplest watercraft, the shortest routes, the smallest viable colonising groups. This paper argues that Australian archaeology can no longer ignore the way our understanding of this initial colonisation is being reshaped by current genomic research. It reviews this evidence and concludes that a colonising wave of hundreds or perhaps low thousands of people were involved. If correct, it suggests that we need to rethink our models, modify or discard the minimalist assumptions that have so far driven them and consider how this different paradigm affects our understanding of early settlement in Sahul

Influence of organic films on the evaporation and condensation of water in aerosol

Uncertainties in quantifying the kinetics of evaporation and condensation of water from atmospheric aerosol are a significant contributor to the uncertainty in predicting cloud droplet number and the indirect effect of aerosols on climate. The influence of aerosol particle surface composition, particularly the impact of surface active organic films, on the condensation and evaporation coefficients remains ambiguous. Here, we report measurements of the influence of organic films on the evaporation and condensation of water from aerosol particles. Significant reductions in the evaporation coefficient are shown to result when condensed films are formed by monolayers of long-chain alcohols [C(n)H((2n+1))OH], with the value decreasing from 2.4 × 10(−3) to 1.7 × 10(−5) as n increases from 12 to 17. Temperature-dependent measurements confirm that a condensed film of long-range order must be formed to suppress the evaporation coefficient below 0.05. The condensation of water on a droplet coated in a condensed film is shown to be fast, with strong coherence of the long-chain alcohol molecules leading to islanding as the water droplet grows, opening up broad areas of uncoated surface on which water can condense rapidly. We conclude that multicomponent composition of organic films on the surface of atmospheric aerosol particles is likely to preclude the formation of condensed films and that the kinetics of water condensation during the activation of aerosol to form cloud droplets is likely to remain rapid