The Temple Recommend: A Solution to the Free-Rider Problem

Temple worship and geographical boundaries are unique features of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). Our research uses economic theory to understand how the organizational benefits of the temple recommend system and the geographical ward boundaries may solve the market failures associated with religious organizations. These features of the LDS Church will be used to create a framework for understanding how the church limits free-riding and sub-optimal participation, which would result in increased efficiency and production of large religious benefits. Because the market failures faced by the church are the same as those faced by other religious groups and similar to those faced by clubs, this research provides insights into possible solutions for groups besides the LDS church

A Study of the Attitudes of Parent-Teachers Toward Modern Education in the Negro Elementary Schools of Tyler, Texas

It is becoming more and more evident that pupils of the traditional school are not adequately prepared to meet and selve problems involving the child\u27s individual and social needs. Changing civilization, changing concepts of the nature of society, better understanding of the learner, his learning processes, his emotional behavior, all demand the evolution of better teaching-learning situations. The shift from the silent, motionless, memorizing elementary school, is fast being replaced by the newer emphasis, that learning is living, and living involves a process of doing. Thus, the problem arises, to what extent parent-teachers of the elementary schools of Tyler, Texas are making use of the newer trends in Modern Education. The problem may be considered from the following points of view: 1. What is modern education? 2. To what extent is modern education functioning in the elementary schools of Tyler, Texas? 3. What attitudes do parent-teachers have toward the program or practices of modern education? 4. What are the tendencies toward a departure from traditional education? 5. What efforts are being made to retain what is good in traditional education? The purpose of the study is to determine by a survey of modern educational procedures as advocated by accepted authorities, what techniques and procedures are used in promoting modern education. It is hoped that an outcome of the study will assist parent-teachers to see, to what extent, the life at school actually prepares the child for higher creative living. The study proposes further to show that the school is not all of life for the child, that he lives in the home and the community, as well. The elementary school has commonly been conceived to be essentially that of training children rather than to educate them. If the elementary school is to function as it should, with the cooperation of the parent-teachers, it should foster a program of meaningful experiences, stimulate and improve abilities, and assist pupils in acquiring useful skills and knowledge that are functional

Compton Scattering by Nuclei

The concept of Compton scattering by even-even nuclei from giant-resonance to nucleon-resonance energies and the status of experimental and theoretical researches in this field are outlined. Nuclear Compton scattering in the giant-resonance energy-region provides information on the dynamical properties of the in-medium mass of the nucleon. The electromagnetic polarizabilities of the nucleon in the nuclear medium can be extracted from nuclear Compton scattering data obtained in the quasi-deuteron energy-region. Recent results are presented for two-body effects due to the mesonic seagull amplitude and due to the excitation of nucleon internal degrees of freedom accompanied by meson exchanges. Due to these studies the in-medium electromagnetic polarizabilities are by now well understood, whereas the understanding of nuclear Compton scattering in the Delta-resonance range is only at the beginning. Phenomenological methods how to include retardation effects in the scattering amplitude are discussed and compared with model predictions.Comment: 146 pages, 37 figures, submitted to Phys. Report

Interaction between NANOS2 and the CCR4-NOT Deadenylation Complex Is Essential for Male Germ Cell Development in Mouse

Nanos is one of the evolutionarily conserved proteins implicated in germ cell development and we have previously shown that it interacts with the CCR4-NOT deadenylation complex leading to the suppression of specific RNAs. However, the molecular mechanism and physiological significance of this interaction have remained elusive. In our present study, we identify CNOT1, a component of the CCR4-NOT deadenylation complex, as a direct factor mediating the interaction with NANOS2. We find that the first 10 amino acids (AAs) of NANOS2 are required for this binding. We further observe that a NANOS2 mutant lacking these first 10 AAs (NANOS2-ΔN10) fails to rescue defects in the Nanos2-null mouse. Our current data thus indicate that the interaction with the CCR4-NOT deadenylation complex is essential for NANOS2 function. In addition, we further demonstrate that NANOS2-ΔN10 can associate with specific mRNAs as well as wild-type NANOS2, suggesting the existence of other NANOS2-associated factor(s) that determine the specificity of RNA-binding independently of the CCR4-NOT deadenylation complex

Effects of cover crops on multiple ecosystem services: Ten meta-analyses of data from arable farmland in California and the Mediterranean

Cover crops are considered to be beneficial for multiple ecosystem services, and they have been widely promoted through the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in the EU and Farm Bill Conservation Title Programs, such as the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), in the USA. However, it can be difficult to decide whether the beneficial effects of cover crops on some ecosystem services are likely to outweigh their harmful effects on other services, and thus to decide whether they should be promoted by agricultural policy in specific situations. We used meta-analysis to quantify the effects of cover crops on five ecosystem services (food production, climate regulation, soil and water regulation, and weed control) in arable farmland in California and the Mediterranean, based on 326 experiments reported in 57 publications. In plots with cover crops, there as 13% less water, 9% more organic matter and 41% more microbial biomass in the soil, 27% fewer weeds, and 15% higher carbon dioxide emissions (but also more carbon stored in soil organic matter), compared to control plots with bare soils or winter fallows. Cash crop yields were 16% higher in plots that had legumes as cover crops (compared to controls) but 7% lower in plots that had non-legumes as cover crops. Soil nitrogen content was 41% lower, and nitrate leaching was 53% lower, in plots that had non-legume cover crops (compared to controls) but not significantly different in plots that had legumes. We did not find enough data to quantify the effects of cover crops on biodiversity conservation, pollination, or pest regulation. These gaps in the evidence need to be closed if cover crops continue to be widely promoted. We suggest that this novel combination of multiple meta-analyses for multiple ecosystem services could be used to support multi-criteria decision making about agri-environmental policy

The twilight of the Liberal Social Contract? On the Reception of Rawlsian Political Liberalism

This chapter discusses the Rawlsian project of public reason, or public justification-based 'political' liberalism, and its reception. After a brief philosophical rather than philological reconstruction of the project, the chapter revolves around a distinction between idealist and realist responses to it. Focusing on political liberalism’s critical reception illuminates an overarching question: was Rawls’s revival of a contractualist approach to liberal legitimacy a fruitful move for liberalism and/or the social contract tradition? The last section contains a largely negative answer to that question. Nonetheless the chapter's conclusion shows that the research programme of political liberalism provided and continues to provide illuminating insights into the limitations of liberal contractualism, especially under conditions of persistent and radical diversity. The programme is, however, less receptive to challenges to do with the relative decline of the power of modern states

Constitutivism

A brief explanation and overview of constitutivism

Mycorrhizal fungi enhance plant nutrient acquisition and modulate nitrogen loss with variable water regimes

Climate change will alter both the amount and pattern of precipitation and soil water availability, which will directly affect plant growth and nutrient acquisition, and potentially, ecosystem functions like nutrient cycling and losses as well. Given their role in facilitating plant nutrient acquisition and water stress resistance, arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi may modulate the effects of changing water availability on plants and ecosystem functions. The well-characterized mycorrhizal tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) genotype 76R (referred to as MYC+) and the mutant mycorrhiza-defective tomato genotype rmc were grown in microcosms in a glasshouse experiment manipulating both the pattern and amount of water supply in unsterilized field soil. Following 4 weeks of differing water regimes, we tested how AM fungi affected plant productivity and nutrient acquisition, short-term interception of a 15NH4+ pulse, and inorganic nitrogen (N) leaching from microcosms. AM fungi enhanced plant nutrient acquisition with both lower and more variable water availability, for instance increasing plant P uptake more with a pulsed water supply compared to a regular supply and increasing shoot N concentration more when lower water amounts were applied. Although uptake of the short-term 15NH4+ pulse was higher in rmc plants, possibly due to higher N demand, AM fungi subtly modulated NO3- leaching, decreasing losses by 54% at low and high water levels in the regular water regime, with small absolute amounts of NO3- leached (<1 kg N/ha). Since this study shows that AM fungi will likely be an important moderator of plant and ecosystem responses to adverse effects of more variable precipitation, management strategies that bolster AM fungal communities may in turn create systems that are more resilient to these changes.Timothy M. Bowles, Louise E. Jackson, Timothy R. Cavagnar

Does Smoking Status Influence Health-Related Quality of Life Outcome Measures in Patients Undergoing ACDF?

STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective comparative study. OBJECTIVE: Whereas smoking has been shown to affect the fusion rates for patients undergoing an anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF), the relationship between smoking and health-related quality of life outcome measurements after an ACDF is less clear. The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether smoking negatively affects patient outcomes after an ACDF for cervical degenerative pathology. METHODS: Patients with tumor, trauma, infection, and previous cervical spine surgery and those with less than a year of follow-up were excluded. Smoking status was assessed by self-reported smoking history. Patient outcomes, including Neck Disability Index, Short Form 12 Mental Component Score, Short Form 12 Physical Component Score (PCS-12), Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) arm pain, VAS neck pain, and pseudarthrosis rates were evaluated. Outcomes were compared between smoking groups using multiple linear and logistic regression, controlling for age, sex, and body mass index (BMI), among other factors. A P value \u3c.05 was considered significant. RESULTS: A total of 264 patients were included, with a mean follow-up of 19.8 months, age of 53.1 years, and BMI of 29.6 kg/m2. There were 43 current, 69 former, and 152 nonsmokers in the cohort. At baseline, nonsmokers had higher PCS-12 scores than current smokers (P = .010), lower VAS neck pain than current (P = .035) and former (P = .014) smokers, as well as lower VAS arm pain than former smokers (P = .006). Postoperatively, nonsmokers had higher PCS-12 scores than both current (P = .030) and former smokers (P = .035). Smoking status was not a significant predictor of change in patient outcome in multivariate analysis. CONCLUSIONS: Whereas nonsmokers had higher function and lower pain than former or current smokers preoperatively, smoking status overall was not found to be an independent predictor of outcome scores after ACDF. This supports the notion that smoking status alone should not deter patients from undergoing ACDF for cervical degenerative pathology