Political legitimacy as an existential predicament

This essay contributes to developing a new approach to political legitimacy by asking what is involved in judging the legitimacy of a regime from a practical point of view. It is focused on one aspect of this question: the role of identity in such judgment. I examine three ways of understanding the significance of identity for political legitimacy: the foundational, associative, and agonistic picture. Neither view, I claim, persuasively captures the dilemmas of judgment in the face of disagreement and uncertainty about who “I” am and who “we” are. I then propose a composite, pragmatic picture. This view casts the question of political legitimacy as an existential predicament: it is fundamentally a question about who you are—both as a person and as a member of collectives. The pragmatic picture integrates rational, prudential, and ethical qualities of good judgment that were heretofore associated with mutually exclusive ways of theorizing legitimacy. It also implies that the question of legitimacy cannot be resolved philosophically.Political Philosophy and Ethic

Language and legitimacy: Is pragmatist political theory fallacious?

Eva Erman and Niklas Möller have recently criticised a range of political theorists for committing a pragmatistic fallacy, illicitly drawing normative conclusions from politically neutral ideas about language. This paper examines their critique with respect to one of their primary targets: the pragmatist approach to political legitimacy that I proposed in earlier work, which draws on Robert Brandom’s theory of language. I argue that the charge relies on a misrepresentation of the role of pragmatist ideas about language in my analysis of legitimacy. Pragmatism’s significance for thinking about political legitimacy does not lie in the normative conclusions it justifies but in the way it reorients our thinking towards political practice. This raises the deeper question of what we are to expect from a theory of legitimacy. I argue that Erman and Möller presuppose a widely held but unduly restrictive conception of what a normative theory of legitimacy consists in and that pragmatism can broaden the scope of enquiry: a theory of legitimacy should not focus narrowly on the content and justification of criteria, but more fundamentally aim to explicate the forms of political activity in which such criteria are at stake.Political Philosophy and Ethic

Design and Optimization of Composite Gyroscope Momentum Wheel Rings

Stress analysis and preliminary design/optimization procedures are presented for gyroscope momentum wheel rings composed of metallic, metal matrix composite, and polymer matrix composite materials. The design of these components involves simultaneously minimizing both true part volume and mass, while maximizing angular momentum. The stress analysis results are combined with an anisotropic failure criterion to formulate a new sizing procedure that provides considerable insight into the design of gyroscope momentum wheel ring components. Results compare the performance of two optimized metallic designs, an optimized SiC/Ti composite design, and an optimized graphite/epoxy composite design. The graphite/epoxy design appears to be far superior to the competitors considered unless a much greater premium is placed on volume efficiency compared to mass efficiency

Isolation and Characterization of Larvicidal Phenolic Acids from Kotschya thymodora Leaves

Malaria is a vector borne disease responsible for high morbidity, mortality and poverty in many tropical and subtropical countries. The disease is transmitted through a bite from an infected female Anopheles mosquito, amongst which Anopheles gambiae s.s serves as the most prevalent vector. The control of An. gambiae s.s population can therefore lead to a reduction in malaria spreading. Previous studies have reported the crude  extracts of Kotschya thymodora to be active against the larvae of An. gambiae s.s and Culex quinquefasciatus. In this report the phytochemical study on the crude aqueous ethanolic extract of K. thymodora leaves led to isolation of vanillic acid (1) and protocatechuic acid (2). The structures of these compounds and mosquitoes larvicidal activity against An. gambiae s.s were established by using spectroscopic techniques and WHO protocol of 1996 respectively. The two phenolic acids exhibited a moderate mosquito larvicidal activity with LC50 of 77.35 μg/mL (vanillic acid, 1) and 62.4 μg/mL (protocatechuic acid, 2) after 48 hrs exposure time. This is the first report on the isolation of the two phenolic acids from plants belonging to the genus Kotschya and their larvicidal potential against An. gambiae s.s. Keywords: larvicidal activity, vanillic acid, protocatechuic acid, Anopheles gambiae s.s and Kotschya thymodor

Comment to “Neoproterozoic magmatic arc systems of the central Ribeira belt, SE-Brazil, in the context of the West-Gondwana pre-collisional history: A review”

publishedVersio

Relationship between the Composition of Flavonoids and Flower Colors Variation in Tropical Water Lily (Nymphaea) Cultivars

Water lily, the member of the Nymphaeaceae family, is the symbol of Buddhism and Brahmanism in India. Despite its limited researches on flower color variations and formation mechanism, water lily has background of blue flowers and displays an exceptionally wide diversity of flower colors from purple, red, blue to yellow, in nature. In this study, 34 flavonoids were identified among 35 tropical cultivars by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with photodiode array detection (DAD) and electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS). Among them, four anthocyanins: delphinidin 3-O-rhamnosyl-5-O-galactoside (Dp3Rh5Ga), delphinidin 3-O-(2″-O-galloyl-6″-O-oxalyl-rhamnoside) (Dp3galloyl-oxalylRh), delphinidin 3-O-(6″-O-acetyl-β-glucopyranoside) (Dp3acetylG) and cyanidin 3- O-(2″-O-galloyl-galactopyranoside)-5-O-rhamnoside (Cy3galloylGa5Rh), one chalcone: chalcononaringenin 2′-O-galactoside (Chal2′Ga) and twelve flavonols: myricetin 7-O-rhamnosyl-(1→2)-rhamnoside (My7RhRh), quercetin 7-O-galactosyl-(1→2)-rhamnoside (Qu7GaRh), quercetin 7-O-galactoside (Qu7Ga), kaempferol 7-O-galactosyl-(1→2)-rhamnoside (Km7GaRh), myricetin 3-O-galactoside (My3Ga), kaempferol 7-O-galloylgalactosyl-(1→2)-rhamnoside (Km7galloylGaRh), myricetin 3-O-galloylrhamnoside (My3galloylRh), kaempferol 3-O-galactoside (Km3Ga), isorhamnetin 7-O-galactoside (Is7Ga), isorhamnetin 7-O-xyloside (Is7Xy), kaempferol 3-O-(3″-acetylrhamnoside) (Km3-3″acetylRh) and quercetin 3-O-acetylgalactoside (Qu3acetylGa) were identified in the petals of tropic water lily for the first time. Meanwhile a multivariate analysis was used to explore the relationship between pigments and flower color. By comparing, the cultivars which were detected delphinidin 3-galactoside (Dp3Ga) presented amaranth, and detected delphinidin 3′-galactoside (Dp3′Ga) presented blue. However, the derivatives of delphinidin and cyanidin were more complicated in red group. No anthocyanins were detected within white and yellow group. At the same time a possible flavonoid biosynthesis pathway of tropical water lily was presumed putatively. These studies will help to elucidate the evolution mechanism on the formation of flower colors and provide theoretical basis for outcross breeding and developing health care products from this plant

Isolation and Characterization of Larvicidal Phenolic Acids from Kotschya thymodora Leaves

Malaria is a vector borne disease responsible for high morbidity, mortality and poverty in many tropical and subtropical countries. The disease is transmitted through a bite from an infected female Anopheles mosquito, amongst which Anopheles gambiae s.s serves as the most prevalent vector. The control of An. gambiae s.s population can therefore lead to a reduction in malaria spreading. Previous studies have reported the crude extracts of Kotschya thymodora to be active against the larvae of An. gambiae s.s and Culex quinquefasciatus . In this report the phytochemical study on the crude aqueous ethanolic extract of K. thymodora leaves led to isolation of vanillic acid (1) and protocatechuic acid (2). The structures of these compounds and mosquitoes larvicidal activity against An. gambiae s.s were established by using spectroscopic techniques and WHO protocol of 1996 respectively. The two phenolic acids exhibited a moderate mosquito larvicidal activity with LC50 of 77.35 \u3bcg/mL (vanillic acid, 1) and 62.4 \u3bcg/mL (protocatechuic acid, 2) after 48 hrs exposure time. This is the first report on the isolation of the two phenolic acids from plants belonging to the genus Kotschya and their larvicidal potential against An. gambiae s.s

Rift kinematics preserved in deep-time erosional landscape below the northern North Sea

Our understanding of continental rifting is, in large parts, derived from the stratigraphic record. This record is, however, incomplete as it does not often capture the geomorphic and erosional signal of rifting. New 3D seismic reflection data reveal a Late Permian-Early Triassic landscape incised into the pre-rift basement of the northern North Sea. This landscape, which covers at least 542 km2, preserves a drainage system bound by two major tectonic faults. A quantitative geomorphic analysis of the drainage system reveals 68 catchments, with channel steepness and knickpoint analysis of catchment-hosted palaeo-rivers showing that the landscape preserved a >2 Myr long period of transient tectonics. We interpret that this landscape records a punctuated uplift of the footwall of a major rift-related normal fault (Vette Fault) at the onset of rifting. The landscape was preserved by a combination of relatively rapid subsidence in the hangingwall of a younger fault (Øygarden Fault) and burial by post-incision sediments. As such, we show how and why erosional landscapes are preserved in the stratigraphic record, and how they can help us understand the tectono-stratigraphic evolution of ancient continental rifts

Global Directional Control of a Slender Autonomous Underwater Vehicle

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/77142/1/AIAA-20475-500.pd