Cook, Oliphant, and Yntema: The Scientific Wing of American Legal Realism (Part II)

Following the lead of John Dewey, Cook, Oliphant, and Yntema pointedly eschewed discussion of ultimate values in terms of their intrinsic goodness . Their own course of action was to press for the application of scientific method - or Dewey\u27s method of intelligence - to the field of ethics. The clear message imparted by their approach was the compelling need for the proponents of particular values to consider the means available for the achievement of their ideals; such consideration, it was argued, would both heighten commitment to goals which were proved to be capable of attainment within a given social context and lead to the rejection of goals which would involve unacceptable social costs in the process of realization. The method to be employed in this intellectual operation was that of modern science; as Cook pointed out

Systematizing Policy Learning: From Monolith to Dimensions

notes: The authors wish to express their gratitude to the Norwegian Political Science Association Annual Conference, 6 January 2010, University of Agder, Kristiansand, participants of the ‘Establishing Causality in Policy Learning’ panel at the American Political Science Association (APSA) annual meeting,2–5 September 2010,Washington DC, and the European Consortium of Political Research (ECPR) Joint Sessions, St Gallen, 12–17 April 2011, workshop 2. Dunlop and Radaelli gratefully acknowledge the support of the European Research Council, grant on Analysis of Learning in Regulatory Governance, ALREG, http://centres.exeter.ac.uk/ceg/research/ALREG/index.php.publication-status: AcceptedThe definitive version is available at www.blackwell-synergy.com and also from DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9248.2012.00982.xThe field of policy learning is characterised by concept stretching and lack of systematic findings. To systematize them, we combine the classic Sartorian approach to classification with the more recent insights on explanatory typologies. At the outset, we classify per genus et differentiam – distinguishing between the genus and the different species within it. By drawing on the technique of explanatory typologies to introduce a basic model of policy learning, we identify four major genera in the literature. We then generate variation within each cell by using rigorous concepts drawn from adult education research. Specifically, we conceptualize learning as control over the contents and goals of knowledge. By looking at learning through the lenses of knowledge utilization, we show that the basic model can be expanded to reveal sixteen different species. These types are all conceptually possible, but are not all empirically established in the literature. Up until now the scope conditions and connections among types have not been clarified. Our reconstruction of the field sheds light on mechanisms and relations associated with alternatives operationalizations of learning and the role of actors in the process of knowledge construction and utilization. By providing a comprehensive typology, we mitigate concept stretching problems and aim to lay the foundations for the systematic comparison across and within cases of policy learning.European Research Council, grant no 230267 on Analysis of Learning in Regulatory Governance, ALREG

Telomeric DNA induces apoptosis and senescence of human breast carcinoma cells

INTRODUCTION: Cancer is a leading cause of death in Americans. We have identified an inducible cancer avoidance mechanism in cells that reduces mutation rate, reduces and delays carcinogenesis after carcinogen exposure, and induces apoptosis and/or senescence of already transformed cells by simultaneously activating multiple overlapping and redundant DNA damage response pathways. METHODS: The human breast carcinoma cell line MCF-7, the adriamycin-resistant MCF-7 (Adr/MCF-7) cell line, as well as normal human mammary epithelial (NME) cells were treated with DNA oligonucleotides homologous to the telomere 3' overhang (T-oligos). SCID mice received intravenous injections of MCF-7 cells followed by intravenous administration of T-oligos. RESULTS: Acting through ataxia telangiectasia mutated (ATM) and its downstream effectors, T-oligos induced apoptosis and senescence of MCF-7 cells but not NME cells, in which these signaling pathways were induced to a far lesser extent. In MCF-7 cells, experimental telomere loop disruption caused identical responses, consistent with the hypothesis that T-oligos act by mimicking telomere overhang exposure. In vivo, T-oligos greatly prolonged survival of SCID mice following intravenous injection of human breast carcinoma cells. CONCLUSION: By inducing DNA damage-like responses in MCF-7 cells, T-oligos provide insight into innate cancer avoidance mechanisms and may offer a novel approach to treatment of breast cancer and other malignancies

Cook, Oliphant and Yntema: The Scientific Wing of American Legal Realism

For many years I have been asking myself the question: In what way or ways is it possible to study law scientifically? This has, naturally, led to an examination both into the nature of scientific knowledge, more especially in those fields in which scientific study has won its greatest successes- such as physics, chemistry, astronomy- and into the possibilities of developing similar bodies of knowledge in the field of what are commonly called the social sciences. W. W. Cook.\u27 Walter Wheeler Cook, Herman Oliphant, and Hessel Yntema formed a distinctly homogeneous trio among the widely divergent band of legal scholars who, whether by design or repute, constituted the American Legal Realist movement. The three men all began their academic careers in disciplines other than law - Cook as a mathematician and physicist; Oliphant as a Professor of Language; and Yntema as a Political Scientist.2 As colleagues at Columbia Law School, they played a crucial role in the cultivation of the searching introspection which characterized that institution in the second decade of the twentieth century and, although Cook left Columbia in 1922, the other members of the trio remained to figure prominently in the momentous discussions on curricular reform which were undertaken by the Faculty of Law between 1926 and 1928. 3 The period of closest co-operation between the three scholars, however, was that between 1928 and 1933 when they joined forces for the launching of the ill-fated Institute of Law at Johns Hopkins

Cook, Oliphant, and Yntema: The Scientific Wing of American Legal Realism (Part II)

Following the lead of John Dewey, Cook, Oliphant, and Yntema pointedly eschewed discussion of ultimate values in terms of their intrinsic goodness . Their own course of action was to press for the application of scientific method - or Dewey\u27s method of intelligence - to the field of ethics. The clear message imparted by their approach was the compelling need for the proponents of particular values to consider the means available for the achievement of their ideals; such consideration, it was argued, would both heighten commitment to goals which were proved to be capable of attainment within a given social context and lead to the rejection of goals which would involve unacceptable social costs in the process of realization. The method to be employed in this intellectual operation was that of modern science; as Cook pointed out