Schleiermacher and Otto on religion : a reappraisal

An interpretation of the work of Schleiermacher and Otto recently offered by Andrew Dole, according to which these two thinkers differed over the extent to which religion can be explained naturalistically, and over the sense in which the supernatural can be admitted, is examined and refuted. It is argued that there is no difference between the two thinkers on this issue. It is shown that Schleiermacher's claim that a supernatural event is at the same time a natural event does not invite, but rather forecloses the possibility of, a naturalistic explanation of the event. It is further demonstrated that Otto, like Schleiermacher, denied the existence of supernatural events interpreted as events that infringe the laws of nature

Sheep Updates 2006 - part 2

This session covers six papers from different authors: GENETICS 1. Novel selection traits - what are the possible side effects?, Darryl Smith, Kathryn Kemper, South Australian Research and Development Institute, David Rutley, University of Adelaide. 2. Genetic Changes in the Australian Merino since 1900, Sheep Genetics Australia Technical Committee, R.R. Woolaston Pullenvale, Queensland, D.J. Brown, Animal Genetics and Breeding Unit*, University of New England, K.D. Atkins, A.E. Casey, NSW Department of Primary Industries, A.J. Ball, Meat and Livestock Australia, University of New England 3. Influence of Sire Growth Estimated Breeding Value (EBV0 on Progeny Growth, David Hopkins, David Stanley, Leonie Martin, NSW Department Primary Industries, Centre for Sheep Meat Development, Arthur Gilmour, Remy van de Ven, NSW Department Primary Industries, Orange Agricultural Institute FINISHING 4. Predicting Input Sensitivity on Lamb Feedlot Profitability by Using Feedlot Calculator, David Stanley, NSW Department Primary Industries, Centre for Sheep Meat Development, Geoff Duddy, NSW Department Primary Industries, Yanco Agricultural Institute, Steve Semple, NSW Department Primary Industries, Orange Agricultural Institute, David Hopkins, NSW Department Primary Industries, Centre for Sheep Meat Development 5. Annual ryegrass toxicity (ARGT) in WA - 2006, David Kessell, Meat & Livestock Australia ARGT Project, Northam, WA 6. Poor ewe nutrition during pregnancy increases fatness of their progeny, Andrew Thompson, Department of Primary Industries, Victori

Synthesis of the elements in stars: forty years of progress

Forty years ago Burbidge, Burbidge, Fowler, and Hoyle combined what we would now call fragmentary evidence from nuclear physics, stellar evolution and the abundances of elements and isotopes in the solar system as well as a few stars into a synthesis of remarkable ingenuity. Their review provided a foundation for forty years of research in all of the aspects of low energy nuclear experiments and theory, stellar modeling over a wide range of mass and composition, and abundance studies of many hundreds of stars, many of which have shown distinct evidence of the processes suggested by B2FH. In this review we summarize progress in each of these fields with emphasis on the most recent developments

Self-interest And Public Interest: The Motivations Of Political Actors

Self-Interest and Public Interest in Western Politics showed that the public, politicians, and bureaucrats are often public spirited. But this does not invalidate public-choice theory. Public-choice theory is an ideal type, not a claim that self-interest explains all political behavior. Instead, public-choice theory is useful in creating rules and institutions that guard against the worst case, which would be universal self-interestedness in politics. In contrast, the public-interest hypothesis is neither a comprehensive explanation of political behavior nor a sound basis for institutional design

Exploring contaminants as a disruptor of temperature-dependent sex determination in sea turtle hatchlings

Sea turtle nesting beaches are experiencing increased sand temperatures as climate change progresses. In one major green turtle (Chelonia mydas) nesting beach in the northern Great Barrier Reef, over 99 percent of hatchlings are female. The effects of contaminants on sea turtle hatchling sex determination are not often explored. Liver samples were collected from green turtle hatchlings that were sacrificed for histological sex determination in a parallel study on the effects of sand cooling on sex ratios, and analysed for trace elements via acid digestion and organic contaminants via in vitro cytotoxicity bioassays. Chromium, antimony, barium, and cadmium have previously been demonstrated to be estrogenic, and concentrations of these elements were used to calculate three estrogenic indexes for each clutch: predicted relative estrogenic potency (PEEQA), the sum of percent trace elements above the median of all samples (TEOM), and the sum of percent estrogenic elements above the median of all samples (EstroEOM). Excluding an outlier clutch, cadmium, antimony, and EstroEOM had significant positive relationships with sex ratio deviation. Mean clutch cobalt, lead, antimony and barium, also had a significant positive relationship with clutch sex ratio. There was no relationship between in vitro cytotoxicity of liver extracts and sex ratio, however, 9% of hatchlings had organic contaminants high enough to suggest potential cellular damage. Contaminant effects on sex determination are likely to be caused by a mixture of contaminant interactions as well as temperature. Many trace elements detected in this study have also been linked to negative health effects on hatchlings in previous studies. Considering the risks of feminization due to climate change and potential contaminant effects on hatchling health and sex determination, future studies exploring contaminant effects on sea turtle hatchling sex determination are recommended

Financing Direct Democracy: Revisiting the Research on Campaign Spending and Citizen Initiatives

The conventional view in the direct democracy literature is that spending against a measure is more effective than spending in favor of a measure, but the empirical results underlying this conclusion have been questioned by recent research. We argue that the conventional finding is driven by the endogenous nature of campaign spending: initiative proponents spend more when their ballot measure is likely to fail. We address this endogeneity by using an instrumental variables approach to analyze a comprehensive dataset of ballot propositions in California from 1976 to 2004. We find that both support and opposition spending on citizen initiatives have strong, statistically significant, and countervailing effects. We confirm this finding by looking at time series data from early polling on a subset of these measures. Both analyses show that spending in favor of citizen initiatives substantially increases their chances of passage, just as opposition spending decreases this likelihood

Academic Cancer Center Phase I Program Development

Multiple factors critical to the effectiveness of academic phase I cancer programs were assessed among 16 academic centers in the U.S. Successful cancer centers were defined as having broad phase I and I/II clinical trial portfolios, multiple investigator‐initiated studies, and correlative science. The most significant elements were institutional philanthropic support, experienced clinical research managers, robust institutional basic research, institutional administrative efforts to reduce bureaucratic regulatory delays, phase I navigators to inform patients and physicians of new studies, and a large cancer center patient base. New programs may benefit from a separate stand‐alone operation, but mature phase I programs work well when many of the activities are transferred to disease‐oriented teams. The metrics may be useful as a rubric for new and established academic phase I programs.This commentary assesses the factors necessary for the effectiveness of academic phase I cancer programs. The metrics presented here may be useful as a rubric for new and established programs.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/139928/1/onco12106-sup-0001-suppinfo1.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/139928/2/onco12106.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/139928/3/onco12106-sup-0002-suppinfo2.pd

CMB-S4 Science Book, First Edition

This book lays out the scientific goals to be addressed by the next-generation ground-based cosmic microwave background experiment, CMB-S4, envisioned to consist of dedicated telescopes at the South Pole, the high Chilean Atacama plateau and possibly a northern hemisphere site, all equipped with new superconducting cameras. CMB-S4 will dramatically advance cosmological studies by crossing critical thresholds in the search for the B-mode polarization signature of primordial gravitational waves, in the determination of the number and masses of the neutrinos, in the search for evidence of new light relics, in constraining the nature of dark energy, and in testing general relativity on large scales

The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: Physical Properties and Purity of a Galaxy Cluster Sample Selected via the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Effect

We present optical and X-ray properties for the first confirmed galaxy cluster sample selected by the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Effect from 148 GHz maps over 455 square degrees of sky made with the Atacama Cosmology Telescope. These maps, coupled with multi-band imaging on 4-meter-class optical telescopes, have yielded a sample of 23 galaxy clusters with redshifts between 0.118 and 1.066. Of these 23 clusters, 10 are newly discovered. The selection of this sample is approximately mass limited and essentially independent of redshift. We provide optical positions, images, redshifts and X-ray fluxes and luminosities for the full sample, and X-ray temperatures of an important subset. The mass limit of the full sample is around 8e14 Msun, with a number distribution that peaks around a redshift of 0.4. For the 10 highest significance SZE-selected cluster candidates, all of which are optically confirmed, the mass threshold is 1e15 Msun and the redshift range is 0.167 to 1.066. Archival observations from Chandra, XMM-Newton, and ROSAT provide X-ray luminosities and temperatures that are broadly consistent with this mass threshold. Our optical follow-up procedure also allowed us to assess the purity of the ACT cluster sample. Eighty (one hundred) percent of the 148 GHz candidates with signal-to-noise ratios greater than 5.1 (5.7) are confirmed as massive clusters. The reported sample represents one of the largest SZE-selected sample of massive clusters over all redshifts within a cosmologically-significant survey volume, which will enable cosmological studies as well as future studies on the evolution, morphology, and stellar populations in the most massive clusters in the Universe.Comment: 20 pages, 15 figures, 6 tables. Accepted for publication in ApJ. Higher resolution figures available at: http://peumo.rutgers.edu/~felipe/e-prints