Biological Individuals

The impressive variation amongst biological individuals generates many complexities in addressing the simple-sounding question what is a biological individual? A distinction between evolutionary and physiological individuals is useful in thinking about biological individuals, as is attention to the kinds of groups, such as superorganisms and species, that have sometimes been thought of as biological individuals. More fully understanding the conceptual space that biological individuals occupy also involves considering a range of other concepts, such as life, reproduction, and agency. There has been a focus in some recent discussions by both philosophers and biologists on how evolutionary individuals are created and regulated, as well as continuing work on the evolution of individuality

Using edit distance to analyse errors in a natural language to logic translation corpus

We have assembled a large corpus of student submissions to an automatic grading system, where the subject matter involves the translation of natural language sentences into propositional logic. Of the 2.3 million translation instances in the corpus, 286,000 (approximately 12%) are categorized as being in error. We want to understand the nature of the errors that students make, so that we can develop tools and supporting infrastructure that help students with the problems that these errors represent. With this aim in mind, this paper describes an analysis of a significant proportion of the data, using edit distance between incorrect answers and their corresponding correct solutions, and the associated edit sequences, as a means of organising the data and detecting categories of errors. We demonstrate that a large proportion of errors can be accounted for by means of a small number of relatively simple error types, and that the method draws attention to interesting phenomena in the data set

Roles of Fiscal Policy in New Zealand

Economic growth is one of the objectives of the current government. Fiscal policy, encompassing government expenditure and taxation decisions, can significantly impact on economic growth. This paper proposes a framework which views fiscal policy through three lenses and applies this approach to consider how fiscal policy affects economic growth. The three lenses are: fiscal sustainability, fiscal structure and fiscal stabilisation. The paper reviews international literature pertaining to these three lenses and discusses the extent to which these lenses are incorporated into New Zealand’s current fiscal framework. Contemporary New Zealand fiscal challenges are discussed and, in light of these challenges, the paper concludes with consideration of areas to investigate which may yield improvements to the New Zealand fiscal framework.Fiscal policy, sustainability, stability, structure, taxation, government spending, economic growth

Page from The Holy Bible printed by Robert Barker

Micah Chapters 2-6. An original leaf from the Holy Bible, printed in London 1608 by Robert Barker. Edition of the influential Geneva translation.https://digitalcommons.wofford.edu/littlejohnmss/1062/thumbnail.jp

Page from The Bible: That is, The Holy Scriptures printed by Robert Barker

An original leaf from the Gospel of Luke, the Bible, printed by Robert Barker at London, England in 1615. The Geneva-Tomson-Junius version.https://digitalcommons.wofford.edu/littlejohnmss/1064/thumbnail.jp

Reviews

Researching into Teaching Methods in Colleges and Universities by Clinton Bennett, Lorraine Foreman‐Peck and Chris Higgins, London: Kogan Page, 1996. ISBN: 0–7494–1768–4, 136 (+ vii) pages, paperback. £14.99

Las constituciones de las Américas: sus procesos de enmienda

Robert S. Barker (biografía): Profesor norteamericano de derecho de la Duquesne University School of Law, de la que también es egresado. Obtuvo una maestría en historia americana en la Universidad de Duquesne. Fue becario de la Fulbright. Fue editor de la Duquesne University Law Review. Antes de ser profesor a tiempo completo, trabajó como abogado tanto al servicio de la comunidad (Neighborhood Legal Services) como asociado a la firma privada de abogados Rose, Schmidt and Dixon. También fue oficial del Programa de Ciudades Modelos de la Ciudad de Pittsburgh, se desempeñó como asistente de profesor y del decano en la Duquesne University School of Law y como consejero legal del Aeropuerto Internacional de Pittsburgh. Asimismo, fue presidente y vicepresidente del Comité en materia de derecho de aeropuertos de la Asociación Americana de Abogados. Por 12 años se desempeñó como presidente del Comité de Derecho Constitucional de la Asociación Inter-Americana de Abogados. Ha sido profesor invitado de derecho constitucional en la Universidad de Buenos Aires. Entre sus libros se encuentran La Constitución de los Estados Unidos y su dinámica actual, Constitutional Adjudication: The Costa Rican Experience y El precedente y su significado en el derecho constitucional de los Estados Unidos. En el 2001 fue reconocido como “Profesor Distinguido de Derecho” de la Universidad de Duquesne, y en el 2014 la Universidad Nacional de Cajamarca (Perú) le otorgó el Doctorado Honoris Causa.Este es un texto sobre derecho constitucional, específicamente sobre los mecanismos que han establecido los estados americanos para la reforma de sus constituciones. Para el autor, no existe un sistema único de reforma para todos los países, sino que el mecanismo de modificación constitucional depende de la propia tradición y cultura jurídica, así como de los recursos y necesidades que presente cada sociedad política nacional. Sin embargo, entiende que en dicho ámbito debe haber un equilibrio entre la permanencia y el cambio, de suerte que se mantengan los principios que empujan a las sociedades a asumir un estado de derecho pleno, al tiempo que se dé la flexibilidad suficiente para mejorar el funcionamiento de las instituciones públicas y para adaptarlas a los nuevos desafíos que van surgiendo en el tiempo. En tal virtud, siguiendo la opinión del estadista norteamericano James Madison, el autor estima que no debe haber una “facilidad extrema” para las reformas constitucionales, pero tampoco una “exagerada dificultad” que perpetúe “sus defectos manifiestos”

Book Reviews

THE LAWYER, THE PUBLIC, AND PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITY. By F. Raymond Marks, with Kirk Leswing and Barbara A. Fortinsky. Chicago: American Bar Foundation, 1972. Pp. xii, 305. $7.95. THE NOMINALISTIC PRINCIPLE. By Eliyahu Hirschberg. Jerusalem: Daf-Chen Printing Press, 1971. Pp. 13