The Emergence of “cyclic” tables in Indian Astronomy in the seventeenth century: Haridatta's Jagadbhusaṇa and its Islamic inspiration

Indian planetary tables can be classified into several distinct types with respect to their underlying mathematicbal structure. One of these, the so-called “cyclic” scheme was inspired by goal-year periods introduced via Islamic channels no later than the early seventeenth century. The first set of such cyclic planetary tables is the Jagadbhusaṇa of Haridatta, composed in Mewar, Rajasthan with an epoch of 31 March 1638. This substantial work, spreading over more than 100 folia in some manuscripts, computes the true longitudes of the planets in a manner similar to those in the Babylonian goal-year texts, Ptolemy, and al- Zarqali. We will consider the inspiration from these earlier sources and how they are incorporated into a distinctly Indian context, with respect to mathematical structure, astronomical foundation, and layout and arrangement of the data in the tabular format

The transmission of Arabic astronomical tables in Sanskrit, Latin, and Chinese. An early step in the internationalization of science?: Introduction

International audienceFrom 2008 to 2013, an international research project entitled History of Numerical Tables supported by the French Agence Nationale de la Recherche under the directorship of Dominique Tournès gathered specialists from a spectrum of scientific traditions. These scholars, ranging from experts in cultures of inquiry at the advent of literacy to the contemporary digital era focused on the study of numerical tables. A key question that arose from the many interactions of this group concerned the transmission and circulation of numerical tables. Preliminary attempts to understand this transmission resulted in the organization of a two-day workshop on the 24th and 25th of October 2012 in Paris, France. The theme was The transmission of Arabic astronomical tables in Sanskrit, Latin, and Chinese: an early step in the internationalization of science?. After highlighted and sharing themes in these areas related to the transmission of numerical tables, the participants wrote up their contributions for this special issue of SUHAYL

A critical analysis of the legal environment for mining in South Africa : it’s implications on the inflow of foreign investment into the sector

No abstract available.Dissertation (LLM)--University of Pretoria, 2013.Centre for Human Rightsunrestricte

Achieving Quality Assurance in Nigeria University System through Strategic Human Resources Development

This paper examines how quality assurance can be attained through Strategic Human Resources Development in Nigerian University system. The purpose is to ensure quality control and maintenance of acceptable standards in the University system. To seek solution to the problem, three research questions were posed. The sample for the study was made up of three hundred and sixty (360) academic staff randomly selected from the various Faculties and Institutes of the University of Calabar, Nigeria. The three research questions were analyzed using descriptive statistics. The results of the analysis revealed a significant relationship between Quality Assurance and Human Resources Development. Keywords: Quality Assurance; Human Resources Development, Quality Education; Higher Education.International Journal of Educational Research Vol. 4 (1) 2008: pp. 161-16

What is John Latham’s Rose-fronted Parrot?

Funding Information: We are grateful to two reviewers whose comments substantially improved the submitted manuscript.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

The evolutionary history of 2,658 cancers

Cancer develops through a process of somatic evolution(1,2). Sequencing data from a single biopsy represent a snapshot of this process that can reveal the timing of specific genomic aberrations and the changing influence of mutational processes(3). Here, by whole-genome sequencing analysis of 2,658 cancers as part of the Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) Consortium of the International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) and The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA)(4), we reconstruct the life history and evolution of mutational processes and driver mutation sequences of 38 types of cancer. Early oncogenesis is characterized by mutations in a constrained set of driver genes, and specific copy number gains, such as trisomy 7 in glioblastoma and isochromosome 17q in medulloblastoma. The mutational spectrum changes significantly throughout tumour evolution in 40% of samples. A nearly fourfold diversification of driver genes and increased genomic instability are features of later stages. Copy number alterations often occur in mitotic crises, and lead to simultaneous gains of chromosomal segments. Timing analyses suggest that driver mutations often precede diagnosis by many years, if not decades. Together, these results determine the evolutionary trajectories of cancer, and highlight opportunities for early cancer detection.Peer reviewe

The tangled nomenclatural history of Haplopelia forbesi Salvadori, 1904 : Were Forbes and Robinson right all along?

Acknowledgements: Alex Bond (NHMUK) and Rachel Petts (Manchester Museum) provided information about the only other specimen known to have been identified as Haplopelia forbesi. We are grateful to Martim Melo and Luís Lima Valente for access to Hugo José Eira Pereira's M.Sc. thesis and information about recent Lemon Dove samples collected in the Gulf of Guinea. We are indebted to Peter Jones for invaluable comments on the manuscript. Robert Prŷs-Jones, Alan Tye and an anonymous reviewer provided very helpful suggestions on the submitted draft.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Not so distinctively mathematical explanations: topology and dynamical systems

So-called ‘distinctively mathematical explanations’ (DMEs) are said to explain physical phenomena, not in terms of contingent causal laws, but rather in terms of mathematical necessities that constrain the physical system in question. Lange argues that the existence of four or more equilibrium positions of any double pendulum has a DME. Here we refute both Lange’s claim itself and a strengthened and extended version of the claim that would pertain to any n-tuple pendulum system on the ground that such explanations are actually causal explanations in disguise and their associated modal conditionals are not general enough to explain the said features of such dynamical systems. We argue and show that if circumscribing the antecedent for a necessarily true conditional in such explanations involves making a causal analysis of the problem, then the resulting explanation is not distinctively mathematical or non-causal. Our argument generalises to other dynamical systems that may have purported DMEs analogous to the one proposed by Lange, and even to some other counterfactual accounts of non-causal explanation given by Reutlinger and Rice