Anthropocentric Realism about Values

31 The choice of human goals cannot be completely subjective, because 32 there are some (even ones that motivate many humans) that are simply 33 unintelligible as ultimate goals. For example, wealth is rational as an 34 intermediate goal, a means to achieving some further end, but it is simply 35 unintelligible to suggest that wealth is an ultimate goal in itself. Second, 36 we have seen that some things are reasonable to pursue as aspects of 37 our ultimate goals (like prestige and pleasure), but they are conceptu- 38 ally dependent on some other goal to give them concrete form. In this 39 essay, I argue in favor of six candidates for ultimate goal

Not so straight: a national study examining how Catholic Schools can best respond to the needs of same sex attracted students

The Christian Church believes that every person is made in the image and likeness of God. The human person is defined in the first chapter of the Book of Genesis on the basis of a relationship with God. This report, prepared as a resource and training document for school administrators in Catholic schools, focuses on the needs of “same sex attracted students” among the 660,000 students who attend Catholic schools in Australia today. Not So Straight is a national study examining how Catholic schools can best respond to the needs of same sex attracted students. Such young people are well represented in our social service programs and are significantly over-represented in that group of young Australians who resort to self-harm or suicide. Yet in many schools same-sex attracted students remain completely invisible and there is a virtual absence of discussion on, and engagement with, the issue of homosexuality. This is despite two recent Australian studies that have identified 11 per cent (Hillier, Warr & Haste, 1996) and 8-9 per cent (Lindsay, Smith & Resenthall, 1997) of secondary school students as not exclusively attracted to people of the opposite sex. Not So Straight highlights “good practice” among those Catholic secondary schools that have responded to the needs of such students. These are schools that have taken steps to make their campuses both safe and inclusive learning environments

Design Deficiencies and Lost Votes

In 2010, tens of thousands of votes in New York did not count due to overvotes -- the invalid selection of more than one candidate. This report demonstrates how the lack of adequate overvote protections disproportionately affected the state's poorest communities, suggests commonsense reforms, and examines national implications

The dynamical U(n) quantum group

We study the dynamical analogue of the matrix algebra M(n), constructed from a dynamical R-matrix given by Etingof and Varchenko. A left and a right corepresentation of this algebra, which can be seen as analogues of the exterior algebra representation, are defined and this defines dynamical quantum minor determinants as the matrix elements of these corepresentations. These elements are studied in more detail, especially the action of the comultiplication and Laplace expansions. Using the Laplace expansions we can prove that the dynamical quantum determinant is almost central, and adjoining an inverse the antipode can be defined. This results in the dynamical GL(n) quantum group associated to the dynamical R-matrix. We study a *-structure leading to the dynamical U(n) quantum group, and we obtain results for the canonical pairing arising from the R-matrix.Comment: 24 page

Holographic analysis of thin films

Technique for monitoring deposition of films on surfaces, in place on a real-time basis, reads both the thickness and the uniformity of the deposited film. Holograms are produced from both reflected and transmitted light on one plate

Meaningful Ethics Reforms for the New Albany

The corruption scandals of the last few years have profoundly shaken the faith of New Yorkers in their state government. This report examines the system erected by New York's current ethics laws and makes clear recommendations for a way forward

The diversity and floral hosts of bees at the Archbold Biological Station, Florida (Hymenoptera: Apoidea)

A list is provided of 113 species of bees and their 157 known floral hosts at the Archbold Biological Station(ABS), a 2105 ha site on the Lake Wales Ridge in Highlands County in south-central Florida. This is more species than might be expected at a single site so far south in Florida, based on previous studies in the Miami area and Everglades National Park, but fewer species than would be expected in an upland area of similar size with open habitats in north Florida, the mid-Atlantic states, or the upper Midwest. The small size of the fauna might be correlated with the absence of species that require a cold period in their life cycle, those that require clay or other heavy soils, those that require mesic woodlands and those that require abundant host plants in certain groups that are poorly represented on the ABS, such as Rosaceae. The natural history of southeastern bees is not known in enough detail to ascribe these causes to the individual species that are missing from the ABS fauna. In terms of bee taxa, the relatively small diversity at this site can be mainly attributed to a very poor representation of the genus Andrena (3 species), a poor representation of the genus Lasioglossum (13 species), and a poor representation of the entire family Apidae (22 species). The bee fauna of the ABS is mostly composed of species that occur (or may be expected to occur) through much of the southeastern Coastal Plain, combined with species that are widely distributed in eastern North America. In addition to these elements, there appear to be at least a few species or populations that may be relics of the dry savannahs that stretched across southern North America in parts of the Pleistocene or in the late Pliocene. There is only one species that appears to have come up from tropical Florida or the West Indies. There is no evidence that there are plants that are dependent on single bee species at the ABS, but certain buzz-pollinated plants may rely on only a few species of Bombus. A few species of bees appear to be oligolectic; their host plants, however, are visited by a wide variety of bees and other insects. Bees at the ABS belong to four conspicuous mimetic complexes: metallic green; black with a red abdomen; black with red bands and spots; black with yellow bands and spots. Most ABS bees do not have any warning coloration that is conspicuous to human eyes. There is only one exotic bee on the site, the European honey bee. This lack of a large exotic component in the fauna contrasts with the situation in the ants, of which about one fourth are introduced. Honey bees are often extremely abundant, and possibly dominate nectar and pollen resources in ways that are disruptive to native bees. Although it is easy to observe individual honey bees displacing individual native bees on flowers, there are no data on the ecological effects of honey bees on native pollinators at the ABS. About one quarter ofthe bee species (26) are parasitic species that depend on other species to gather nectar and pollen. This proportion of parasitic species is similar to some other well-studied sites in temperate North America, and is higher than the proportion found in tropical areas