Areas Of Common Ground Research Articles

Language games, or As you like it: A reply to Gergen

AbstractAfrer noting some areas of common ground, in particular my acceptance of the fact that causal analysis is not sufficient to capture motivation and meaning, the main disagreement is pinpointed: in my view causal explanations are relevant to human actions. In response to Gergen's contention that cross‐cultural replications have no bearing on theories, which essentially turn on language games, I submit that his account of cross‐cultural work is in several respects misleading. It is suggested that ignoring the striking regularities of social behaviour runs the risk of a return to empty scholasticism.

Concepts and Methods Regarding Host Plant Resistance to Arthropods and Pathogens

The concepts and methods utilized by scientists studying host plant resistance (HPR) to pests (arthropods and pathogens) and environmental stresses are drawn from a wide range of disciplines for the purpose of producing plants intrinsically capable of withstanding pest and environmental attack. These disciplines include plant pathology, entomology, plant breeding, agronomy, biochemistry, physiology, genetics, ecology, ethology, systematics, bio­ geography, and evolution. The primary goals of scientists, disciplines, and their sponsors range from feeding minds with new information to serving corporal'needs with more and better plant products. Additionally, disciplines contributing to HPR studies have all participated in the literature explosion that has occurred in science over the past few decades. Thus, HPR represents a diverse and expanding field of study that challenges the ability of any practi­ tioner to develop and maintain currency in the subject. This review is an attempt to identify some areas of common ground as well as to seek an explanation for ideological differences in the study of HPR, emphasizing the entomological and plant pathological points of view. Numerous concepts important to HPR are accepted by virtually all scientists and can serve as a point of departure for this discussion. For example, scientists agree that plants arose alongside phytophagous organisms; plant-phytophage

Linear Integrated Circuit Design in the Curriculum

Recent advances in VLSI digital circuit design methods and the silicon foundry concept has put the design of such circuits within reach of students. This paper discusses the design of linear integrated circuits by students. The basic concepts, tools and techniques are reviewed. The areas of common ground and differences between analogue and digital design techniques are highlighted.

SYMPOSIUM Part I ELECTRICAL TEACHING LABORATORIES

Many new laboratories have been built and others extended in recent years. It would be surprising if, in the process, the same problems did not keep cropping up. It would be even more surprising if fairly common solutions had not been found to a good proportion of them. These areas of common ground emerge in the symposium published in this issue and the next. In the symposium, which is restricted to electrical engineering laboratories, the contributors describe the arrangements in some up‐to‐date labs in colleges of various sizes. The intention is to indicate the requirements which they were designed to meet and, in turn, to relate these requirements to the aims and organisation of laboratory work. The symposiasts, in expressing their opinions, have in total covered this wide field quite thoroughly, but it is not intended to be a survey — there is no documentation of how each point of practice is carried through in a range of different laboratories — rather, good examples of modern methods used in individual laboratories are presented. To agree on standard laboratory plans and equipment lists to meet certain sets of requirements would not be desirable — even if it were possible. Areas where opinions and practices differ will become clear, and further points of difference will, we hope, be brought out in subsequent correspondence. The symposiasts and others designing or reconsidering their laboratories will welcome reactions and suggestions from readers: practical work and laboratory experiments occupy such a significant place in technical education in this country — even judged only by the allocation of course time and the expenditure on equipment — that the fullest discussion and most careful thought must be given to the planning of teaching workshops and laboratories.