Contradictory Claims Research Articles

Conflicting Claims and Equilibrium Adjustment Processes in a Stock-flow Consistent Macroeconomic Model

We revisit the old but still vibrant Post-Keynesian debate over ‘fully-adjusted positions’, defined by the long-run equality of actual and standard utilisation rates. The central proposition of this paper is that in a world where different groups inside and outside firms have different objectives, the equality of actual and standard utilisation should not be treated as the only possible long-run equilibrium condition. The argument is illustrated in a model of target return pricing with conflict inflation, building on the work of Marc Lavoie. A ‘common language’ for the conflicting claims by shareholders, managers and workers is developed in terms of target profit rates, and it is shown that these contradictory claims can be partly reconciled through variations in the utilisation rate. The analysis unifies history and equilibrium in the sense that the nature of final equilibrium position and the adjustment to it depend on the objectives of the dominant social groups. We distinguish a ‘Fordist regime’ and a ‘financialisation regime’ and produce simulation results within a simple stock-flow consistent model that are broadly consistent with the stylised facts of these distinct historical phases of capitalism.

Is it Time to Retire the A.V. Hill Model?

Recent publications by Emeritus Professor Roy Shephard propose that a "small group of investigators who have argued repeatedly (over the past 13 years) for a 'Central Governor'," should now either "Put up or shut up." Failing this, their 'hypothesis' should be 'consigned to the bottom draw for future reference'; but Professor Shephard's arguments are contradictory. Thus, in different sections of his article, Professor Shephard explains: why there is no need for a brain to regulate exercise performance; why there is no proof that the brain regulates exercise performance; and why the brain's proven role in the regulation of exercise performance is already so well established that additional comment and research is unnecessary. Hence, "The higher centres of an endurance athlete … call forth an initial effort … at a level where a minimal accumulation of lactate in the peripheral muscles is sensed." Furthermore, "a variety of standard texts have illustrated the many mutually redundant feedback loops (to the nervous system) that limit exercise." Yet, the figure from Professor Shephard's 1982 textbook does not contain any links between the nervous system, "many mutually redundant feedback loops" and skeletal muscle. This disproves his contradictory claims that although there is neither any need for, nor any proof of, any role of the brain in the regulation of exercise performance, the physiological mechanisms for this (non-existent) control were already well established in 1982. In contrast, the Central Governor Model (CGM) developed by our "small group … in a single laboratory" after 1998, provides a simple and unique explanation of how 'redundant feedback loops' can assist in the regulation of exercise behaviour. In this rebuttal to his article, I identify (i) the numerous contradictions included in Professor Shephard's argument; (ii) the real meaning of the facts that he presents; (iii) the importance of the evidence that he ignores; and (iv) the different philosophies of how science should be conducted according to either the Kuhnian or the Popperian philosophies of scientific discovery. My conclusion is that the dominance of an authoritarian Kuhnian philosophy, which refuses to admit genuine error or "the need to alter one's course of belief or action," explains why there is little appetite in the exercise sciences for the acceptance of genuinely novel ideas such as the CGM. Furthermore, to advance the case for the CGM, I now include evidence from more than 30 studies, which, in my opinion, can only be interpreted according to a model of exercise regulation where the CNS, acting in an anticipatory manner, regulates the exercise behaviour by altering skeletal muscle recruitment, specifically to ensure that homeostasis is maintained during exercise. Since few, if any, of those studies can be explained by the 'brainless' A.V. Hill Cardiovascular Model on which Professor Shephard bases his arguments, I argue that it is now the appropriate time to retire that model. Perhaps this will bring to an end the charade that holds either (i) that the brain plays no part in the regulation of exercise performance; or, conversely, (ii) that the role of the brain is already so well defined that further research by other scientists is unnecessary. However, this cannot occur in a discipline that is dominated by an authoritarian Kuhnian philosophy.

Ichthyotoxicity of gymnodinioid dinoflagellates: PUFA and superoxide effects in sheepshead minnow larvae and rainbow trout gill cells

MEPS Marine Ecology Progress Series Contact the journal Facebook Twitter RSS Mailing List Subscribe to our mailing list via Mailchimp HomeLatest VolumeAbout the JournalEditorsTheme Sections MEPS 426:213-224 (2011) - DOI: https://doi.org/10.3354/meps09036 Ichthyotoxicity of gymnodinioid dinoflagellates: PUFA and superoxide effects in sheepshead minnow larvae and rainbow trout gill cells Ben D. Mooney1,*, Juan José Dorantes-Aranda1, Allen R. Place2, Gustaaf M. Hallegraeff1 1University of Tasmania, Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, Private Bag 55, Hobart, Tasmania 7001, Australia 2Institute of Marine and Environmental Technology, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Sciences, Baltimore, Maryland 21202, USA *Email: ben.mooney@utas.edu.au ABSTRACT: While 24 h exposure of sheepshead minnow fish larvae to purified monogalactosyl diglyceride (MGDG) lipids, containing octadecapentaenoic acid (OPA) exclusively or as a mixture of octadecatetraenoic acid, eicosapentaenoic acid, and OPA (OTA-EPA-OPA), caused sluggish swimming and gulping, it produced no mortalities even at concentrations up to 120 mg l–1. In contrast, comparable concentrations and exposure times caused significant reductions in viability of rainbow trout gill cells. Pure EPA was the most harmful to gill cells (up to 98.5% viability loss in 60 h) followed by OPA-rich MGDG (45% loss), with OTA-rich MGDG (37% loss) the least toxic. OPA-pure MGDG was non-toxic to rainbow trout gill cells; however, surprisingly, pure palmitic acid was harmful (40% viability loss), and we conclude that gill cell line toxicity of the OPA-rich MGDG fraction was caused by admixture with palmitic acid. Screening of 15 Kareniaceae dinoflagellate species demonstrated that these species are low (on average 10 times less) producers of superoxide compared to the ichthyotoxic raphidophyte Chattonella marina. No mortality of sheepshead minnow fish larvae occurred when exposed to superoxide alone or superoxide combined with either OPA-rich MGDG or OTA-rich MGDG. Superoxide showed a slight impact on viability of rainbow trout gill cells. In conclusion, synergistic interactions between free fatty acids and reactive oxygen species as previously claimed for raphidophytes could not be confirmed. Gill damaging effects from EPA were conclusively demonstrated, however; when these co-occurred with OTA, a higher loss of viability was observed (up to 37%), suggesting a magnified toxic effect. Contradictory literature claims as to the ichthyotoxicity of OPA (nontoxic in our work) may relate to the presence of chemical impurities. KEY WORDS: Kareniaceae · Ichthyotoxicity · Octadecapentaenoic acid · OPA · Polyunsaturated fatty acid · PUFA· Superoxide Full text in pdf format PreviousNextCite this article as: Mooney BD, Dorantes-Aranda JJ, Place AR, Hallegraeff GM (2011) Ichthyotoxicity of gymnodinioid dinoflagellates: PUFA and superoxide effects in sheepshead minnow larvae and rainbow trout gill cells. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 426:213-224. https://doi.org/10.3354/meps09036 Export citation RSS - Facebook - Tweet - linkedIn Cited by Published in MEPS Vol. 426. Online publication date: March 28, 2011 Print ISSN: 0171-8630; Online ISSN: 1616-1599 Copyright © 2011 Inter-Research.

Contractualism and the Moral Status of Animals

While contractualism seems to solve some of the more pressing concerns of other moral theories, it does not conclusively address the moral status of non-human animals. Peter Carruthers claims that contractualism excludes animals from having full moral status. I argue that Carruthers’ arguments are fatally flawed due to his reliance on contradictory claims, unlikely assumptions, and flagrant violations of the contractualist method. However, Carruthers also claims that we can treat animals wrongly and that it deserves moral criticism. This claim is based in indirect moral significance. However, this position makes it impossible for Carruthers to avoid endorsing two extremely counter-intuitive claims. The work of C. Tucker and C. MacDonald allows us to demonstrate that contractualism does give animals full moral standing. They ground the criteria for a contracting agent in three characteristics that animals possess. A look at some possible objections reveals nothing devastating to their proposal.

“Another World Is Actual”: Between Imperialism and Freedom

There have been two distinctive aspects to James Tully's approach to the study of imperialism over the years, and both are put to work in these remarkable volumes.1 The first is his belief in two seemingly contradictory claims: (i) that imperialism is much more pervasive than usually thought (conceptually, his torically and practically); and yet (ii) that there are many more forms of resis tance to it than usually appreciated. The second is the way Tully places the situation of indigenous peoples at the heart of his analysis. This goes back to his groundbreaking work on Locke, and his extraordinary re-interpretation of Locke's work in the context of early modern discourses of imperialism. But the situation of indigenous peoples also deeply informed his argument in Strange Multiplicity2—and not only in terms of the central motif of the lectures pro vided by Haida artist Bill Reid. In that book, he sought to reveal and defend a much richer conception of legal and cultural pluralism than had hitherto been appreciated by liberal constitutionalists and their critics. Indigenous peoples are not simply a litmus test for our thinking about pluralism but represent a much deeper challenge to the way we conceptualize notions of citizenship, sovereignty, democracy and freedom in the first place—and indeed the nature of political philosophy itself. However, in order to appreciate these distinctive claims—to really see the space opened up by this approach—Tully calls for nothing less than a major perspective shift in contemporary political theory. He casts his approach as a

Effects of Unresolved Factual Disputes in the News on Epistemic Political Efficacy

This experiment tests effects of passive, neutral reporting of contradictory factual claims on audiences. Exposure to such reporting is found to affect a new self-efficacy construct developed in this study called epistemic political efficacy (EPE), which taps confidence in one's own ability to determine truth in politics. Measurement of EPE is found to be reliable and valid, and effects of neutral reporting on it are found to be conditional on prior interest in the issues under dispute. Implications of this effect and of EPE are discussed. Self-efficacy theory (Bandura, 1982) suggests these short-term effects may accumulate over time. EPE may affect outcomes related to political understanding, opinion formation, and information seeking.

De paradox van het verlichte gelijkheidsdiscours - Beschouwingen over De uitvinding van de mensheid door Siep Stuurman

Jesus praised the Good Samaritan who understood that the stranger we encounter in daily life is in fact our neighbour. For Siep Stuurman the tale of the Samaritan symbolizes the fundamental insight that humanity is a universal category transcending cultural differences. It would be perfectly legitimate, however, to interpret Luke 10:25-37 as an ethical injunction to help our neighbour even though regarding him or her as inferior to ourselves. Indeed, why should an ethics of compassion based on cultural inequality be morally reprehensible? In De uitvinding van de mensheid (The invention of mankind) Stuurman takes for granted that equality is theoretically more acceptable than inequality. He can do this only by consistently neglecting a powerful inegalitarian train of thought intrinsic to all world religions and cultures and which, in the West, surfaced among others in Plato, Augustine, the Romantics, and conservatism. Stuurman’s take on equality becomes clear when he addresses the contradictory Enlightenment claim that all men are equal but that some (the Enlightened) are more equal than others. He solves the conundrum by treating the claim as an irresolvable duality. This duality can be borne, he argues, if the Enlightened majority condescends to view society through the eyes of (less Enlightened) minorities. It is more realistic to view the Enlightenment claim not as a duality, but as a paradox. Enlightenment necessarily implies cultural inequality, and in this sense there is no distinction between it and the religions of the Axial Age. Belief in cultural inequality seems to be ingrained in humankind.

Blogging – the Cultural Logic of Communicative Capitalism: Dean’s Blog Theory

Blogging – the Cultural Logic of Communicative Capitalism: Dean’s Blog Theory Mark Andrejevic (bio) Jodi Dean, Blog Theory: Feedback and Capture in the Circuits of Drive Polity Press: 2010. $19.95 (paper) $54.95 (cloth). 140 pages. ISBN-10: 074564970X To appreciate Jodi Dean’s diagnosis of communicative capitalism, we might revisit the Bush administration’s handling of a potentially damaging revelation about its failure to secure a large weapons cache during the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Despite the fact that the International Atomic Energy Agency had repeatedly warned the administration about the weapons at Al Qa’Qaa, calling it, “the greatest explosives bonanza in history” (Glanz, Broad, & Sanger, 2004), no US troops had been tasked with protecting it during the tumult of the initial invasion. When inspectors reached the site, its seal was broken and the explosives looted, perhaps helping to explain where the opposition was getting its seemingly bottomless supply of high-grade explosives for improvised explosive devices and other weapons. Rather than providing a clear and potentially damaging explanation of their failure – and risk embarrassment during the 2004 Presidential campaign – Bush officials created a smokescreen of often contradictory claims. Perhaps the most honest response came early on, when one official confessed to the New York Times, “It's not an excuse … but a lot of things went by the boards” (Glanz, Broad, & Sanger, 2004). Over time, as the damaging import of the revelation became clear, the administration back-tracked, suggesting at various times that the site had been looted before US troops arrived; that Iraqis had smuggled the weapons into Syria before the invasion; and alternatively that the explosives hadn’t disappeared at all, but had been accounted for and disposed of by US troops. Under pressure from reporters, administration officials alternatively claimed that the president had not known about the missing cache until a few days before the story broke and that the White House had initiated an in-depth investigation once the explosives had been reported missing several months earlier. As the days passed, the smoke screen just got thicker – with the administration capitalizing on the impossibility of getting the full story (thanks in part to its own reluctance to release definitive details) as a means of discrediting critics. Demonstrating the success of the administration’s strategy, a reporter for the US News and World Report concluded somewhat forlornly, “there are many more questions than answers regarding this story” (Lou Dobbs Tonight, 2004). Mission accomplished. The administration’s strategy deftly dismantled the promise of the information age that enhanced access to information might help hold authorities accountable and provide citizens with a clearer, shared understanding of their world. It also exemplified an increasingly familiar strategy for information control in the digital era: rather than trying to enforce a dominant narrative, this strategy relies upon multiplying competing narratives that highlight the indeterminacy of any and all accounts as well as the associated inability to adjudicate between them. The intended result is the neutralization of critique via the dilution of compelling counter-narratives and the promulgation of uncertainty. As a Bush administration spokesperson put it, in response to the Kerry campaign’s charge of negligence in the Al Qa’Qaa case: “John Kerry presumes to know something that he could not know: when the material disappeared…Since he does not know whether it was gone before the war began, he can't prove it was there to be secured” (Sanger, 2004). In a breathtaking bit of rhetorical Jiu-Jitsu, this defense turned the administration’s own incompetence (in the form of its admission that it had lost track of the weapons) into a preemptive counter-attack. In the case of Al Qa’Qaa, critique dissipated in the shifting currents of multiple competing narratives. This strategy is in keeping with an internet era of information glut, in which, “Abundant, dispersed, mashed-up messages…displace previous communication strategies focused on direct image control. Even when facts are corrected, fictions remain, repeated and circulated in affective networks” (Dean, p. 100). Faced with the welter of information, citizens are left to pick the narrative that fits best with their own preconceptions and affective investments. Dean describes the resulting impasse of representation...

Creative destruction? Evidence that buyouts shed jobs to raise returns

Building on the work of Cressy, Munari, and Malipiero (2007a) which showed that buyouts have higher operating profitability in the post-buyout period than matched companies, the paper examines contradictory popular claims that private equity (PE)-backed leveraged buyouts (LBOs) generate or destroy jobs as a result of the process of ‘rationalisation’. Using a sample of up to 57 UK whole-company buyouts and a matched sample of up to 83 controls over the period 1995–2000 we run loglinear employment regressions for one to five years after the buyout with buyout year variables as regressors. A PE dummy represents companies that have PE backing while other variables control for initial employment, gearing, investee size and profitability together with industry and macro effects. We find that there is no PE-‘choice’ effect: in the buyout year there are no significant differences between buyout companies and controls in terms of employment. But in the post-buyout regressions the PE dummy is highly significant and negative reaching a peak of 23% per annum after four years. So to achieve efficiency gains, buyouts bring about quick and substantial reductions in employment in target companies during the initial period of ‘rationalisation’. However, initial profitability, three-year average post-buyout profitability and three-year sales growth have positive elasticities with respect to future employment suggesting that buyouts, by generating higher operating profits from job cuts, may ultimately be associated with compensating job creation. This, however, is the subject for future research.

Contradictory Evidence for the Role of Temperature and Particle Size in Nanofluid Thermal Conductivity

ABSTRACTThe prospects for increased cooling capacity from the use of nanofluid coolants has created a tremendous amount of interest. However, in the years since the initial thermal conductivity measurements of nanoparticle suspensions were reported, there has been much inconsistency in data published in the literature. The International Nanofluids Benchmarking Exercise was a significant step towards creating a reliable set of data on the thermal conductivity enhancement of stable nanofluids, however there remain many unanswered questions. Most significant, perhaps, is the contradictory results on the effects of particle size and temperature. In the past year alone it is possible to find published reports on nominally identical samples claiming precisely opposing trends in thermal conductivity with decreasing particle size at room temperature. Some studies also claim an increasing enhancement at higher temperatures, sometimes linking this to small particle sizes. In this work we review the literature claims for particle size and temperature results, the theories used to support those claims, as well as presenting new data with the aim of resolving the dispute and identifying the origins of the evidence for contradictory claims.

Von der “(Un)Möglichkeit, sich in die Fremde hineinzuleben”. Kulturelle Assimilation als Desintegration am Beispiel von Ilija Trojanows Roman Der Weltensammler

In Der Weltensammler (2006), the policultural German author Ilija Trojanow assumes a critical perspective towards cultural assimilation. Processes of cultural assimilation in heterogeneous social systems lead to conflicting claims of inclusion. The individual can only evade these contradictory claims by adjusting his role and identity to suit different cultural groups. Trojanow's novel exemplifies that identity-stressing transitions risk the disintegration of the self. Enculturation will fail if either the source or the target society culturally defines itself by hedging off presumed aliens. However, Trojanow also shows how an empathic merger into a foreign culture could lead to a new identity, whatever the assimilation pressure and the risk of becoming a castaway.

The Return Of Public Religion A Critical Assessment Of A Popular Claim

This article tries to solve a puzzle concerning the notion of public religion. The aim is to understand why contradictory claims are heard in Britain about the place of religion in the public sphere. On the one hand are claims that religion is resurgent. On the other hand are counterclaims that religion is systematically excluded from public life. The solution proposed by this article begins by recognising that Britain lacks the kind of sharp distinction between the state, political society and civil society that Casanova regards as a condition of modernity. The second part of the solution takes into account the strategies of British governments between 1997 and 2010 for deliberately blurring the boundary between state and civil society by summoning the 'faith sector' to enter into partnership with the state. And the final part of the solution argues that the apparent resurgence of religion in the British public sphere is largely a product of the government's 'interpellation' of the faith sector within a broader attempt to manage religious and ethnic diversity.

A yes or no answer

Medical students are chosen, at least largely, for academic and scholarly potential, and most physicians enjoy reading and keeping up in the literature of their field. However, since medicine is a practical art, physicians read with the goal of updating their knowledge to maximize their treatment of their patients. The literature on biological pathophysiology of depression has expanded exponentially over the last 30 years, and physicians who completed their training in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s have been faced with a huge amount of literature promising insights into depression, one of their most common areas of professional activity 1. Sophisticated molecular genetics, revolutionary imaging technology, erudite neuroendocrine analyses and numerous other approaches have strained the ability of many clinicians to feel that they are up-to-date in their field. In the last few years, a creeping feeling of doubt has entered the hearts and minds of numerous clinicians around the world as to whether the mountain of new data is really of any value to the clinical practitioner of psychiatry. The title of G. Hasler‘s paper, therefore, is guaranteed to attract a huge audience, as is appropriate for World Psychiatry. However, in my opinion, this paper does not bite the bullet and avoids giving an answer to its own question. The abstract states that antidepressant treatments should be tailored for individual patients and disease states, but nowhere in the paper does the author say how to do this. The conclusion relates to a table where the various neurobiological hypotheses are presented and an argument made against a unified hypothesis of depression. Fair enough. The paper goes on to state that “this encourages research on predictors of response” and that “the identification of reliable predictors will allow for the development of personalized medicine”. Promises, promises, promises. I had hoped this article was going to tell me whether we have any solid evidence of interest to clinicians now. Personally, I think the answer is no and that we must bravely face this fact. I share Hasler’s belief that depression is heterogeneous and his hope that future research will allow for better treatments. However, clinicians will be more honest with themselves, their patients and our society if we answer this paper’s question with a clear “no”. There is no genetic test, blood test, spinal fluid test or imaging test today that can aid in the diagnosis of depression. There are many findings reported in groups of depressed patients of changes in spinal fluid or blood metabolites or proteins or in brain functional imaging. However, few if any are consistently replicable. Many could be secondary to the powerful lifestyle changes induced by depression, such as weight loss, inactivity, and poor sleep 2. Even more important for a clinician to understand is that a mean difference reported as a finding in a research paper, even when highly statistically significant, often conceals a large overlap between patient and control populations that makes diagnostic use of the finding impossible. I have sometimes been told by those who agree with the previous statement that my views should be hidden from the public, so as not to endanger the prestige of psychiatry or our rightful share of research funding. Such an opinion, of course, has more to do with ethics and values than with science. However, the psychoanalytic tradition that the truth makes one free has always seemed to me even more relevant in biological psychiatry. Our trainees, patients and public are increasingly confused by contradictory claims to have found the biological basis of depression in genetics, imaging, neuroendocrinology, or neurotrophic factors. We must create a new style of discourse where research results, exciting as they are, are translated into a proper understanding of the long slow road we are likely to travel in order to understand depression pathophysiology 3.

A Case Study in Unethical Transgressive Bioethics: “Letter of Concern from Bioethicists” About the Prenatal Administration of Dexamethasone

On February 3, 2010, a “Letter of Concern from Bioethicists,” organized by fetaldex.org, was sent to report suspected violations of the ethics of human subjects research in the off-label use of dexamethasone during pregnancy by Dr. Maria New. Copies of this letter were submitted to the FDA Office of Pediatric Therapeutics, the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Office for Human Research Protections, and three universities where Dr. New has held or holds appointments. We provide a critical appraisal of the Letter of Concern and show that it makes false claims, misrepresents scientific publications and websites, fails to meet standards of evidence-based reasoning, makes undocumented claims, treats as settled matters what are, instead, ongoing controversies, offers “mere opinion” as a substitute for argument, and makes contradictory claims. The Letter of Concern is a case study in unethical transgressive bioethics. We call on fetaldex.org to withdraw the letter and for co-signatories to withdraw their approval of it.

Exposing the Contradictory Claims, Myths and Illusions of the “Secrets of Business Success and Company Longevity” Genre

Over the last three decades, several management consultants, academics and business practitioners have laid claim to identifying “the secrets” of business success and company longevity. However, a systematic analysis of 24 studies in this genre revealed fundamental disagreements over the elements these authors claim are the primary drivers of business performance and longevity, and demonstrates that they share eight methodological and analytical flaws. Furthermore, many of the claims they made about “the secrets” of business success have not stood the test of time. The paper explains why business practitioners will find little in these studies to help their companies become more successful now and in the future, and also speculates why several of these studies became international best-sellers during the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s. It concludes by suggesting some new avenues for future research in this domain, and highlights the practical implications of these findings for business practitioners.

Sich (nicht) geschlagen geben.Unabdingbare Ansprüche, Kompromisse und das Interesse an einer agonistischen Lebensform: Zu Chantal Mouffes Begriff des Politischen

This article discusses Chantal Mouffe’s concept of the political that allegedly departs fun-damentally from the so called cosmopolitical illusion, i. e. the illusion that liberal-democratic forms of life could overcome antagonistic conflicts once and for all. Mouffe’s diametrically opposed idea of a conflictual is critically examined particularly for the claim that it promises to sublate contradictory claims in agonistic forms of conflict. A critical evaluation of this thesis refers to the question whether such a consensus unconditionally requires the renunciation of any unalienable claim.

The state of science, microbiology, and vaccines circa 1918.

The influenza pandemic of 1918-1919 dramatically altered biomedical knowledge of the disease. At its onset, the foundation of scientific knowledge was information collected during the previous major pandemic of 1889-1890. The work of Otto Leichtenstern, first published in 1896, described the major epidemiological and pathological features of pandemic influenza and was cited extensively over the next two decades. Richard Pfeiffer announced in 1892 and 1893 that he had discovered influenza's cause. Pfeiffer's bacillus (Bacillus influenzae) was a major focus of attention and some controversy between 1892 and 1920. The role this organism or these organisms played in influenza dominated medical discussion during the great pandemic. Many vaccines were developed and used during the 1918-1919 pandemic. The medical literature was full of contradictory claims of their success; there was apparently no consensus on how to judge the reported results of these vaccine trials. The result of the vaccine controversy was both a further waning of confidence in Pfeiffer's bacillus as the agent of influenza and the emergence of an early set of criteria for valid vaccine trials.

Canals Spawn Dams? Exploring the Filiation of Hydraulic Infrastructure

Abstract This article studies the aetiology underlying water managementby exploring the social hermeneutics that determined its construction. It details how science, technology and political relations construct each other mutually, both producing and harnessing the scientific discourse on the environment. Supply management continues to prevail, in spite of contradictory claims, through the filiation process linking successive generations of water infrastructure. The case study of the Neste Canal inducing the construction of the Charlas Dam, allows the identification of three types of mechanisms participating in the construction of water deficits that now lead both proponents and opponents of dam construction to harness the environmental discourse. The first lies in the social construction of water science and technology. The second lies in the evolution of power relations among the various actors. The third lies in the insertion of the 'expert' within these power relations.

Adoption and Diffusion of Double Entry Bookkeeping in Mexico and Spain: A Related but Under-Investigated Development

There is a consensus within Mexican accounting historiography regarding widespread use of double entry bookkeeping by the end of the 19th Century in the realm of both private and public enterprise. However, there is conflicting and even contradictory claims as to when exactly this technique arrived to the viceroyalty of New Spain (present day Mexico) as well as its diffusion during the colonial era. In this article we address this conflict while putting forward the idea that the history of ‘modern’ accounting practice in Latin America should be framed by developments in its former colonial power. We offer the analysis of primary and secondary source material to support the view that there was continuity in the use of double entry in Spain and therefore, the so called ‘period of silence and apparent oblivion’ seems limited to the production of indigenous accounting thought (as expressed in the production of bibliographic material such as manuals and textbooks). We conclude that the history of Latin America accounting should be wary of extrapolating everyday practice by interpreting bibliographic material and proceed by examining surviving company documents as well as informal educational practices amongst organisations based in the metropolis and its then colonies.

Sich (nicht) geschlagen geben. Unabdingbare Ansprüche, Kompromisse und das Interesse an einer agonistischen Lebensform: zu Chantal Mouffes Begriff des Politischen

This article discusses Chantal Mouffe’s concept of the political that allegedly departs fun-damentally from the so called "cosmopolitical illusion", i. e. the illusion that liberal-democratic forms of life could overcome antagonistic conflicts once and for all. Mouffe’s diametrically opposed idea of a "conflictual consensus" is critically examined particularly for the claim that it promises to sublate contradictory claims in agonistic forms of conflict. A critical evaluation of this thesis refers to the question whether such a consensus unconditionally requires the renunciation of any unalienable claim.