Dichotomous Nature Research Articles

Convergence of Clinical Staff Ratings and Research Ratings to Assess Patients With Schizophrenia in Nursing Homes

Convergence of Clinical Staff Ratings and Research Ratings to Assess Patients With Schizophrenia in Nursing Homes

Many College Freshmen Drink at Levels Far Beyond the Binge Threshold

Binge drinking is a dichotomous variable that allows researchers to sort students into categories based upon a specific threshold of consumption, commonly 4 (females) or 5 (males) drinks. Crossing the binge threshold increases the risk of negative alcohol-related consequences. The use of such thresholds has played a vital role in the study of college drinking. While extremely valuable, the dichotomous nature of binge drinking variables removes information about how heavily students actually drink, leaving the characterization of college drinking incomplete. The present study examined patterns of alcohol use beyond the binge threshold. The data set consisted of self-reported 2-week drinking histories from 10,424 first-semester freshmen at 14 schools across the United States during the fall of 2003. The number of students who reached the 4+/5+ binge-drinking threshold was calculated, as was the number who reached 2 times (8+/10+ drinks) or 3 times (12+/15+ drinks) the binge threshold. Logistic regression analyses were used to explore gender differences and to assess whether frequent binge drinkers (3+ binges per 2 weeks) were more likely than infrequent binge drinkers (1-2 binges per 2 weeks) to reach high peak levels of consumption. Roughly 1 of 5 males consumed 10+ drinks and 1 of 10 females consumed 8+ drinks, twice the binge threshold, at least once in the previous 2 weeks. Gender differences were observed at every drinking level and were particularly large at higher peak levels. Frequent binge drinkers were more likely than infrequent binge drinkers to consume 2 or 3 times the binge threshold. A surprisingly large percentage of students, particularly males, drink at peak levels well beyond the binge threshold. Such findings suggest that schools might make additional progress in the battle against alcohol misuse by focusing on extreme drinking practices in addition to binge drinking per se.

The Importance of Applying Toxicogenomics to Increase the Efficiency of Drug Discovery

The current cost of the discovery and development of new drug candidates continues to increase at an alarming rate. Recent industry reviews have estimated that the total cost of bringing a drug candidate to market is rapidly approaching US$900 million, with an average success rate of 11% (from first-in-man studies to registration) across nine therapeutic areas [1,2]. In addition, a comparison of the reasons for drug candidate failures in 1991 versus those in 2000 revealed that failures due to clinical side effects and nonclinical toxicologic findings had increased by roughly 30 and 60%, respectively [1]. While the reasons for this trend may be multifactorial, there is clearly a need to improve toxicology testing paradigms within the industry. It is understood that the standard practice of testing drug candidates at increasing multiples of the anticipated human therapeutic dose in two species (one rodent, one nonrodent) for at least 14 days of repeat dosing is fallible and not entirely predictive of all human acute, chronic or idiosyncratic toxic outcomes. The obvious challenge to the industry is to develop more robust in vitro and in vivo predictive models, in order to identify toxic liabilities earlier during discovery phases. For example, if preclinical screening of drug candidates was improved, such that the overall clinical attrition rate was reduced from 80 to 67%, this would yield savings of approximately US$230 million in capitalized total cost per approved drug [3]. To this end, predictive toxicogenomics (TGx) is one of the most intriguing emerging technologies on the current preclinical toxicology landscape. For the purposes of this editorial, TGx is defined as the science of using gene expression profiling from xenobiotic-treated cells or tissues to describe and/or predict various toxic outcomes. For the pharmaceutical industry, TGx boasts tremendous potential for prioritization of lead chemical series (hit-to-lead), compound prioritization and identifying target organs of toxicity (lead optimization) and toxicology issues management (development). Characterizing gene expression ‘signatures’ that are correlated with observed toxicity in response to known drugs or chemical insults also has an application in predictive modeling for novel compounds. The following central questions are difficult to approach given the dichotomous nature of the current literature and commercial landscape:

A Look Within and Across Creative Domains

One of the fascinating things about creativity is its dichotomous nature. It is, for example, sometimes associated with psychological disorders but at the same time it characterizes self-actualized persons (Runco, 2004; Runco & Pritzker, 1999). Even in the nonexceptional segment of the human population, creativity is associated with effective problem solving, adaptability, and aesthetic pleasure, but creative people can be eccentric, unpredictable, contrarian, or even criminal (Runco & Richards, 1998; Weeks & James, 1995). Creative efforts have given humans innumerable inventions, innovations, and improvements, but they occasionally also reflect what McLaren (1993) called “the dark side.” Clearly, with creativity, one needs to take the good with the bad.

Another look at tutorial CALL

According to the dichotomy popularized by Levy (1995, 1997), computers may be used in language learning in either tutor or tool roles. Recently there has been a waning of interest in tutorial software for language learning in favor of tool-oriented applications. While we do not dispute the value of the computer as a tool, we argue that it is in the best interest of CALL practitioners and language teachers in general to be better informed about the realities of tutorial software so that the field can continue to grow and mature along multiple paths. In support of this position, we present a case for placing tutorial CALL back into the mainstream of the field. After a discussion of several common myths about tutorial CALL, we offer six reasons as to why tutorial CALL has been marginalized. We follow with some evidence that, despite the presence of these myths and this marginalization, CALL practitioners around the world continue to find tutorial CALL appealing for research and development. Specifically, we review the presentations at four major CALL Conferences in 2002 and classify them as primarily focused on tutor or tool uses. Although tool-oriented applications dominate overall, the results show a strong continuing interest in tutorial applications as well. We conclude with proposals for (1) reconsidering the dichotomous nature of the tutor-tool distinction, (2) changing the defining characteristic of tutorial CALL from evaluation to teaching presence, and (3) suggesting several aspects of language learning that tutorial CALL is best suited to support, given the present state of technology.

Using Logistic Regression to Evaluate New Lid Designs

New product designs from competing vendors must often be evaluated in order to make the best decision on which design to use in manufacturing. In most cases, the designs must be challenged over a range of environmental factors, process tolerances, and incoming material variations. At times, the performance characteristic may take on the form of a passing or failing response. Due to the dichotomous nature of a pass/fail outcome, ordinary regression techniques based on a normal distribution of error terms with constant variance are not appropriate. In the case of a pass/fail response, a natural distribution to consider is the binomial distribution. The authors have exploited the field of generalized linear models, specifically logistic regression, to select a new lid design for a beverage container based on the correct distributional assumptions.

Research Files: Documenting Utopia in Oregon: The Challenges of Tracking the Quest for Perfection

ResearchFiles James J.Kopp Documenting Utopia in Oregon TheChallenges ofTracking the Questfor Perfection The task of documenting utopia in Oregon is in itself a Utopian ordeal. Using the dichotomous nature of the word given by Thomas More in Utopia, published in 1516, it is both a "good place" and a "no place."1 Documenting Oregon's historic utopias shares the good place/no place dichotomy because, although Oregon's Uto pian heritage is rich, the challenges of documenting it are significant. It is a "good place" in that historians, archivists, and interested individuals wish tohave records available to understand the important role that the quest for perfection has played inOregon's history. It is a "no place" because, much likeMore's fictitious island, the documentation ? and inmany cases the topics of the documentation ? do not seem to exist.2 Oregon's Utopian heritage is rooted in the dreams of landscapes and opportunities that attracted pioneers and settlers to this land, individuals labeled "eden seekers" by Malcolm Clark, Jr.3 The physical space and its beauty conjured visions of Eden, but asWilliam L. Lang notes, "The im age of Oregon carried more than just a symbolic physical resemblance to Eden; it also suggested a community that had a regenerative quality, one that could restore damaged lives."4 This regenerative quality served and ? as Lang points out, still serves? as the basis forOregon's reputation as an "Eden of expectations." While this view is generally manifested in the state's broad social, cultural, and political history, it is also clear in themany specific attempts to seek perfection inOregon. These efforts range from nineteenth-century communal colonies such asAurora and New Odessa to 308 OHQ vol. 105, no. 2 ? 2004 Oregon Historical Society OHS neg.,OrHi 54865 The community band mingles behind thePioneer Hotel inAurora, in the lowerWillamette ValleyjustnorthofWoodburn. Both the Aurorabandand thehotelbecamesymbols ofthe success of theAurora Colony. the post-1965 outburst of communes and other "intentional communities." Oregon's Utopian heritage is also reflected in Utopian literature produced by Oregon writers such as Jeff W. Hayes and Ursula K. Le Guin.5 My own Utopian quest is to locate, review, and record resources concerning Utopian experiences inOregon in order to produce a guide to documents about Oregon's often overlooked Utopian heritage.6 Although based ina long-standing interest inOregon's Utopian past, my immediate impetus for this project was the acquisition, inNovember 2002, of three documents associated with the dissolution of theAurora Colony in Oregon and the Bethel Colony in Missouri. These two Utopian settlements were founded byWilliam [Wilhelm] Keil, who died on December 31,1877, without an heir apparent to lead the two colonies. After his death, the trustees of both enterprises sought an orderly and legal dissolution of the properties, and the three documents I obtained are all related to this action. One is an Kopp, Documenting Utopia inOregon 309 eight-page manuscript letter related to the appraisement of the Keil estate, dated September 28,1878, from the trustees ofAurora to JacobMiller and other trustees of Bethel. The second isa six-page manuscript letterfromW.H. Effinger, a Portland attorney who represented theAurora trustees, to Jacob Miller, dated September 30,1878, dealing with the same issue. The third item is a detailed appraisement of Keil's entire estate. Included with theMiller letter is an envelope addressed to him inBethel with an annotation on the back reading, "Letters of Effinger & of theAurora Community concerning our appraisement. Take this along to Ogn." These documents provide an intriguing and important glimpse into the final years of theAurora Colony as a Utopian settlement. Beyond their historical significance, the recent availability of these documents raises questions about their provenance and about where other documentation related to the Aurora Colony may exist. In his pseudo historical narrative Bethel and Aurora (1933), Robert Hendricks notes: "There was a long series of lettersbetween the trustees atAurora and those at Bethel. A chest full of this correspondence still exists."7 The documents inhand certainly are likely to be part of those Hendricks mentions, but the questions remain about where that "chest full"of documents was in the early 1930s and about what has happened to them since. Seeking a solution...

Attempt to distinguish electric signals of a dichotomous nature.

Three types of electric signals were analyzed: Ion current fluctuations in membrane channels (ICFMC), Seismic electric signals activities (SES), and "artificial" noises (AN). The wavelet transform, when applied to the conventional time domain, does not allow a classification of these signals, but does so in the "natural" time domain. A classification also becomes possible, if we study <chi(q)>-<chi>(q) versus q, where chi stands for the "natural" time. For q values approximately between 1 and 2 the signals are classified and ICFMC lies between the other two types. For q=1, the "entropy" S identical with <chilnchi>-<chi>ln<chi> of ICFMC almost equals that of a "uniform" distribution, while the AN and SES have larger and smaller S values, respectively. The recent [P. Varotsos, N. Sarlis, and E. Skordas, Phys. Rev. E 67, 021109 (2003)] finding that, in short time scales, both SES and AN (which are shown to be non-Markovian) result in comparable detrended fluctuation analysis exponents alpha in (1.0,1.5) is revisited. Even a Markovian dichotomous time series, in short time scales, leads to similar alpha exponents.

A Phylogeny and a New Classification of the Corophiidea Leach, 1814 (Amphipoda)

Based on a phylogenetic analysis of 104 genera and 156 species of corophiidean amphipods, we present a new phylogeny and higher-level classification for the suborder Corophiidea Leach, 1814. The phylogeny divides the corophiideans into two infraorders, the Corophiida and the Caprellida, based on a hypothesis of the evolution of different feeding strategies. Members of the Corophiida are derived from bottomfeeding detritivores, whereas members of the Caprellida are derived from ancestors that fed on material suspended in the water column. Within the Corophiida there are unspecialized clades such as the aoroids, whose members are mainly detrital feeders, as well as specialized forms feeding on living algae (family Ampithoidae) and on wood (superfamily Cheluroidea). In the Caprellida, members of the podocerid and caprellid clades often climb organisms such as hydroids in order to get their antennae as far up in the water column as possible to suspension-feed, whereas ischyrocerins build nests and then suspension-feed. Specialized forms include cyamids that attach to whales where they ‘‘feed on whale skin.’’ Barnard and Karaman (1984) divided the Corophiidea into two superfamilies (Corophiidea and Caprelloidea) within which were nine families. The classification presented here includes those two infraorders, with 11 superfamilies, 21 families, 13 subfamilies, and 5 tribes. Barnard and Karaman (1984) proposed an untested scheme, which placed the infraorders Caprellida (as Caprelloidea) and Corophiida (as Corophioidea) in the suborder Corophiidea Leach (1814). It should be noted that Stebbing (1906) attributed the Corophiidae to Dana (1849), but this is in error. Leach (1814: 405) erected the Corophiidae (as the family Corophiini) where it has page placement priority over the family Caprellini. This error has since been perpetuated by all authors, including Barnard and Karaman (1984, 1991). Within the corophiideans (sensu lato), the internal phylogenetic relationships have always been uncertain. Barnard and Karaman (1991) attempted no phylogenetic classification of their infraorder Corophiida, commenting that ‘‘the practical identification of family or subfamily groups in this conglomerate is very difficult.’’ Laubitz (1993) and Takeuchi (1993) both proposed untested schemes for the Caprelloidea (in the traditional sense). The lack of clarity that surrounds the relationships of this group is not unique within the Amphipoda, but it has been particularly intractable in the corophiideans. We should not, however, be surprised. The punctuated nature of evolution may always result in low-resolution trees, which are based on extant taxa. Whenever a new innovation occurs during the course of evolution, it is probably followed by explosive adaptive radiation as the innovator invades new niches, further developing and adapting its innovation. Most of the descendants of the early innovator will fail and become extinct; only a few will succeed to form new clades. Such bursts of evolutionary innovation make it difficult, if not impossible, to distinguish the dichotomous nature of character-state acquisition by examining only extant taxa. Interpretation of phylogeny through a cladistic study of living species will result in trees with unresolvable polychotomies. The precision of a cladistic analysis will vary with the hierarchical taxonomic level analyzed (and hence to temporal scale). Analyses of species groups should generally yield rather clear relationships, because there are fewer missing links, but the clarity will decrease, perhaps exponentially as earlier and earlier relationships are investigated. This means that we should, perhaps, be rather skeptical of a tree pertaining to family relationships that purports to be fully resolved. The best we can expect, and for the present with which 443 JOURNAL OF CRUSTACEAN BIOLOGY, 23(2): 443–485, 2003

MAN WORKS FROM SUN TO SUN, BUT WOMAN'S WORK IS NEVER DONE: INSIGHTS ON RESEARCH AND POLICY

Gender equity and equality in health and human development are key national and international goals. To achieve these goals, the androcentric definition of work needs to be addressed. The current definition is driven by the globalized capitalistic model, which equates "work" with generating income or the production of goods. Indeed, employment in the formal labor force has become the de facto definition of work. Women's work, unpaid and reflecting the gendered role of caring for others, does not fit the economic mold and is, therefore, devalued. The health and social welfare sectors rely heavily on the unremunerated work of women to reduce their budgets, ignoring the unequal burden of care shouldered by women worldwide. Research on women's health has also been hampered by the dichotomous nature of work as employment. Changing the definition of work to value explicitly women's work could significantly impact social, health, and research policies.

Benchmarking as a Tool for the Modernisation of Local Government

This paper examines benchmarking as a tool of the modernisation process in local government and the contradictory tensions in the Best Value scheme are explored. Benchmarking is shown to encapsulate the dichotomous nature of a modernising philosophy which espouses innovation and local solutions alongside the government’s centralising tendencies. One consequence is the advancement of ‘compulsory’ and ‘defensive’ modes of benchmarking with local authorities benchmarking for external accountability reasons; issues of tangible improvement are secondary concerns. These tensions are viewed as irreconcilable, the implication is that local government will need to carefully manage and evaluate its benchmarking activities.

Multidimensional Aspects of Adoptive Family Social Disclosure Patterns

ABSTRACT This qualitative study of adoptive parents demonstrates the multidimensional nature of the social disclosure patterns of 44 couples who have adopted at least one child during the past decade. Three main types of social disclosure patterns were found: Advocates, Moderates, and Reluctants. Each type varied on several dimensions: open communication patterns, social networks, internal/external family distinctions, motives, and tactics. This article suggests that despite the binary, dichotomous nature that has previously been asserted in the literature, contemporary adoptive families represent extensive diversity within the adoption community in regards to their multidimensional social disclosure patterns.

Application of dwell-time series in studies of long-range correlation in single channel ion transport: analysis of ion current through a big conductance locust potassium channel

The time series of successive closed- and open-states durations determined for a voltage-dependent big conductance locust potassium channel (BK channel) have been analyzed. The problem of correlation between the states have been discussed by means of the autocorrelation function, Hurst and detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA) as well as surrogate data tools. We showed that the existence of correlation between closed and open times can be detected only by simultaneous application of several different tools. All techniques pointed at a stronger correlation, therefore longer memory, in the series of closed states. Persistent character of both examined dwell-time series has been shown by the Hurst and DFA analyses, whose exponents were found significantly larger than 0.5—a value typical for random walk. It may originate from the externally applied electric field, which directs ion movement and influences channel kinetics. DFA detected two ranges of different correlations in the series of closed states durations. This result points to the existence of two processes with different correlation characteristics which govern the channel functioning. The DFA exponent equal to 0.86±0.07 for long-range scaling of closed times suggests that the long memory of the BK channel action arising from the dichotomous nature of the signal and the long-tail properties of the closed-times distribution can be also governed by the correlation between closed states. The possible biological implications of the findings have been also discussed.

Apoptosis/differentiation-inducing effects of vitamin K2 on HL-60 cells: dichotomous nature of vitamin K2 in leukemia cells.

We originally reported that vitamin K2 (VK2) analogs, including menaquinone 4 (MK4) but not vitamin K1, effectively induce apoptosis in various types of primary cultured leukemia cells and leukemia cell lines in vitro. It has also been reported by others that VK2 showed the differentiation-inducing activity in leukemia cell lines. To investigate the discrepancy between apoptosis- and differentiation-inductions of leukemia cells by VK2 treatment, we used bcl-2 gene transfected HL-60 cells (HL-60-bcl-2) which resulted in five-fold over-expression of BCL-2 protein, and then compared the effects of MK4 to the control HL-60-neo cells. Seventy-two hours of exposure to various concentrations of MK4 resulted in growth inhibition of these cells in a dose-dependent manner (0.1-50 microM), however, HL-60-bcl-2 was less sensitive against MK4. MK4 potently induced apoptosis of HL-60-neo cells along with the depolarization of mitochondrial membrane potential and caspase-3 activation. Notably, HL-60-bcl-2 was almost completely resistant to apoptosis induction in response to MK4, although cell growth inhibition was still observed. In spite of the abrogation of apoptosis induction, about 90% of HL-60-bcl-2 cells were arrested in the G0/G1 phase within 48 h of exposure to 10 microM of MK4 accompanied by up-modulation of p27KIP1 expression. Concomitantly, HL-60-bcl-2 cells underwent monocytic differentiation. These data suggest that VK2 also shows the differentiation inducing effects on leukemia cells which are resistant against VK2-inducing apoptosis. The dichotomous nature of VK2 against leukemia cells appears to have clinical benefits for the treatment of patients with leukemias and myelodysplastic syndromes.

Heparin-induced Thrombocytopenia: Yet Another Treatment Paradox?

SummaryFew topics in medicine rival heparin-induced thrombocytopenia (HIT) for the unexpected twists and turns enough to rival the plot of many a mystery novel. The underlying theme- anticoagulant-induced thrombosis- seems improbable, but is well-established: despite thrombocytopenia, patients rarely bleed spontaneously or even exhibit petechiae (1); rather, thrombosis develops in 30-75% of patients with HIT, depending upon the clinical situation, and in proportions far greater than expected based on the original reason for receiving heparin (2-4).But even beyond this fundamental contradiction, there exists for the unwary and uninformed practitioner several counterintuitive treatment paradoxes. One is the dichotomous nature of low-molecular-weight heparin (LMWH) respecting prevention and treatment of HIT. LMWH is far less likely to cause HIT than standard, unfractionated heparin (4, 5). Yet, for the patient with acute HIT caused by unfractionated heparin, LMWH is contraindicated (6, 7). The reason: LMWH preparations contain some heparin molecules with 12 or greater saccharide units, which are sufficiently long to bind platelet factor 4 (PF4), creating the multimolecular complexes bearing the HIT antigens. Consequently, ongoing platelet activation, thrombocytopenia, and thrombosis occur in many patients so treated (8).

Fuzzy approaches for fault diagnosis of transformers

Dissolved gas analysis has been used as a diagnostic method to determine the conditions of transformers for a long time. The criteria used in dissolved gas analysis are based on crisp value norms. Due to the dichotomous nature of crisp criteria, transformers with similar gas-in-oil conditions may lead to very different conclusions of diagnosis especially when the gas concentrations are around the crisp norms. To deal with this problem, gas-in-oil data of failed transformers were collected and treated in order to obtain the membership functions of fault patterns using a fuzzy clustering method. All crisp norms are fuzzified to linguistic variables and diagnostic rules are transformed into fuzzy rules. A fuzzy system originally proposed by Takagi and Sugeno is used to combine the rules and the fuzzy conditions of transformers to obtain the final diagnostic results. It is shown that the diagnosing results from the combination of several simple fuzzy approaches are much better than traditional methods especially for transformers which have gas-in-oil conditions around the crisp norms.

Changes in the Westphalian Order: Territory, Public Authority, and Sovereignty

nature of concepts. All concepts are abstract. Indeed, root of word means to draw out or away from what Harry Eckstein called the relentless particularity of experience. Concepts attempt to draw together elements of concrete experience that can be grouped in a fruitful way, so as to improve our understanding. Thus, point is not to avoid abstraction, but to build fruitful concepts. Again, no one will disagree with so anodyne a statement. The challenge is to pitch concepts at right level so as to connect both upward (towards general theory) and downward (towards empirical data). The mix of concepts associated with Westphalian order (sovereignty, authority, autonomy, control, territoriality) have fallen on latter criterion, that is, on connection between abstract concepts and empirical observations. Dichotomous nature of concepts. Concepts such as and territoriality have been treated as if they could take on two possible values-present or absent, or not sovereign, territorial or nonterritorial organization. While some concepts are inherently dichotomous, many so treated are at bottom continuous. Even types of political systems, such as presidential and parliamentary, can be conceptualized as having or less of these properties measured on some underlying continuum (Shugart and Carey 1992:2-3). Defining our concepts in either/or terms has caused us to labor needlessly about whether certain states are or not, whether emerging international unions such as European Union (EU) possess or not, and if they do, whether such is shared with constituent nation states. Dichotomous conceptions of have also prevented us from conceptualizing sovereignty bargains (Litfin 1997). Disputes over and who possesses it are bound up with notion that is ultimate right to decide. Sovereignty in this sense implies a hierarchy of both 4 Changes in Westphalian Order 5 norms and power. Many institutions within (and outside) society may possess both competencies and normative support, but when they are in conflict with one another-when the chips are down as saying goes-the important question is who has final authority? Since ideas of normative conflict and hierarchy of norms are central to much legal reasoning, lawyers tend to adopt this view of as located in final authority. Since law is about adjudication among competing norms, lawyers are supremely well placed to shed light on so defined. Yet idea of as ultimate right to decide has seriously retarded progress. Dichotomous conceptions of do not allow much observable variation, cannot be untangled from other important concepts, and are not easily assimilated into language of political exchange (compromising sovereignty, bargains) and practices. Almost all of concepts related to Westphalian model-territory, control over borders, authority, autonomy, legitimacy, and sovereignty-can be thought of in continuous terms. While phrases such as more or less sovereign may sound odd, I suggest they do so because of ingrained notion that is ultimate right to decide. While this point is straightforward, it is not uncontroversial, and finding areas of agreement with respect to definitions is an important first step. The aggregation of concepts. Concepts such as territoriality, sovereignty, and authority obviously exist at a very high level of aggregation. To some extent, this is unavoidable. We are dealing with macroconcepts that often cannot be factored into specific, microlevel representations. Anarchy is a structural characteristic of international system, not a characteristic of states. States are not anarchic, yet placed in relation to one another they form an anarchy. And individual states are not bipolar or multipolar but system as a whole may be. Information about components is used to construct systemic properties (how could it be otherwise?), but once assembled in relation to one another, system takes on meanings of its own. Composition counts. The placement of elements makes a difference. Waltz (1979) has gone to great pains to establish independence of thirdimage (systemic) theory. If Waltz is correct-and I think he is on this pointsystemic theory cannot be reduced to its components. A theory of market is different from, and not reducible to, a theory of firms, just as a theory of international relations is separate from a theory of foreign policy.4 Lest I sound as if I am defending what I want to criticize, I note that aggregation issue takes two forms. The first, discussed briefly above, concerns 4This is a separate question from whether systemic theory by itself is underdetermined and therefore requires a theory of foreign policy as a complement.

Securing States' Interests at the 1787 Constitutional Convention: A Reassessment

Delegates to the Constitutional Convention of 1787 were convinced that their meeting represented the last great chance to save the Union from dismemberment.See, for example, the following observations by George Washington, Elbridge Gerry, and Edmund Randolph, respectively:That something is necessary, none will deny; for the situation of the general government, if it can be called a government, is shaken to its foundation, and liable to be overturned by every blast. In a word, it is at an end; and, unless a remedy is soon applied, anarchy and confusion, will inevitably ensue. (Letter of George Washington to Thomas Jefferson, May 30, 1787, repr. in Max Farrand, Records of the Federal Convention of 1787, rev. ed., 4 vols. [New Haven: Yale University Press, 1937] 3:31)The object of this Meeting is very important in my Mind unless a System of Government is adopted by Compact, Force I expect will plant the Standard: for such an anarchy as now exists cannot last long. (Letter of Elbridge Gerry to James Monroe, June 11, 1787, ibid., 45)Are we not on the eve of war, which is only prevented by the hopes from this convention. (Opening remarks of Edmund Randolph as recorded by James McHenry of Maryland, May 29, 1787, ibid., 1:26. By the same token, they recognized that the constitution they were to draft would determine the fate of the states composing the Union. In a letter to Edmund Randolph in advance of the Convention, James Madison highlighted the dichotomous nature of the task confronting the delegates intent on strengthening the national government without eliminating the states as political entities.

Partnership in Love and in Business

This article ponders the influences ofthe dichotomous nature of our understanding law andto questions that starting point on different levels oflegal thinking.

A method for measuring interrater agreement on checklists.

A method for measuring interrater agreement on checklists is presented. This technique does not assign individual scores to raters, but computes a single agreement score from the concordance of their check mark configurations. An overall coefficient of agreement, called phi, is derived. The agreement coefficient that is expected by chance and the statistical significance of phi are determined by statistical simulation. Despite the dichotomous nature of the checklist agreement (raters either agree or disagree on items), we show that the binomial distribution does not provide a means for testing the statistical significance of phi. A medical education study is used to illustrate the phi methodology.