Eminent Authorities Research Articles

Friendly AI will still be our master. Or, why we should not want to be the pets of super-intelligent computers

When asked about humanity’s future relationship with computers, Marvin Minsky famously replied “If we’re lucky, they might decide to keep us as pets”. A number of eminent authorities continue to argue that there is a real danger that “super-intelligent” machines will enslave—perhaps even destroy—humanity. One might think that it would swiftly follow that we should abandon the pursuit of AI. Instead, most of those who purport to be concerned about the existential threat posed by AI default to worrying about what they call the “Friendly AI problem”. Roughly speaking this is the question of how we might ensure that the AI that will develop from the first AI that we create will remain sympathetic to humanity and continue to serve, or at least take account of, our interests. In this paper I draw on the “neo-republican” philosophy of Philip Pettit to argue that solving the Friendly AI problem would not change the fact that the advent of super-intelligent AI would be disastrous for humanity by virtue of rendering us the slaves of machines. A key insight of the republican tradition is that freedom requires equality of a certain sort, which is clearly lacking between pets and their owners. Benevolence is not enough. As long as AI has the power to interfere in humanity’s choices, and the capacity to do so without reference to our interests, then it will dominate us and thereby render us unfree. The pets of kind owners are still pets, which is not a status which humanity should embrace. If we really think that there is a risk that research on AI will lead to the emergence of a superintelligence, then we need to think again about the wisdom of researching AI at all.

Pesticide Patent and Data Protection - How They Help Indian Farmers and Indian Industry

Respecting intellectual property rights is one of the basic prerequisites for creating an innovation and R&D based value-added manufacturing sector in any country. Agrochemicals have been chosen as one of the champion sectors. But how can India be a global supply hub without harmonizing with global regulatory policies and practices? This paper is aimed at establishing the benefits of both patent and data protection for Indian agriculture and Indian industry. Many Governments appointed Committees and also the Parliamentary Standing Committee for Agriculture (2008-09), after detailed deliberations and interaction with all stakeholders and all sections of industry, have recommended protection of regulatory data (PRD). This is to encourage introduction of new molecules for the Indian farmers, and to honour India’s obligation under the TRIPs agreement. The recommendations by such eminent authorities should not be overlooked. Almost all countries of the world give PRD for 6–15 years for any molecule registered for the first time in their country.

Bacterial diversity of river Kshipra with relation to human health

Bacterial community has always been an essential component of aquatic ecosystem because of the important role played by it in maintaining continuity of ecosystem. Aquatic bacterial diversity has been an interesting, popular and wide area of research as it is well correlated with the level of pollution in the ecosystem. Addition of pollutants is one of the major factor which disturbs bacterial diversity and density in river. The aim of the present work is to investigate the presence of bacteria and analyze its correlation with pollution status in river Kshipra which is considered to be a holy river of central India. The study also records the occurrence of different bacterial species including fecal coliform, total coliforms and many other pathogenic bacteria. Presence of pathogenic bacteria like Salmonella sps., Pseudomonas sps. ,Shigella sps., Vibrio sps. and FC/FS ratio between 1.1-1.5 indicates that the river is contaminated by domestic and city sewage as well as by both animal and human excreta. The current investigation reports the occurrence of different water borne diseases like typhoid, cholera, gastrointestinal diseases and skin infections etc in people residing nearby river who consume river water for fulfilling their daily need. A strong correlation has been established between bacterial density and physicochemical parameters like temperature, Dissolved Oxygen, Biological Oxygen Demand and Chemical Oxygen Demand. Urgent measures should be taken by eminent authorities to minimize the anthropogenic activities like dumping of flower, oil, body ashes, coconut shell in order to restore this sacred river.

The Controversy over Energy Takings: A Tale of Pipelines and Eminent Domain

This article examines the controversy over the exercise of eminent by private enterprise to acquire property for oil and natural gas pipelines. Although opposition to pipelines is largely driven by broad environmental concerns to curb reliance on fossil fuels, this article focuses on whether energy takings by non-governmental entities satisfy the “public use” requirement in state condemnation statutes or as a constitutional norm. It traces the history of eminent domain in the United States from the mill acts of the eighteenth century, emphasizing that legislators frequently delegated eminent domain power to canals, turnpikes and railroads in order to improve transportation. Courts regularly sustained these laws as effectuating a “public use.” In other words, “public use” was never confined to public ownership. In the late nineteenth century courts readily upheld legislation conferring eminent domain authority on private pipeline companies, comparing pipelines to other modes of transportation. With the Natural Gas Act of 1938 Congress asserted federal authority over the transportation of natural gas, and in 1947 granted federal eminent domain authority for interstate natural gas pipelines. Oil pipelines, on the other hand, continue to rely on a patchwork of state laws to exercise eminent domain power. For decades after World War II the acquisition of land for pipelines was not particularly controversial. With new technology, however, oil and gas production soared as did the need for expanded pipeline infrastructure. Critics now maintained that taking for pipelines were not for “public use,” and therefore failed to satisfy state eminent domain statutes or were unconstitutional. This article notes the erosion of the “public use” norm as a meaningful restraint on eminent domain, especially at the federal level. It then considers the checkered pattern of recent state legislative actions and judicial decisions, arguing that most state courts are likely to uphold the use of eminent domain for pipelines. It also points out that the same legal arguments used against pipeline construction are being employed to challenge new electric power transmission lines. The article concludes by questioning whether affected landowners and environmental advocates have much in common with respect to the rights of property owners and predicting that any alliance will prove fleeting and tactical.

In memoriam Luigi Padeletti: a cardiologist with many human and scientific qualities

In memoriam Luigi Padeletti: a cardiologist with many human and scientific qualities

Escritura publicitaria de transición: entre la visigótica y la carolina. El paradigma burgalés = Publicity Script in Transition: Between the Visigothic and the Carolingian. The Burgos Paradigm

A nadie se escapa que la escritura–ordinaria y publicitaria- ha sido un fenómeno vivo cuyo proceso evolutivo estuvo sujeto a una serie de circunstancias que según unas determinadas características espacio-temporales presenta unas particularidades muy concretas. En líneas generales, el siglo XII ha sido considerado como el del triunfo definitivo de la escritura carolina publicitaria en la Península Ibérica y así lo confirman los numerosos corpora trabajados hasta el momento y los estudios del profesor García Lobo; una de las grandes autoridades en la material. Sin embargo, en las líneas que se suceden pretendemos analizar el momento de cambio entre las escrituras visigótica y carolina en la provincia de Burgos por presentar unas particularidades muy concretas, especialmente en lo que a cronología y dispersión geográfica se refiere. No menos importante será observar qué signos y elementos gráficos fueron los que presentaron mayor reticencia a desaparecer. El punto de partida necesario es admitir que existió durante todo el siglo XII una convivencia entre los sistemas escriturarios visigótico y carolino. Esta realidad dejó, además, un curioso sistema de mezclas donde encontramos inscripciones visigóticas con indicios de elementos carolinos, inscripciones con escritura mixta e inscripciones carolinas con reminiscencias carolinas además de epígrafes con escritura puro de ambos sistemas. Veremos en qué consisten esos cambios y dentro de que tradición contextual se producen.It is widely accepted that the creation of both ordinary and publicity script is a dynamic phenomenon whose evolutionary process was subject to a series of circumstances in which certain spatial-temporal characteristics produced concrete traits. In general, the twelfth century was considered as the defining moment of the Carolingian publicity script in the Iberian Peninsula as confirmed in the numerous corpora studied by García Lobo, one of the eminent authorities in the field. Nevertheless, in this article, we intend to analyze the transition period between the Visigothic and the Carolingian script in the province of Burgos since it presents specific characteristics of chronology and geographical diffusion. No less important is the need to determine which signs and graphic elements were most reticent to disappear. It is necessary to begin with the premise that during all of the twelfth century, the Visigothic and Carolingian scriptural systems coexisted. This reality produced a curious mixed system of Visigothic inscriptions combined with signs of Carolingian elements, inscriptions with mixed script, and Carolingian inscriptions with Visigothic reminiscences as well as epigraphy with pure script from both systems. We will examine these changes and determine the contextual tradition in which they are produced.

The Historical and Biographical Context of Gregory's Diverticulum, an Unusual Organ in Sand Dollars

Gregory's diverticulum is a conspicuous digestive tract element found in selected sand dollar (Echinoidea: Clypeasteroida) species. This organ, a transitory structure of the juvenile organism, was named after the American zoologist Emily R. Gregory (1863–1946). Although it had been observed before by the renowned echinoid researcher and former director of the Museum of Comparative Zoology Alexander E. Agassiz, Gregory was the first to describe the organ as a distinct entity on the basis of the ubiquitous sand dollar species Echinarachnius parma. However, despite presenting her discovery at several national and international conferences, as well as in short papers, Gregory's find remained largely unmentioned by contemporary echinoderm researchers. With the erroneous assessment of one of the most eminent authorities on echinoid taxonomy and systematics Theodor J. Mortensen that the organ she discovered does not exist, Gregory's work seemed destined to fall into oblivion. However, in the second half of the 20th century, several unpublished master's theses provided unequivocal evidence for the existence of the organ, thus reviving interest in research on Gregory's diverticulum. The present article gives a historical overview of studies related to Gregory's diverticulum, provides the first comprehensive biography of Emily R. Gregory, describes the circumstances of the organ's discovery, and explores why the research of a female zoologist was seemingly not met with much enthusiasm during her lifetime.

El Paraíso terrenal en la América del siglo XVII: Antonio de León Pinelo y Simão de Vasconcellos

El presente trabajo analiza la obra de dos autores del siglo XVII que sitúan el Paraíso terrenal en el continente americano: El Paraíso en el Nuevo Mundo del bibliófilo y jurista español Antonio de León Pinelo y Das noticias antecedentes, curiosas e necessarias das cousas do Brasil del jesuita portugués Simão de Vasconcellos. El análisis comprende una revisión de los argumentos que ambos autores desarrollan con el fin de situar el jardín del Edén en la Amazonía. Mediante la cita a autoridades y la edenización del territorio, ambos dan cuenta de una perspectiva de enunciación situada en América, desde la que sostienen una visión identitaria del pensamiento periférico.

History of allergy

The ‘History of Allergy’ is an appropriate topic marking the 100th volume of an informative series, “Chemical Immunology and Allergy” published by Karger. The history of one of the major non-infectious diseases has been discussed here which although has been around for 2000 or more years, but has gained epidemic proportions over the recent decades. The book provides a comprehensive overview regarding the historical aspects of allergy by some of the eminent authorities in the field. The book is divided into eight chapters which have been further subdivided. The first five chapters of the book takes the reader through the ancient history, the development and understanding of mechanisms of allergy and further how the management of allergic diseases has progressed. Chapter 1 traces the symptoms and clinical conditions of allergic diseases to atleast 2000 years back in the Mesopotamia, Egypt, China and indigenious American civilizations. It then traces the history of allergy through the middle ages followed by the description of hay fever, pollens in seasonal rhinitis in the 19th century. Allergy in the 20th century (modern era) has been discussed in detail including the discovery of anaphylaxis and development of immunotherapy. Additionally, details of the origin of various terminologies in allergic diseases have also been discussed. Chapter 2 discusses the historical reflections in a number of common allergic diseases like anaphylaxis, allergic rhinitis, asthma, atopic dermatitis, allergic contact dermatitis, urticaria and angioedema, allergy in eye, food allergy and drug hypersensitivity. Chapter 3 develops into the details of discoveries regarding mechanisms of allergy. It starts with discovery of immunoglobulin E in 1967, then goes on to discuss about the historical perspectives of discovery of T cell populations, mast cells, basophils, eosinophils, bradykinins, histamines and other mediators in allergic diseases. The fourth chapter deals with the detection of various environmental agents and allergens in allergic diseases. It starts with the description of pollen allergy at the start of 19th century followed by the role of mites, mammalian airborne allergens, latex, peanut and other food items and environmental pollution. Chapter 5 traces the progress in allergy management beginning with the history of catecholamine research, antihistamines, glucocorticoids, chromes, standardization of allergen extracts and the development of allergen specific immunotherapy over the years. Chapter 6 consists of 13 interviews with some of the best known pioneers in the field of allergy including K. Frank Austen, John Bienenstock, Kurt Blaser, Alain de Weck, Alfred W. Frankland, Oscar L. Frick, Kimishige Ishizaka, Lothar Jager, Terumasa Miyamoto, Harry M. Brown, Albert K. Oehling, Heimo Reulecke and Vaclav Spicak. The book discusses their background, education, professional qualifications and important papers. Chapter 7 takes its reader through the history and concept behind the foundation of some of the well known allergy societies around the world, while chapter 8 provides online access to two movies. The first movie “Anaphylaxie et Allergie” of 46 min was recorded in 1956 regarding anaphylaxis. After a short introduction by Portier it shows anaphylactic shock of a dog followed by principles of allergic reactions, diagnosis and therapy. The second movie “World Allergy: The Disease of Civilization” is on the essential aspects of the history of allergy. Overall, the book is exhaustive and consists of 257 figures, 127 in colour and 20 tables. However, having multiple authors sometimes presents some contradictory views leaving it to the mind of the reader on how to analyze it. The print quality is good and provides for pleasant reading. Anyone having interest in allergy will like to have this book in his/her personal collection. It will be a useful reference book for medical college libraries as well.

The significance of theḥadīthof the position of Aaron for the formulation of the Shīʿī doctrine of authority

AbstractFrom quite early on, the Shīʿa endeavoured to provide both historical and rational arguments for their central claim that ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib (d. 40/661), the cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet Muḥammad (d. 11/632), was not only his legitimate successor but also the person best qualified to lead theumma. In particular, there are several statements attributed to the Prophet Muḥammad which are used as evidence of the special position of ʿAlī and his family. One of these is a report known in the Muslim tradition as theḥadīth manzilat Hārūn(ḥadīthof the position of Aaron). According to this report, cited by such eminent authorities onḥadīthas Muslim ibn al-Ḥajjāj (d. 261/875), al-Tirmidhī (d. 279/892) and Ibn Ḥanbal (d. 241/855), Muḥammad said to ʿAlī: “Are you not content to be with respect to me as Aaron was to Moses, except that after me there shall be no other Prophet?” Theḥadīthalludes to the parallels and similarities between the status of Muḥammad and ʿAlī and their close relationship, and that of Moses and Aaron in the Jewish tradition. The article examines the significance of this report for the formulation of the doctrine of the special status of ʿAlī in Shīʿī Islam through its use and interpretation in the Muslim literary and historical tradition.

Charles H. Lankester (1879-1969): his life and legacy

Charles Herbert Lankester (1879-1969) was without a doubt the most dominant figure of Central American orchidology during his time. Better known as ‘Don Carlos’, Lankester was born in Southampton, England, on June 14 1879. It was in London that he read an announcement offering a position to work as an assistant to the recently founded Sarapiquí Coffee Estates Company in Costa Rica, he applied and was hired. Surely influenced by his uncle’s zoological background, Lankester was at first interested in birds and butterflies. However, living in Cachí, at that time one of the regions with the greatest botanical diversity, he must have fallen under the spell of the plant world as he soon began collecting orchids in the nearby woods. Many of the plants he collected at this time proved to be new species. With no literature at his hand to determine the plants he collected, Lankester started corresponding with the assistant director of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, Arthur Hill in 1910, and somewhat later with Robert Allen Rolfe, Kew’s most eminent authority on orchids. At the same time, Lankester began his collection of living plants that would become so famous years later. He returned to England in 1920 to enroll his five children in English schools. Lankester traveled to Africa from 1920 to 1922, hired by the British Government to do research on coffee plantations in Uganda. When returning to England, he found that Rolfe had died the year before. Many orchids that he had brought to Kew were left without identification. Lankester was back in Costa Rica in 1922, the year that was a turning point in his career as an orchidologist: it brought the first correspondence with Oakes Ames. Over the next fifteen years, Ames would discover more than 100 new species among the specimens he received from Costa Rica. In 1922, Ames began a series of publications on orchids, which he named Schedulae Orchidianae. In its third fascicle, in January 1923, Ames started to describe many of the Lankester orchids, which were deposited at Kew and had been left unidentified. Ames kept asking Lankester to send more and more specimens. After 1930, Lankester and Ames seem to drift slowly apart. Ames was taken in more by administrative work at Harvard, and Lankester traveled abroad more frequently. In 1955, after his wife’s death and already 76 years old, Lankester decided to sell his farm but retained the small part which contained his garden, a piece of land called “El Silvestre”. Lankester moved to a house he had bought in Moravia, one of the suburbs of the capital, San José. On a section of this farm called “El Silvestre”, Lankester began his wonderful collections of orchids and plants of other families, which formed the basis of the Charles H. Lankester Botanical Garden of the University of Costa Rica.

Testimony of Robert Hockett: Financial Services Panel Series, the Honorable Maxine Waters (CA-35) Presenting: The Housing Crisis and Policy Solutions: Should Eminent Domain Be Used to Save Underwater Homeowners?

This written testimony accompanied Professor Hockett's oral testimony, given 11 September 2012, before a House of Representatives panel convened by Rep. Maxine Waters, on the necessity of municipalities' employing their eminent domain authority to purchase and write-down principal on deeply underwater private label securitized (PLS) mortgage loans. Professor Hockett argues that familiar market impediments prevent voluntary write-downs of such loans even when such write-downs are as creditor- as they are debtor-friendly. Pursuit of his eminent domain approach to the otherwise insoluble, still ongoing mortgage debt deflation, Professor Hockett concludes, will be 'win-win' for all interested parties.

Statistical inquiries into the efficacy of prayer*

An eminent authority has recently published a challenge to test the efficacy of prayer by actual experiment. I have been induced, through reading this, to prepare the following memoir for publication, nearly the whole of which I wrote and laid by many years ago, after completing a large collection of data, which I had undertaken for the satisfaction of my own conscience. The efficacy of prayer seems to me a simple, as it is a perfectly appropriate and legitimate subject of scientific inquiry. Whether prayer is efficacious or not, in any given sense, is a matter of fact on which each man must form an opinion for himself. His decision will be based on data more or less justly handled, according to his education and habits. An unscientific reasoner will be guided by a confused recollection of crude experience. A scientific reasoner will scrutinize each separate experience before he admits it as evidence, and will compare all the cases he has selected on a methodical system. The doctrine commonly preached by the clergy is well expressed in the most recent, and by far the most temperate and learned of theological encyclopaedias, namely, Smith’s Dictionary of the Bible. The article on ‘Prayer’, written by the Rev. Dr Barry, states as follows: ‘Its real objective efficacy ... is both implied and expressed (in Scripture) in the plainest terms ... We are encouraged to ask special blessings, both spiritual and temporal, in hopes that thus, and thus only, we may obtain them ... It would seem the intention of Holy Scripture to encourage all prayer, more especially intercession, in all relations and for all righteous objects’. Dr Hook, the present Dean of Chichester, states in his Church Dictionary, under ‘Prayer’, that ‘the general providence of God acts through what are called the laws of nature. By this particular providence God interferes with those laws, and he has promised to interfere in behalf of those who pray in the name of Jesus ... We may take it as a general role that we may pray for that for which we may lawfully labour, and for that only’. The phrases of our Church service amply countenance this view; and if we look to the practice of the opposed sections of the religious world, we find them consistent in maintaining it. The so-called ‘Low Church’ notoriously places absolute belief in special providences accorded to pious prayer. This is testified by the biographies of its members, the journals of its missionaries and the ‘united prayer meetings’ of the present day. The Roman Catholics offer religious vows to avert danger; they make pilgrimages to shrines; they hang votive offerings and pictorial representations, sometimes by thousands, in their churches, of fatal accidents averted by the manifest interference of a solicited saint. A prima facie argument in favour of the efficacy of prayer is therefore to be drawn from the very general use of it. The greater part of mankind, during all the historic ages, has been accustomed to pray for temporal advantages. How vain, it may be urged, must be the reasoning that ventures to oppose this mighty consensus of belief! Not so. The argument of universality either proves too much, or else it is suicidal. It either compels us to admit that the prayers of Pagans, of Fetish worshippers and of Buddhists who turn praying wheels, are recompensed in the same way as those of orthodox believers; or else the general consensus proves that it has no better foundation than the universal tendency of man to gross credulity. The collapse of the argument of universality leaves us solely concerned with a simple statistical ques

Remember Lot's Wife: Interpretation of Tax Statutes

The common law has over several centuries developed rules of or guides to statutory interpretation. These rules are usually referred to as canons of statutory construction or canons of statutory interpretation. Although tax statutes are (allegedly?) a special breed of legislation, they are nevertheless statutes, and it is submitted here that the canons of statutory interpretation may be employed freely in the interpretation of tax statutes, almost, though not quite, as much as they are used in statutory interpretation generally. In the evolution of the canons of statutory construction, tax statutes have not been exempted from their beam. On the other hand, the received professional wisdom on tax statutory interpretation is that most of the canons are not suitable for construing this elite category of legislation. Indeed, going by some of the most eminent authorities, the Strict Constructionist Approach and the Literal Rule appear to be the only permissible guides to construing tax statutes. Lawyers love certainty of doctrine and precedent along with predictability of their application. They adopt a worshipful backward gaze at rigid precedent and stiffen their necks in the process. They are like Lot’s wife, who, having looked back, was turned into a pillar of salt , rigid and unyielding, unable to glance forward. Tax lawyers love to invoke Cape Brandy and Duke of Westminster, and then fold their arms, gleefully expecting a judicial “Amen!” to whatever fossilised jurisprudence they have uttered. Well, “nothing is certain except death and taxes” including the death of doctrines about the interpretation of taxes. International, or more precisely foreign, tax jurisprudence has hitherto guided the understanding of tax statutory interpretation among the legal community in Nigeria. Our regular courts, including even the Supreme Court, have contributed very little to tax law jurisprudence, and even less to tax statute interpretation. They have tended to feebly copy and paste Cape Brandy and Duke of Westminster. Cape Brandy and Duke of Westminster are no longer gospel truth. The simple, unvarnished truth is that our courts are scarcely learned in tax law. They take their guidance wherever they can find it- until now, from outside. With the advent of the new tax regime and the inauguration of the tax appeal tribunals, our courts can now look inward, even if downward, for inspiration on the growth of our tax jurisprudence especially as regards tax statutory interpretation. In this paper I essentially submit the proposition for your consideration that while taxes may be certain, their interpretive philosophy is not as settled as tax lawyers have been led to assume or would like to think. The paper therefore muddles the waters that you thought had long been calmed, in order to throw up the pebbles and coral reefs of discord entangled beneath, for possible disentanglement. The tax appeal tribunals, being specialist albeit inferior administrative tribunals, can lead the development of tax law jurisprudence. Appeals to the Federal High Court and thence higher up should provide the legal system with ample opportunities as sharpening the contours of our tax law, particularly in the matter of interpretation.

The art of not being governed: an anarchist history of upland Southeast Asia

From the acclaimed author and scholar James C. Scott, the compelling tale of Asian peoples who until recently have stemmed the vast tide of state-making to live at arm's length from any organized state society For two thousand years the disparate groups that now reside in Zomia (a mountainous region the size of Europe that consists of portions of seven Asian countries) have fled the projects of the organized state societies that surround them-slavery, conscription, taxes, corvee labor, epidemics, and warfare. This book, essentially an anarchist is the first-ever examination of the huge literature on state-making whose author evaluates why people would deliberately and reactively remain stateless. Among the strategies employed by the people of Zomia to remain stateless are physical dispersion in rugged terrain; agricultural practices that enhance mobility; pliable ethnic identities; devotion to prophetic, millenarian leaders; and maintenance of a largely oral culture that allows them to reinvent their histories and genealogies as they move between and around states. In accessible language, James Scott, recognized worldwide as an eminent authority in Southeast Asian, peasant, and agrarian studies, tells the story of the peoples of Zomia and their unlikely odyssey in search of self-determination. He redefines our views on Asian politics, history, demographics, and even our fundamental ideas about what constitutes civilization, and challenges us with a radically different approach to history that presents events from the perspective of stateless peoples and redefines state-making as a form of internal colonialism. This new perspective requires a radical reevaluation of the civilizational narratives of the lowland states. Scott's work on Zomia represents a new way to think of area studies that will be applicable to other runaway, fugitive, and marooned communities, be they Gypsies, Cossacks, tribes fleeing slave raiders, Marsh Arabs, or San-Bushmen.

The Flame Photometer as Engine of Nephrology: A Biography

In the 1940s, the flame photometer made possible for the first time relatively simple and quick measurements of sodium and potassium in serum and urine. During World War II, it unexpectedly fell into the hands of John P. Peters of Yale University, who sought to understand water and electrolyte physiology and apply such knowledge to patient problems. Pupils and young associates of Peters would seed the early nephrology divisions and training programs in the United States; the flame photometer was essential to their work and that of their trainees, both Americans and international visitors. Hyponatremia and the syndrome of inappropriate antidiuretic hormone secretion became the "attribute" disorders of nephrologists. Invention of a microflame photometer fostered the revival of micropuncture and transport studies. In the 1960s, the flame photometer was linked to Leonard Skeggs' sequential automated analysis system, leading to enormous numbers of routine measurements of electrolytes. The growing number of nephrologists, then based mostly at teaching hospitals, thus found plentiful instances of sodium and potassium abnormalities to address. The autoanalyzer also catalyzed use of the anion gap, another emblem of nephrology in its early decades. Not only ideas and theories, but also the usually invisible machinery, enable the growth of a knowledge base and formation of a scientific discipline or medical specialty. Of course, the flame photometer did not itself shape the agenda of nephrology, but it allowed the most influential group of progenitors and their progeny to explore normal function and bring a strongly physiologic imperative to their daily work with patients.

Federal Agency Involvement in Western Renewable Energy Resource Decisions: Assessing the Views of Colorado County Commissioners

This research addresses a key aspect of federal-local relationships in American federalism. How do Colorado county commissioners react in terms of supporting or restricting the development of renewable energy resource decisions under the control of federal agencies? Do they support the removal of legal obstacles to the construction of renewable energy facilities on federal lands under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Forest Service or the Bureau of Land Management (BLM)? And to what extent to they favor the prospective use of eminent domain authority by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to site interstate transmission lines across county boundaries? The results presented here suggest that commissioners are less likely to support the exercise of eminent domain authority if they are favorably predisposed toward clean coal or nuclear power and prefer a more gradual transition to the use of renewable energy resources. Commissioner resistance to the development of renewable energy facilities on federal lands was more likely to occur in counties with a greater percentage of BLM or Forest Service lands and with higher PILT payments from natural resource uses.

Beyond the Horizons of Legends:Traditional Imagery and Direct Experience in Medieval Accounts of Asia

AbstractThe article deals with several medieval travel accounts about Asia, which were produced during the 13th and 14th centuries, in the time of the so called Mongol mission. These reports were written by Franciscan and also some Dominican missionaries, namely William of Rubruck, John Plano of Carpini, Odoric of Pordenone, John of Marignola, Jordanus Catalanus and a few others. The aim of the article is to analyze the encounter of European travelers’ “traditional” ideas about Asia with the actual reality. Did the friars mostly rely on their anticipations, or were they open to new information, even if this could destroy views often advocated by eminent authorities of European medieval thought? The article analyses three “traditional” topoi, each of them in the context of the above-mentioned reports: earthly paradise, the kingdom of Prester John and human monsters. All of them belonged to the medieval lore regarding the East, as testified by many literary as well as pictorial documents. Each of the authors adopted a slightly different strategy for how to solve the potential conflicts between “tradition” and experience. Finally, I suggest conceptualizing the problem of “tradition” and experience in medieval travel accounts with reference to a typology of “otherness” created by Karlheinz Ohle. According to Ohle, a “cognitive Other” (1) is an unknown, never encountered Other which can only be imagined, whereas a “normative Other” (2), is an Other which is directly encountered and gradually explored. In my opinion, the friars’ medieval travel accounts actually reflect a shift from imagination towards gradual encounter and exploration — in these reports the imagined (cognitive) fabulous East gradually turned into an explored (normative) reality.

The Commerce Clause and Transmission Infrastructure Development: An Answer to Jurisdictional Issues Clouded by Protectionism

Siting authority for interstate transmission facilities needs to rest with one federal agency, FERC, and federal eminent domain authority should be granted to those projects that meet the certification requirements of the siting authority. Establishment of a national renewable portfolio standard would be helpful to promote development of both renewable energy resources and cleaner power alternatives.

Guest editor's note

Since this is a volume intended to introduce English-speaking readers to material little known beyond the borders of the Nordic countries, I have followed where possible English conventions of nomenclature when referring to persons and places. Hence, Queen Christina is preferred to Drottning Kristina, Gustavus Adolphus to Gustav II Adolf, John III to Johan III, the various Charles IX, X, XI and XII to Karl IX, X, XI and XII, and Gothenburg to Göteborg. Readers should also note that the borders and political reach of Sweden have waxed and waned between the period under discussion here and our own time. From medieval times until 1809, Sweden proper incorporated the modern-day nation of Finland as a grand duchy. Accordingly, one paper in this volume concentrates on the cultural profile of Finland in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Furthermore, Sweden obtained through conquest and peace settlement a Baltic Empire in the sixteenth and particularly seventeenth centuries. The literary developments in Estonia, Livonia (modern-day Latvia) and stretches of the north German and Polish coasts play a part in the story told in the following pages, so the contributors refer quite naturally to a range of writers and works drawn from across the Baltic area. Finally, readers will appreciate that such a work as this can only offer a sense of the breadth of the Swedish cultural Renaissance. Those interested in learning more should follow the citations given in the footnotes; many of these works are either written in English, or have English summaries. I would like to thank the General Editors of Renaissance Studies for feeling the need for a dedicated volume on the Swedish Renaissance and for asking me to undertake the work in drawing eminent authorities into the project. I am also grateful to Mara R. Wade and Sarah Alyn Stacey. I am delighted to pay tribute to the authors of the essays that follow, all of them leading figures in their fields in Scandinavia; they have all exemplified the highest standards of professional courtesy and punctuality with submissions, and have graciously accepted what few small changes to their English I felt expressed their arguments more clearly. Any infelicities of phrasing that might remain are my responsibility alone.