Extreme View Research Articles

TWO PUZZLES FOR MARQUIS'S CONSERVATIVE VIEW ON ABORTION1

Don Marquis argues that abortion is morally wrong in most cases since it deprives the fetus of the value of its future. I criticize Marquis's argument for the modified conservative view by adopting an argumentative strategy in which I work within his basic account: if it is granted that his fundamental idea is sound, what follows about the morality of abortion? I conclude that Marquis is faced with a dilemma: either his position must shift towards the extreme conservative view on which abortion is never morally permissible, or he must abandon any recognizably conservative view. This dilemma suggests that Marquis's view is either deeply implausible or that he cannot use this argument to successfully support his preferred position.

Mixed-up DNA

![][1] Two chomosomes (red and green) mingle. POMBO Interphase human chromosomes show significant intermingling, say Miguel Branco and Ana Pombo (MRC Clinical Sciences Centre, London, UK). The idea is a counter to the most extreme view of chromosome territories. Territories were so

Power vs. Consent in Tribal Political Systems in Iran: Salzman on the Basseri Khan. Comments on an Extreme View

Anthropos , Seite 564 - 570

On the Consequences of Behavioral Adaptations in the Cost–Benefit Analysis of Road Safety Measures

AbstractIt is sometimes argued that road safety measures or automobile safety standards fail to save lives because safer highways or safer cars induce more dangerous driving. A similar but less extreme view is that ignoring the behavioral adaptation of drivers would bias the cost–benefit analysis of a traffic safety measure. This article derives cost–benefit rules for automobile safety regulation when drivers may adapt their risk‐taking behavior in response to changes in the quality of the road network. The focus is on the financial externalities induced by accidents because of the insurance system as well as on the consequences of drivers' risk aversion. We establish that road safety measures are Pareto improving if their monetary cost is lower than the difference between their (adjusted for risk aversion) direct welfare gain with unchanged behavior and the induced variation in insured losses due to drivers' behavioral adaptation. The article also shows how this rule can be extended to take other accident external costs into account.

View angle effects on the discrimination of selected Amazonian land cover types from a principal‐component analysis of MISR spectra

Multi‐angle Imaging Spectroradiometer (MISR) data, collected in four bands and at nine view angles in the Brazilian Amazon region, were used to describe view‐angle effects on the spectral response and discrimination of three forest types; close and open lowland forests, open submontane forest and green/emerging pastures. A principal‐component analysis (PCA) was applied over 450 bidirectional reflectance factor (BRF) MISR spectra (10 pixels, five land covers and nine view angles) to characterize the spectral‐angular variability in the dataset and to identify the best view direction to enhance land cover discrimination. The analysis was extended into the images of the different cameras, which were classified for the presence of the forest covers using the minimum distance of the pixels to the average PC1 and PC2 scores of each forest class calculated from spectra analysis. Results showed an increase in the mean reflectance over the spectral bands (brightness) of the land covers from nadir to extreme viewing, as indicated by the first principal component, especially in the backward direction due to the predominance of sunlit view vegetation components. The transition from the backward (sunlit view surface components) to the forward (shaded view surface components) scattering directions was also characterized by changes in the shape of the BRF spectra, as indicated by decreasing PC2 score or near‐infrared/blue ratio values. The variations in the MISR BRF followed the regularities expected from theory. PCA results also indicated that the best viewing to discriminate the forest types was the backward scattering direction (−26.1° view angle), whereas the less favourable viewing was the forward scattering direction under the view shading condition (e.g. +45.6° view angle). The overall classification accuracy for the three forest types increased from 52.4% at +45.6° view angle to 78.7% at nadir, and to 95.0% at a −26.1° view angle. From nadir to extreme view angles, directional effects produced a NDVI decrease for the forest types and an NDVI increase for the green and especially emerging pastures. Results demonstrated that data acquisition in off‐nadir viewing may improve the discrimination and mapping of the Amazonian land cover types.

A Model for Tax Advantages of Portfolios with Many Assets

Taxable portfolios present challenges for optimization models with even a limited number of assets. Holding many assets, however, has a distinct tax advantage over holding few assets. In this paper, we develop a model that takes an extreme view of a portfolio as a continuum of assets to gain the broadest possible advantage from holding many assets. We find the optimal strategy for trading in this portfolio in the absence of transaction costs and develop bounding approximations on the optimal value. We compare the results in a simulation study to a portfolio consisting only of a market index and show that the multi-asset portfolio's tax advantage can lead either to significant consumption or bequest increases.

Comment: Autonomy and the Public-Private Distinction in Bioethics and Law

Comment:Autonomy and the Public-Private Distinction in Bioethics and Law Susan H. Williams* (bio) In American law school classrooms, we have a phenomenon that I expect you experience here in Italy as well. The professor asks a question and the student attempts to avoid answering the question by challenging or seeking to shift the underlying assumptions the teacher has so carefully crafted to frame the issue. We call this "fighting the hypothetical," and I am afraid that that is what I am about to do. The current debates in biolaw, in Cinzia's elegant description of them,1 rest on a particular assumption that I would like to highlight and examine. The assumption is that there is a fundamental difference between private and public systems of ordering and that this difference is, and should be, the salient feature in organizing our thinking about the intervention of law in this social arena. This assumption is, of course, a basic part of the liberal legal tradition, but it is an assumption that has been challenged from a variety of perspectives, including Marxist, communitarian, and feminist approaches. I will focus on the feminist criticism. While I find the critique persuasive, and I hope you will as well, I do not mean to suggest that an appropriate analysis would simply ignore the differences between exercises of power, some of which promote autonomy and some of which frustrate it. The lesson we should take from the critique is not that power, whether public or private, is an undifferentiated whole, but rather that we must be more precise in defining what are the relevant moral differences between exercises of power. Our approach must be more sensitive to the presence or absence of these moral qualities regardless of the nominally public or private identity of the persons who wield that power. [End Page 483] In this comment, I will offer some preliminary thoughts about this project of reconceiving the significance of public and private. First, I will trace the importance of this distinction in the clear and concise description of biolaw in Cinzia's paper. Then I will outline the feminist critique, with particular attention to its applications in bioethical/legal issues. Finally, I will suggest that the concerns about individual autonomy that underlie the traditional public-private distinction, while legitimate, are better served by directing our attention to the ways in which power facilitates or frustrates autonomy. In particular, the focus of this analysis should be on the effects of power on a more relational and less individualistic model of autonomy, rather than on the public or private nature of the person or institution who wields that power. There are important, morally significant issues in the exercise and structure of power, and they do indeed concern individual autonomy, but the focus on the public or private nature of power and the adherence to an individualistic model of autonomy obscure rather than illuminate these issues. Cinzia offers a view of the current landscape of biolaw in which individual choice has become the central moral reality, replacing the biological facts on which the law used to rely.2 In response to these changes, Cinzia identifies three major approaches advocated by scholars of biolaw. The first approach sees the role of law as minor and argues that the ethical issues posed by these new technologies should be left to the "private-individual sphere," to be resolved by "individual conscience and self-regulation" within private institutions, such as hospitals and medical professions.3 The second approach adopts the other extreme view, arguing that law should regulate these ethical choices fully, imposing a particular moral vision and ensuring that private individuals and institutions comply with it. The ethical choices here are made by public institutions through the mechanisms of politics and law rather than by private parties.4 The third approach takes an intermediate approach, suggesting a role for law in protecting certain basic rights and imposing procedures designed to maximize autonomy rather than to impose a particular moral vision. Thus, the public institutions set a minimum ethical threshold and then support private individuals in making the ethical choices that remain to them above that threshold.5 [End Page 484...

Project STOP: Cognitive behavioral assessment and treatment for sex offenders with intellectual disability.

Abstract In this brief article, we provide relevant background concerning the prevalence, characteristics and vulnerabilities of intellectually disabled (ID) sex offenders, as well as scientifically-informed guidelines for treatment. Finally, we provide a description of Project STOP, an outpatient cognitive behavioral assessment and treatment program. Keywords: intellectually disabled, sex offenders, cognitive behavioral assessment and treatment , problem solving, intervention Introduction Sex offending behavior in persons with intellectual disabilities (ID) is a serious problem with significant and long-term consequences for the victims, offenders, and their communities (Barron, Hassiots, & Banes, 2002). A growing awareness of such problems in persons with ID requires effective solutions with regard to assessment and treatment. Defining Sex Offending The term sex offender is a broad one that is applied to individuals who commit a sex offense (Lanyon, 2001). Examples of sex offenses include sexual conduct with a minor and forcible, nonconsensual sexual acts toward an adult, including sexual acts involving an individual who is unable to give consent for sexual acts. Moreover, people who sexually offend may be diagnosed with additional psychological or behavioral disorders, including s, deviant sexual interests, mood or anxiety disorders, psychotic disorders, personality disorders, brain injury, or ID, such as mental retardation. Thus, sex offenders represent a heterogeneous population for which few generalizations can be made regarding etiology, assessment, or treatment that can be easily applied to all offenders. Sex Offenders with Intellectual Disabilities The prevalence of people with mental retardation among sex offenders is estimated between 10 and 15% (Murphy, Coleman, & Haynes, 1983) and much higher if persons with borderline intellectual functioning are included in this estimate. However, there is no support for a direct or causal association between intellectual functioning and sex offending behavior (McCurry et al., 1998), and estimated rate may be partially due to the decreased likelihood that people with ID can evade detection and arrest. When compared to other sex offenders, the availability and investigation of effective treatment programs for ID offenders has lagged far behind those of than their non-disabled cohorts (Barron, Hassiotis, & Banes, 2002; Lindsay, 2002; Timms & Goreczny, 2002;). In order to develop effective interventions for this population, it is important to understand what diathetic factors contribute to the development of sex offending behavior in persons with ID. This requires an integration of existing scientific knowledge concerning both sex offending treatment and the unique challenges to sexuality concerning persons with ID. Unique Challenges of Sexual Risk for ID Offenders Due to a history of institutionalization, the sexual of lives of persons with ID have been historically under society's control (Kempton & Kahn, 1991; Pitceathly & Chapman, 1985). Such societal controls, including and sterilization, were viewed as acceptable prevention methods and no education in sexuality or treatment for sexual disorders were provided (Woodill, 1992). Despite several decades of a nationwide de-institutionalization and a trend toward community integration, negative community biases still serve as obstacles to the adaptive sexual expression of people with ID. One extreme stereotypic view characterizes people with ID as having uncontrollable sexual desires. An alternative, but equally extreme view is that they are innocent and naive persons who have no sexual desire (Szollos & McCabe, 1995). It is unfortunate that such views prevail, because significant restrictions concerning sexuality continue to occur. Without the support from caregiving systems to provide accurate and effective sexual educative experiences, the sexual knowledge that an individual inadvertently learns can be subject to significant distortion and misinterpretation (Jurkowski & Amado, 1993). …

CODEWEAVE: Exploring Fine-Grained Mobility of Code

This paper is concerned with an abstract exploration of code mobility constructs designed for use in settings where the level of granularity associated with the mobile units exhibits significant variability. Units of mobility that are both finer and coarser grained than the unit of execution are examined. To accomplish this, we take the extreme view that every line of code and every variable declaration are potentially mobile, i.e., it may be duplicated or moved from one program context to another on the same host or across the network. We also assume that complex code assemblies may move with equal ease. The result is CODEWEAVE, a model that shows how to develop new forms of code mobility, assign them precise meaning, and facilitate formal verification of programs employing them. The design of CODEWEAVE relies greatly on Mobile UNITY, a notation and proof logic for mobile computing. Mobile UNITY offers a computational milieu for examining a wide range of constructs and semantic alternatives in a clean abstract setting, i.e., unconstrained by compilation and performance considerations traditionally associated with programming language design. Ultimately, the notation offered by CODEWEAVE is given exact semantic definition by means of a direct mapping to the underlying Mobile UNITY model. The abstract and formal treatment of code mobility offered by CODEWEAVE establishes a technical foundation for examining competing proposals and for subsequent integration of some of the mobility constructs both at the language level and within middleware for mobility.

The ultimate expanding earth hypothesis

The ultimate expanding earth hypothesis

Attached Eddies and Production Spectra in the Atmospheric Logarithmic Layer

We investigate the production components of turbulent spectra within logarithmic layers over flat ground. This assumes that the turbulence giving rise to these spectra consists of active coherent structures (eddies) that are attached to the ground, and whose properties display perfect statistical self-similarity under inner scaling. That is, we take the extreme view that active coherent structures not only contribute to turbulence production spectra but explain the whole of them, so that neither detached eddies nor unstructured motions make any significant contribution. Perfect self-similarityis held to apply only to eddies that are themselves formed totally within the log layer, so the theory applies in the limit of spectra obtained at the hearts of very deep log layers. The model predicts that spectral variance and covariance should become independent of wavenumber at small wavenumbers. This asymptotic behaviour is observed in all neutral spectra from the Kansas experiment. The model also interprets the various positions of the spectral peaks observed at Kansas and in aircraft flights over the sea as consequences of the eddies being aggregated into files aligned with the wind. The observed spectra are therefore consistent with large-scale wedge-like structures being the principal component of active turbulence in the neutral atmospheric surface layer.

Emissions Scenarios: A Final Response

This note is a final response to the debate raised by Mr. Castles and Mr. Henderson (for brevity, we refer here to the two authors simply as C&H) in this Journal (vol 14, no 2&3, and no 4) on the issue of economic growth in developing countries in some of the emissions scenarios published in the IPCC Special Report on Emissions Scenarios (SRES) (Nakicenovic et al., 2000). We first outline areas of agreement and then the remaining areas of disagreement. Two important areas of agreement have emerged from the debate according to our view. First, both parties agree that scenarios assuming a conditional convergence in income levels, i.e., a higher growth in per capita income in poorer countries when compared to countries with higher levels of affluence, are both "plausible and well attested in economic history" (C&H, p. 424). Thus, the fundamental, structural characteristic of some of the SRES scenarios contested by C&H are not challenged per se, but rather how fast such trends could unfold in the future.

Epigenesis versus preformation during mammalian development. Introduction.

The elaboration of a physiologically integrated organism from a fertilized egg depends on processes of cellular growth and diversification that require very precise coordination in both space and time. The extent to which the final outcome is presaged in the egg is an issue that has engaged those seeking to explain embryonic development since antiquity. According to the concept of preformation espoused by Charles Bonnet, the new organism was already present in its final form in the egg, so that development simply entailed enlargement without any accompanying increase in complexity (Oppenheimer 1967). This extreme view was shown to be untenable by Caspar Friedrich Wolff, whose relevant studies included careful documentation of the emergence of increasingly complex organization during the course of embryogenesis in the chick. As a result, the opposing concept of epigenesis, namely that order and form emerge de novo during the course of development, rapidly gained dominance (Oppenheimer 1967). However, by the latter half of the nineteenth century, preformation was revived in a subtler guise to explain the development of various marine invertebrates in which both patterns of cleavage and differentiation of the resulting blastomeres were essentially invariant. Here, cellular diversification was attributed to the localization within the cytoplasm of the egg of factors, or ‘determinants’, which dictated the fate of the cells that inherited them. The stereotypical pattern of cleavage exhibited by such organisms was referred to as ‘mosaic’, in contrast to the variable or ‘regulative’ pattern shown by many others. Mosaic soon came to be equated with a determinant–based or neo–preformationist, and regulative with an epigenetic, view of development. We now know that this distinction is not valid because cellular interactions play a vital part in the development even of organisms with invariant lineage like Caenorhabditis elegans, whereas ‘determinants’ such as those for the germline occur in species whose lineage is variable.

JACKSON, J. B. C., LIDGARD, S. & MCKINNEY, F. K. (eds) 2001. Evolutionary Patterns. Growth, Form, and Tempo in the Fossil Record. xvi + 399 pp. Chicago, London: University of Chicago Press. Price US $85.00, £54.00 (hard covers); US $30.00, £19.00 (paperback). ISBN 0 226 38930 8; 0 226 38931 6 (pb)

JACKSON, J. B. C., LIDGARD, S. & MCKINNEY, F. K. (eds) 2001. Evolutionary Patterns. Growth, Form, and Tempo in the Fossil Record. xvi + 399 pp. Chicago, London: University of Chicago Press. Price US 30.00, £19.00 (paperback). ISBN 0 226 38930 8; 0 226 38931 6 (pb) - Volume 140 Issue 3

Crossovers in seedling relative growth rates between low and high irradiance: analyses and ecological potential

Crossovers in seedling relative growth rates between low and high irradiance: analyses and ecological potential

Short-Run Effects of Fiscal Policy with Forward-Looking Financial Markets

We explore the short-run effects of fiscal policy using simulations of an empirical, rational-expectations, open-economy macromodel developed at the Federal Reserve Board. Based on this model, we find that tax cuts and spending increases generally stimu- late economic activity in the short run, contrary to the extreme view that forward-looking financial markets more than offset the direct expansionary impulse of those actions. However, the magni- tude of the stimulus is greatly attenuated by the financial-market feedback. For example, a sustained cut in personal income taxes raises output by less than the amount of the tax cut itself, and it likely reduces output (relative to baseline) in the first several years if phased in gradually over time. Our results also show that the estimated stimulus imparted by fiscal policy is sensitive to reason- able variation in the model's parameters.

Rethinking the Role of Corrective Feedback in Communicative Language Teaching

The history of second language teaching has witnessed changing perceptions of corrective feedback. Under the extreme view of communicative language teaching, which appears to be prevailing in some communicatively-oriented classrooms, learning can only come about through learner-learner interactive output practice. Form- focused instruction is deemed detrimental. Corrective feedback is consequently accorded low status in classroom processes. In this paper, I examine the 'equation' drawn between communicative language teaching and the exclusion of form-focused instruction and error correction. By bringing in a cognitive-skill-acquisition perspective to bear on the role of corrective feedback in second language acquisition, I argue that in communicative language teaching, corrective feedback remains an important vehicle for facilitating L2 knowledge construction and enhancing knowledge use. Issues related to the actual provision of corrective feedback in the classroom are considered, which include matching teaching and learning, teacher adaptation, and output enhancement. Pedagogical insights are provided into two questions that are of major practical concern to L2 teachers: namely, how to increase the effectiveness of corrective feedback in the classroom and how to integrate corrective feedback into communicative language teaching to enhance learning.

Democratic Processes, Political Risk, and Foreign Exchange Markets

3i6 Foreign exchange markets are among the deepest and widest financial markets in the world. Technological innovations and market liberal? ization have made currency markets enormous?by 1992, the vol? ume of transactions topped over $1 trillion each day. Moreover, economic agents can trade currencies with shocking speed?during the September 1992 E.M.S. crisis, British monetary authorities expended over two billion dollars to support the pegged value of the pound in only a few hours. The behavior of these currency markets can affect not only trade flows and in? ternational investment, key determinants of economic performance, but also political outcomes. Consequently, exchange rates have become a highly salient issue, both at the domestic and international levels. Indeed, some political economists assert that rapidly adjusting international markets may overwhelm the ability of policymakers to control policy, and, according to the most extreme view, thwart any meaningful democracy. Understanding how currency markets behave, therefore, is fundamental step to assess accu? rately how the internationalization of economic activity influences demo? cratic politics. We investigate how democratic political events affect currency markets by focusing on the relationship between the spot and forward exchange rate markets. The efficient markets hypothesis implies that the forward ex? change rate?the price of the currency deliverable thirty days in the fu? ture?should be an unbiased predictor of the future spot exchange rate. That is, today's thirty-day forward rate should, on average, accurately pre? dict the spot exchange rate one month from today. Empirical studies, how? ever, conclude that the forward rate is often a biased predictor of future ex? change rate changes. Many economic models attribute this bias to a risk premium, where currency traders demand a higher return for holding the currency.

Ambiguity and Belief

This paper is concerned with the notion of ambiguity—or what I shall refer to more generally as homonymy—and its bearing upon various familiar puzzles about intensional contexts. It would hardly of course be a novel claim that the unravelling of such puzzles may well involve recourse to something like ambiguity. After all, Frege, who bequeathed to us one of the most enduring of the puzzles, proposed as part of his solution an analysis of intensional contexts according to which all expressions change their sense when embedded in such contexts. (Indeed they change their sense with each embedding.) And many contemporary philosophers who have discussed the puzzles, while not perhaps endorsing Frege's own somewhat extreme view, nevertheless take ambiguities in the contained sentences to be the key to the puzzles. In this paper, however, I wish to follow those who take the crucial source of homonymy, at least in the most difficult of the puzzles, to lie primarily not in the embedded sentences, but rather in the intensional verbs that embed them. I begin with a brief examination of certain aspects of ambiguity and homonymy.

Translation in the Teaching of a Foreign Language As a Means and As an End

In the history of foreign language teaching translation has alternately been praised and condemned. Unfortunately, the praise and condemnation were based on a rather simplistic, biased, and extreme view of the role of translation. In this view no clear, explicit distinction was made between translation as a means and as an end although in practice people already showed a tendency to be more concerned with one aspect than the other. Moreover, in their treatment of translation people tended to take an "either ... or ..." position. Either take it or leave it. This paper proposes a more explicit, balanced, and moderate attitude towards translation and its two aspects. It is suggested that a clear distinction be made between translation as a means and as an end and that each be treated accordingly in a better programmed way. The treatment should consider the level of instruction. At the beginning level translation should be treated more as a means than as an end. Gradually, as the level of instruction progresses the role of translation as a means is reduced, while its role as an end is increased so that at the more advanced levels translation will be treated more as an end than as a means. Accordingly, translation should not be totally abandoned or too liberally used. However, the use and disuse should be based on a careful and well-prepared program. In line with the idea that translation be treated as an end at the more advanced level, and considering its importance for a developing nation, it is also proposed here that translating be adopted as a "fifth skill" to be pursued.