Internal Criteria Research Articles

Conservation of genetic resources of durian in Nonthaburi province affected by flooding

Nonthaburi, the oldest durian-planting area in Thailand, was damaged by flooding in 2011. Approximately 464 ha were destroyed. The Ministry of Agricultural and Cooperative established a project to support a project initiated by Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn to help farmers, and assigned the Department of Agriculture (DOA) to execute the project. Two activities were conducted during 2011-2014: 1) to conserve and release old cultivars of durian to farmers and identify simple characteristics of durian cultivars, and 2) to demonstrate good cultural practices using the integration of DOA technology and farmers' knowledge. The Chanthaburi Horticultural Research Center (CHRC) and the Horticultural Research Institute (HRI) were able to conserve 15 cultivars from flooded areas and propagate them at CHRC. CHRC has propagated 25,000 plants from 73 cultivars that originated from Nonthaburi province and planted them at the Plant Genetic Conservation Project under the Royal Initiation of Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn (RSPG) at CHRC. These plants were released to Nonthaburi durian farmers between September 2012 and April 2013 in order for them to re-establish their durian orchards. A total of 160 ha of durian were grown. To identify cultivars, three classes of fruit characteristics were used: 1) external criteria including shape, size, spine shape, ridge between locules, apex and peduncle length, 2) internal criteria including flesh colour, firmness, odour and taste, and 3) maturity criteria including early, medium and late harvesting. New technologies for growing durian were applied on four farms in Nonthaburi province, three of which farmers were from Amphoe Mueang Nonthaburi and one was from Amphoe Pak Kret. Chemical fertilizers recommended by soil analysis, phosphate-solubilizing microbes as biofertilizer, plant-protection technologies and knowledge of cultural practices of farmers were used. During the early stages of durian growth, intercrops such as vegetables and banana were grown. Two years after transplanting, the durian trees were taller than 2 m. Farmers had income from intercrops of 133-166 USD month-1. They will get income from durian plants in 3-4 years.

Predictive QSAR Models for the Toxicity of Disinfection Byproducts.

Several hundred disinfection byproducts (DBPs) in drinking water have been identified, and are known to have potentially adverse health effects. There are toxicological data gaps for most DBPs, and the predictive method may provide an effective way to address this. The development of an in-silico model of toxicology endpoints of DBPs is rarely studied. The main aim of the present study is to develop predictive quantitative structure–activity relationship (QSAR) models for the reactive toxicities of 50 DBPs in the five bioassays of X-Microtox, GSH+, GSH−, DNA+ and DNA−. All-subset regression was used to select the optimal descriptors, and multiple linear-regression models were built. The developed QSAR models for five endpoints satisfied the internal and external validation criteria: coefficient of determination (R2) > 0.7, explained variance in leave-one-out prediction (Q2LOO) and in leave-many-out prediction (Q2LMO) > 0.6, variance explained in external prediction (Q2F1, Q2F2, and Q2F3) > 0.7, and concordance correlation coefficient (CCC) > 0.85. The application domains and the meaning of the selective descriptors for the QSAR models were discussed. The obtained QSAR models can be used in predicting the toxicities of the 50 DBPs.

El Sistema Nacional de Investigadores: ¿espejo y modelo?

This article contrasts certain features of members of the National System of Researchers (sni) in the fields of Physics-Mathematics with those of the Social Sciences. The central hypothesis is that, for the first field, the characteristics established as suitable for researchers coincide with the processes of formation and development intrinsic to their disciplines (mirror effect), while for the second field, the traits became a model to emulate. To achieve the research objective, we compared these areas according to the following indicators: number of researchers, internal evaluation criteria, and age when the PhD was obtained, combined with the researchers’ levels within the system. These features suggest that the sni has permeated disciplinary cultures to standardize the behavior of its members. Lastly, we highlight future areas for research into the impact of the sni on the formation of the scientific profession in Mexico.

Business Reputation and Management of the Socio-Pedagogical Image Formation of Institutions of Higher Education

This article discusses current developments within educational system in Russian Federation, with emphasis to establishing innovative socio-pedagogical images of the educational institutions. In that way, main problems and impediments on the way to their successful management, and suggested modernized technological strategies for creating desired socio-pedagogical image are also defined. It also investigates components and sets the criteria for the process of developing business image and reputation of the educational institutions. There are defined mechanisms of formation of the educational institutions image based on innovative brand technologies, including: external and internal criteria for evaluating the project results effectiveness; estimation of the cluster identity, economic efficiency and risks leveling; the structure of semantic network of information flows and the specification of general and specialized information provided by the project participants.

Haircutting Non-Cash Collateral

Haircutting non-cash collateral has become a key element of the post-crisis regulatory reform of the shadow banking system and OTC derivatives markets. This article develops a haircut model by expanding haircut definitions beyond the traditional value-at-risk measure and employing a double-exponential jump-diffusion model for collateral price. Haircuts are solved to target traditional credit risk measurements, such as probability of default, expected loss or unexpected loss given certain internal or external rating criteria. Computational results are presented for main equities, securitization, and corporate bonds.

Post-analytical stability of 23 common chemistry and immunochemistry analytes in incurred samples

BackgroundStorage of blood samples after centrifugation, decapping and initial sampling allows ordering of additional blood tests. The pre-analytic stability of biochemistry and immunochemistry analytes has been studied in detail, but little is known about the post-analytical stability in incurred samples. MethodsWe examined the stability of 23 routine analytes on the Dimension Vista® (Siemens Healthineers, Denmark): 42–60 routine samples in lithium-heparin gel tubes (Vacutainer, BD, USA) were centrifuged at 3000×g for 10min. Immediately after centrifugation, initial concentration of analytes were measured in duplicate (t=0). The tubes were stored decapped at room temperature and re-analyzed after 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10h in singletons. The concentration from reanalysis were normalized to initial concentration (t=0). Internal acceptance criteria for bias and total error were used to determine stability of each analyte. Additionally, evaporation from the decapped blood collection tubes and the residual platelet count in the plasma after centrifugation were quantified. Results and conclusionWe report a post-analytical stability of most routine analytes of ≥8h and do therefore – with few exceptions – suggest a standard 8hour-time limit for reordering and reanalysis of analytes in incurred samples.

Degree of satisfaction-difference (DOSD) method for measuring consumer acceptance: A signal detection measurement with higher reliability than hedonic scaling

Predictions of consumer acceptance are often based on hedonic scores, but these are determined not only by the consumer level of product liking, but also by consumer scale usage, which in turn is affected by thinking style and experimental contexts. To improve the validity and reliability of consumer acceptance measurement, a new indirect scaling method, the ‘Degree of Satisfaction-Difference (DOSD)’, was developed using a reminder design and signal detection theory (SDT). In DOSD, a product-specified ‘cognitive warm-up’ was used to evoke the consumer personal context and the internal evaluative criteria prior to product evaluation. In DOSD, each test product was presented together with a fixed-reference (identified as such) and consumers were asked to evaluate their satisfaction with the reference first with a sureness rating, and then to evaluate the test product for both absolute satisfaction and comparative satisfaction to the reference. The reliability of DOSD was tested against traditional hedonic scaling using an independent samples design of two consumer groups with equivalent cognitive reflection test profiles, each including High Reflection Thinkers (HRTs) and Low Reflection Thinkers (LRTs) in equal proportion. Each group tested two sets of skin lotions differing in product range, either using DOSD or hedonic scaling. When examining the affective discriminations of the two common products in terms of d′ values between product sets, the LRT subjects generated inconsistent responses with hedonic scaling, but reproducible responses with DOSD. The HRT subjects performed consistently using both scaling methods. These results validate DOSD’s superior reliability in affective tests and demonstrate its potential as an alternative consumer acceptance measurement to hedonic scaling.

ANALYTICAL PERFORMANCE CHARACTERISTICS OF A PROTOTYPE IMMUNOASSAY FOR QUANTIFICATION OF ALPHA-SYNUCLEIN IN HUMAN CEREBROSPINAL FLUID

α-Synuclein is a pre-synaptic protein whose abnormal aggregation is the main characteristic of a sub-group of neurodegenerative disorders called α-synucleinopathies, including but not limited to Parkinson's disease (PD) and dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB). CFS α-Synuclein levels reflect the presence of Lewy bodies in the brain and have been shown to be decreased in PD and DLB patients as compared to healthy aging controls. Robust assays with good lot-to-lot consistency are required for integration into clinical trials. This study documents the analytical performance characteristics of a novel colorimetric ELISA targeting α-Synuclein in biological fluids, with a focus on cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). α-Synuclein concentrations have been determined using a colorimetric ELISA designed and developed by ADx NeuroSciences using two monoclonal antibodies. The assay was qualified for CSF, but can be modified for application for EDTA-plasma samples. After having performed familiarization runs and some adaptation of the test procedures to the needs of a service provider, the assay was challenged internally for its analytical performance characteristics such as precision, parallelism, spike-recovery, working range, sample stability, and interference using commercially available CSF samples (n=40). α-Synuclein is measured in undiluted CSF and 10–50-fold diluted EDTA-plasma using a 3-hour incubation period for the samples. The new assay format specifically quantifies α-Synuclein in the absence of matrix interference as verified after dilution in α-Synuclein low CSF. Spike/recovery testing revealed good recovery rates (93 % ± 7 %). Our internal precision experiments with CSF resulted in an intra- and inter-assay variability (% CV) below 12 % and 11 %, respectively. The working range is confirmed between 90 pg/mL (Lower Limit of Quantitation) to 6142 pg/mL (Upper Limit of Quantitation). The stability of CSF α-Synuclein was assessed with respect to freeze/thawing and short-term stability at room temperature. No major difference with the reference condition was observed. The newly developed α-Synuclein colorimetric ELISA assay meets all of our internal acceptance criteria for clinical trial sample testing and represents an additional tool for patient enrichment in clinical trials or treatment follow-up.

Validation of the Spanish version of the Amsterdam Preoperative Anxiety and Information Scale (APAIS)

BackgroundPreoperative anxiety is a frequent and challenging problem with deleterious effects on the development of surgical procedures and postoperative outcomes. To prevent and treat preoperative anxiety effectively, the level of anxiety of patients needs to be assessed through valid and reliable measuring instruments. One such measurement tool is the Amsterdam Preoperative Anxiety and Information Scale (APAIS), of which a Spanish version has not been validated yet.ObjectiveTo perform a Spanish cultural adaptation and empirical validation of the APAIS for assessing preoperative anxiety in the Spanish population.MethodsA two-step forward/back translation of the APAIS scale was performed to ensure a reliable Spanish cultural adaptation. The final Spanish version of the APAIS questionnaire was administered to 529 patients between the ages of 18 to 70 undergoing elective surgery at hospitals of the Agencia Sanitaria Costa del Sol (Spain). Cronbach’s alpha, homogeneity index, intra-class correlation coefficient, and confirmatory factor analysis were calculated to assess internal consistency and criteria and construct validity.ResultsConfirmatory factor analysis showed that a one-factor model was better fitted than a two-factor model, with good fitting patterns (root mean square error of approximation: 0.05, normed-fit index: 0.99, goodness-of-fit statistic: 0.99). The questionnaire showed high internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha: 0.84) and a good correlation with the Goldberg Anxiety Scale (CCI: 0.62 (95% CI: 0.55 to 0.68).ConclusionsThe Spanish version of the APAIS is a valid and reliable preoperative anxiety measurement tool and shows psychometric properties similar to those obtained by similar previous studies.

Closure to discussion of “experiment and statistical assessment on piping failures in soils with different gradations”

ABSTRACTThis paper responds to the comments from two discussions. The comments related to the uncertainties in the internal stability criteria and the determination of input soil property for prediction models, which affect the accuracy of predicting critical hydraulic gradient, are addressed and discussed.

Has the NHS 111 urgent care telephone service been a success? Case study and secondary data analysis in England

ObjectivesTo explore the success of the introduction of the National Health Service (NHS) 111 urgent care service and describe service activity in the period 2014–2016.DesignComparative mixed method case study of...

A Survey On Unsupervised Evaluation Criteria For Image Clustering Validation

The evaluation of clustering results is the most difficult and frustrating part of cluster analysis. The challenge is to validate the obtained results without any apriori information. Validity indexes are widely used approach for evaluation of clustering results. These approaches can use three criteria: i) external (also called supervised) criteria: this type is based on comparing the obtained results with a previously known result (frequently called ground truth) and compute the similarity, ii) internal criteria (also called unsupervised) criteria: estimate the quality of the result using internal information of the data alone, and iii) relative criteria: thismeans multiple usages of one of the two above types ofdifferent results and see which is better than the other. Therefore we can say: depending on the information available and the problem type, different types of indexes might be used for cluster validation. Sometimes due to the complexity of the datasets, one validity index is not sufficient to evaluate the quality of the obtained results, and then a combination of two or more index should be used. In this paper, a basic general review on evaluation criteria is first given and then the focus is spotted on unsupervised criteria as they are much more useful, thanks to their objective functionality.

Dynamic ensembles of exemplar-SVMs for still-to-video face recognition

Face recognition (FR) plays an important role in video surveillance by allowing to accurately recognize individuals of interest over a distributed network of cameras. Systems for still-to-video FR are exposed to challenging operational environments. The appearance of faces changes when captured under unconstrained conditions due to variations in pose, scale, illumination, occlusion, blur, etc. Moreover, the facial models used for matching may not be robust to intra-class variations because they are typically designed a priori with one reference facial still per person. Indeed, faces captured during enrollment (using still cameras) may differ considerably from those captured during operations (using surveillance cameras). In this paper, an efficient multi-classifier system (MCS) is proposed for accurate still-to-video FR based on multiple face representations and domain adaptation (DA). An individual-specific ensemble of exemplar-SVM (e-SVM) classifiers is thereby designed to improve robustness to intra-class variations. During enrollment of a target individual, an ensemble is used to model the single reference still, where multiple face descriptors and random feature subspaces allow to generate a diverse pool of patch-wise classifiers. To adapt these ensembles to the operational domains, e-SVMs are trained using labeled face patches extracted from the reference still versus patches extracted from cohort and other non-target stills mixed with unlabeled patches extracted from the corresponding face trajectories captured with surveillance cameras. During operations, the most competent classifiers per given probe face are dynamically selected and weighted based on the internal criteria determined in the feature space of e-SVMs. This paper also investigates the impact of using different training schemes for DA, as well as, the validation set of non-target faces extracted from stills and video trajectories of unknown individuals in the operational domain. The performance of the proposed system was validated using videos from the COX-S2V and Chokepoint datasets. Results indicate that the proposed system can surpass state-of-the-art accuracy, yet with a significantly lower computational complexity. Indeed, dynamic selection and weighting allow to combine only the most relevant classifiers for each input probe.

Le Big Five Inventory français permet-il d’évaluer des facettes en plus des cinq grands facteurs ?

IntroductionThe Big Five Inventory (BFI) developed by John et al. (1991) is one of the most widely accepted tools for assessing dimensions of personality. It comprises 44 items that assess five broad dimensions of personality (the Big Five Factors): Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Neuroticism and Openness to experience. Based on correlations with the facets described in the NEO Personality Inventory Revised (NEO PI-R), another Big Five assessment tool with 240 items and 6 facets per dimension, Soto and John (2009) showed that the dimensions in the BFI could be divided into two facets each (ten facets altogether). These results are in line with those of DeYoung et al. (2007), who ran factorial analyses with all the NEO PI-R facets and the International Personality Item Pool (IPIP) and identified ten intermediate factors (between facets and dimensions) which they called “aspects” (two per dimension). The goal of the present study is to investigate the ten facets described by Soto and John in a French sample, using the French version of the BFI (BFI-Fr), which has good psychometric properties, and to check whether the pattern of correlations of these facets with the NEO PI-R match those of the American version. MethodWe created three groups. The first comprised 360 students from the Institut libre d’éducation physique supérieure (ILEPS) and Tours University (psychology undergraduates). Participants (mean age 21.1 years±2.30; 58% women) completed the BFI-Fr and the NEO PI-R. The second comprised 142 psychology students from Tours University (mean age 20.6 years±1.78; 81% women); they completed the BFI-Fr twice, two weeks apart (test and retest). The third comprised 252 psychology students from Paris-Nanterre University (mean age 23 years±4.2; 89% women) who described a total of 405 people they knew well (mean age 35.2±10.8; 49% women) using the peer-report format of the BFI-Fr. ResultsIn the self-report format, eight of Soto and John's ten aspects had acceptable internal consistency (based on Guildford's (1954) internal consistency criteria, due to the small number of items), with Cronbach's α between 0.60 and 0.86 and test-retest correlations between 0.71 and 0.89, showing satisfactory temporal stability. We found a single facet for Extraversion (Assertiveness), two for Agreeableness (Altruism and Compliance), two for Conscientiousness (Self-Discipline and Order), one for Neuroticism (Anxiety), and two for Openness to Experience (Openness to aesthetics and Openness to ideas). Based on their convergence with the corresponding facets in the NEO PI-R, these eight facets showed satisfactory external validity. With regard to the peer-report format, the Activity facet of Extraversion, which did not have sufficient internal consistency in the self-report format, had acceptable properties (i.e. 9 out of 10 facets). Only the Depression facet of Neuroticism still had insufficient internal consistency. In this study, we proposed an improvement of two facets (Activity and Compliance) and added one facet specific to the French version (Emotional Instability) in place of the Depression facet. DiscussionWe showed that the BFI-Fr can be used to assess nine of the ten facets described by Soto and John. We also identified an Emotional Instability facet, replacing the Depression facet of Neuroticism. DeYoung et al. (2007) considered that anxiety and depression are indissociable and can be represented by a Neuroticism aspect they labeled Withdrawal. They suggested a second aspect of this dimension they called Volatility (with the N2 Angry Hostility facet of the NEO PI-R as main marker and the N5 Impulsiveness and N3 Depression as secondary markers). The Emotional Instability facet we found corresponds closely to the N2 Angry Hostility facet of the NEO PI-R and appears to be a satisfactory marker of DeYoung et al.’s (2007) Volatility aspect. Although this study has limitations, particularly related to the samples (students), the BFI-Fr facets (derived from those defined by Soto and John in the BFI or proposed as improvements on the original facets) match the corresponding NEO PI-R facets and can also be seen as main markers of the aspects defined by DeYoung et al.

What’s in the name? The conundrum of ἐν τῷ ὀνόματι τούτῳ versus ἐν τῷ μέρει τούτῳ? A text-critical investigation of 1 Peter 4:16 and its implication for the Afrikaans-Greek interlinear translation

In this article the authors investigate the Ausgangstext of 1 Peter 4:16b with regard to the latest text-critical insights based on the Editio Critica Maior’ s coherence based genealogical method reflected in the latest Nestle Aland 28 edition. The change in the ECM of ἐν τῷ ὀνόματι τούτῳ into ἐν τῷ μέρeι τούτῳ in 1 Peter 4:16b is critically evaluated based on internal and external textcritical criteria. Lastly, a new Afrikaans translation based on the dative construction ἐν τῷ μέρeι τούτῳ as Ausgangstext is proposed with relevance to the Greek-Afrikaans Bible text and translation and future revisions thereof.

Genre Analysis of Legal Discourse

No abstract.

Assessing the validity and reliability of the Malagasy version of Oral Impacts on Daily Performance (OIDP): a cross-sectional study

BackgroundEvaluating health needs includes measures of the impact of state of health on the quality of life. This entails evaluating the psychosocial aspects of health. To achieve this, several tools for measuring the quality of life related to oral health have been developed. However, it is vital to evaluate the psychometric properties of these tools so they can be used in a new context and on a new population. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the reliability and validity of the Malagasy version of a questionnaire for studying the impacts of oral-dental health on daily activities (Oral Impacts on Daily Performance), and analyse the interrelations between the scores obtained and the oral health indicators.MethodA cross-sectional study was performed for the transcultural adaptation of the Oral Impacts on Daily Performance questionnaire forward translated and back-translated from English to Malagasy and from Malagasy to English, respectively. The psychometric characteristics of the Malagasy version of the Oral Impacts on Daily Performance were then evaluated in terms of internal reliability, test-retest, and construct, criteria and discriminant validity. Four hundred and six adults responded in face-to-face interviews to the Malagasy version of the Oral Impacts on Daily Performance questionnaire.ResultsNearly 74% of the participants indicated impacts of their oral health on their performance in their daily lives during the 6 months prior to the survey. The activities most affected were: “smiling”, “eating” and “sleeping and relaxing”. Cronbach’s alpha was 0.87. The construct validity was demonstrated by a significant association between the Oral Impacts on Daily Performance scores and the subjective evaluation of oral health (p <0.001). Discriminant validity was demonstrated by the fact that the Oral Impacts on Daily Performance scores were significantly higher in subjects with more than ten missing teeth, compared to those with fewer than ten missing teeth (p < 0.001).ConclusionThe Malagasy version of the Oral Impacts on Daily Performance index is a valid and reliable measure for use in Malagasy adults over 55 years old.

Periconceptional maternal one-carbon biomarkers are associated with embryonic development according to the Carnegie stages

Is periconceptional maternal one-carbon (I-C) metabolism associated with embryonic morphological development in non-malformed ongoing pregnancies? Serum vitamin B12, red blood cell (RBC) folate and plasma total homocysteine (tHcy) are associated with embryonic development according to the Carnegie stages. Derangements in maternal I-C metabolism affect reproductive and pregnancy outcomes, as well as future health of the offspring. Between 2010 and 2014, women with singleton ongoing pregnancies were enrolled in a prospective periconceptional cohort study. A total of 234 pregnancies, including 138 spontaneous or IUI pregnancies with strict pregnancy dating and 96 pregnancies derived from IVF, ICSI or cryopreserved embryo transfer (IVF/ICSI pregnancies), underwent longitudinal transvaginal three-dimensional ultrasound (3D US) scans from 6+0 up to 10+2 weeks of gestation. Carnegie stages were defined using internal and external morphologic criteria in a virtual reality system. Maternal venous blood samples were collected at enrollment for serum vitamin B12, RBC folate and plasma tHcy assessment. Associations between biomarker concentrations and longitudinal Carnegie stages were investigated using linear mixed models. We performed a median of three 3D US scans per pregnancy (range 1-5) resulting in 600 good quality data sets for the Carnegie stage annotation (80.5%). Vitamin B12 was positively associated with embryonic development in the total study population (β = 0.001 (95% CI: 0.000; 0.002), P < 0.05) and in the subgroup of strictly dated spontaneous pregnancies (β = 0.002 (95% CI: 0.001; 0.003), P < 0.05). Low vitamin B12 concentrations (-2SD, 73.4 pmol/l) were associated with delayed embryonic development by 1.4 days (95% CI: 1.3-1.4) compared with high concentrations (+2SD, 563.1 pmol/l). RBC folate was positively associated with Carnegie stages only in IVF/ICSI pregnancies (β = 0.001 (95% CI: 0.0005; 0.0015), P < 0.05). In this group, low RBC folate concentrations (-2SD, 875.4 nmol/l) were associated with a 1.8-day delay (95% CI: 1.7-1.8) in development compared with high concentrations (+2SD, 2119.9 nmol/l). tHcy was negatively associated with embryonic development in the total study population (β = -0.08 (95% CI: -0.14; -0.02), P < 0.01), as well as in the IVF/ICSI subgroup (β = -0.08 (95% CI: -0.15; -0.01), P < 0.05). High tHcy concentrations (+2SD, 10.4 µmol/l) were associated with a delay of 1.6 days (95% CI: 1.5-1.7) in embryonic development compared with low concentrations (-2SD, 3.0 µmol/l). The study was performed in a tertiary care center, resulting in high rates of folic acid supplement use and comorbidity that may reduce the external validity of our findings. In periconceptional care, maternal I-C biomarkers should be taken into account as predictors of embryonic morphological development. Combining embryonic size measurements with morphological assessment could better define normal embryonic development. The work was funded by the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Erasmus MC, University Medical Centre, Rotterdam, The Netherlands. RPMST is CSO of the startup company Slimmere Zorg and CEO of eHealth Care Solutions. The authors declare no conflicts of interest. Not applicable.

The Quest for Mark’s Sources: An Exploration of the Case for Mark’s Use of First Corinthians by Thomas P. Nelligan

Reviewed by: The Quest for Mark’s Sources: An Exploration of the Case for Mark’s Use of First Corinthians by Thomas P. Nelligan Laura Sweat Holmes thomas p. nelligan, The Quest for Mark’s Sources: An Exploration of the Case for Mark’s Use of First Corinthians (Eugene, OR: Pickwick, 2015). Pp. xvi + 169. Paper $22. This revision of Nelligan’s dissertation (Mary Immaculate College, University of Limerick, 2011) seeks to reopen the question of the Gospel of Mark’s relationship to the Pauline letters, examining whether there is any literary relationship between the two. This slim volume begins by surveying Greco-Roman and Jewish rhetorical patterns of using sources, adopting those developed by Dennis R. MacDonald (chap. 1), and it establishes a newly revised set of criteria for determining literary dependence after analyzing those of Richard B. Hays, Thomas L. Brodie, MacDonald, Dale C. Allison, and Outi Leppä (chap. 2). Through this overview, N. determines three types of criteria that must be assessed in considering source texts. First, external criteria must be satisfied; essentially, the text must be from a particular setting that makes its use a reasonable possibility. Second, N. highlights internal criteria, which include basic similarities (context, theme, plot, order, completeness), vocabulary, literary conventions, and the intelligibility or “interpretability” of the differences between the texts. Third, N. considers “probing criteria” that are used to determine if the overlap in material might be explained a different way. In chap. 3, N. briefly surveys scholarship that has described the relationship between Mark’s Gospel and Paul’s letters, from Gustav Volkmar (1857 and 1870) to a two-volume collection of essays published in 2014 (Mark and Paul: Comparative Essays Part II: For and Against Pauline Influence on Mark [ed. Eve-Marie Becker, Troels Engberg Pedersen, and Mogens Müller; BZNW 199; Berlin: de Gruyter, 2014]). This overview of the field indicates a scholarly lacuna (considering Paul’s letters a literary source for Mark’s Gospel) and notes recent scholarly interest in the topic. In order to limit his study, N. chooses to focus on 1 Corinthians among the Pauline corpus primarily on account of its early date and its undisputed authorship, as well as some sympathy between themes (e.g., food, ethics, and the Eucharist). In chaps. 4–7, N. concentrates on three case studies, comparing 1 Corinthians 1–2 to Mark 1:1–28 (chap. 5), 1 Corinthians 5 to Mark 6:14–29 (chap. 6), and 1 Cor 11:2–34 to Mark 14:1–25 (chap. 7). These texts move from the not-obviously-related (chap. 5) to those that share at least a common tradition (chap. 7). In each chapter, N. proceeds through the criteria listed in chap. 2 in order to determine whether Mark used 1 Corinthians as source [End Page 149] material in writing his Gospel. In addition to the internal criteria examined for every several verses, N. also covers other sources (usually OT/NT, sometimes classical) that might account for Mark’s information. Nelligan’s diagnosis of this lacuna in Marcan scholarship seems wise: for the past few decades (and more), scholars have talked of affinities between Mark’s Gospel and Paul’s letters, but few have gone further. At the same time, filling that scholarly gap seems to be the only motivating feature of this study. Assuming that 1 Corinthians is proven to be a source for Mark, what does this tell us? Indeed, N. does not let his audience know the value of this search for sources. This omission seems important particularly in Marcan studies, which, overall, has been fairly resistant to hypothesizing sources for the past two or three decades. Furthermore, although N. is careful with the evidence to ensure that he follows the criteria he has established, one wonders if by working with such small sections of text he loses sight of how the context of the whole shapes interpretation. For example, N. seems intrigued by the fact that a moderately rare Greek verb, katartizō, occurs in both 1 Cor 1:10 (Paul asks the factions to “mend themselves”) and Mark 1:19 (mending nets), and that the term adelphos is used in both contexts. These lexical...

The End of Progress: Decolonizing the Normative Foundations of Critical Theory by Amy Allen

Reviewed by: The End of Progress: Decolonizing the Normative Foundations of Critical Theory by Amy Allen Sina Kramer Amy Allen, The End of Progress: Decolonizing the Normative Foundations of Critical Theory New York: Columbia University Press, 2016, 304 pp. ISBN 9780231173247 Drawing on Adorno's aphoristic claim in Negative Dialectics that "Progress begins where it comes to an end," Amy Allen's The End of Progress: Decolonizing the Normative Foundations of Critical Theory is a critique of the concept of progress in critical theory, for the sake of critical theory's decolonization. It is a clear, forceful and convincing argument that calls us to question what critical theory is, and perhaps more pressingly, for whom. While Allen aims both to decolonize critical theory and to criticalize post- and decolonial theory, she thoroughly succeeds at the first but only really invites the latter. While she relies on some postcolonial theorists and feminist and critical race philosophers (Spivak, Saïd, Chakrabarty, Alcoff), Allen's target and audience are members of the second, third, and fourth generations of critical theory and those inspired by their thought. She employs the method Adorno described as "critique and rescue": she gives an immanent critique of the concept of progress implicit but largely unacknowledged in the work of Habermas, Honneth, and Forst. And she rescues a version of progress and a method of critical theorizing more friendly to decolonial aims (by means of the work of Adorno and Foucault). [End Page 357] Allen rescues a version of progress for the decolonization of critical theory by distinguishing between a backward-looking sense of progress as a historical "fact" from a forward-looking sense of progress as a moral-political imperative, a kind of anti-foundationalist, immanent regulative ideal. While the latter is a necessary expression of the demand for a better world at the heart of critical theory, the former is rooted in the desire to ground the normative claims of critical theory in empirical claims about the "fact" of our historical progress. Allen argues that this backward-looking notion of progress is grounded in a theory of modernity as a developmental, geographical, racial, and historical logic that positions non-European and non-Western peoples as lagging behind Europe and the West. She characterizes this backward-looking notion of progress as self-congratulatory, producing a neat political-epistemological circle that presumes the very thing it is meant to prove: the superiority of Europe, or the West. The middle three chapters of the book address the implicit accounts of progress at work in Habermas, Honneth, and Forst. As a theory that proceeds immanently, critical theory has to find grounds for making normative judgments without relying on the prop of some transcendental element. These theorists worry that this leaves critical theory open either to relativism (if societies develop their own internal normative criteria, then there is no place from which to adjudicate between them) or conventionalism (if normative criteria develop immanently to a particular society, then those criteria should be regarded as legitimate). Allen identifies Habermas's concept of universal pragmatics as his attempt to solve this problem. Allen argues that while Habermas does not work from an explicit philosophy of history, universal pragmatics nevertheless relies on a notion of social evolution that commits him to an implicit philosophy of history. She argues that Habermas's universal pragmatics is based on a conception of discursive competence that presumes the very thing it claims to argue for: the superiority of Western or European societies, or those that have historically developed the relevant capacities for justifying their claims and sorting between the different life-worlds to which these claims belong. While Honneth is also committed to the project of grounding critical theory's normative claims, he considers Habermas's approach insufficiently rooted in empirical practices or lived experience. Honneth grounds the legitimacy of norms in our subjective investment in them, arguing that our need for reciprocal recognition provides a mechanism for the revisability of norms and thus for progress. While Honneth avoids explicit claims about the superiority of Western or European societies and the reasoners within them, Allen argues that his commitment to a backward-looking account of progress ties...