Perennial Feature Research Articles

Accounting for entrepreneurship: A knowledge-based view of the firm

Abstract The paper articulates a knowledge-based balance sheet with reference to the location of knowledge and the structure of accountability. This framework shows that there are several generic strategies open to entrepreneurs. Although always constrained by the general framework of the capitalist mentality, historically variant structures of accountability explain changes in the more detailed patterns of entrepreneurial behaviour. The paper briefly reviews the main areas of entrepreneurial theory and takes an integrative and analytical view of entrepreneurship, offering the possibility of reconciling divergent interpretations of entrepreneurial behaviour, according to the location of knowledge and other assets and the structure of accountability. From this, it goes on to develop and test a typology of entrepreneurship. Rather than accept the argument that the ‘knowledge-based economy’ is a new phenomenon, based on recent technical discoveries, the paper takes the view that knowledge distribution and accountability structures are perennial features in a capitalist economy. The main empirical focus of the paper is therefore the process of industrialisation, exemplified by the experiences of British entrepreneurs in the latter part of the eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries. These examples illustrate how entrepreneurs were able to use knowledge to appropriate and accumulate wealth, both fraudulently and legally, as mediated by historically variant structures of accountability. The paper deals first with the generic business strategies of entrepreneurs and examples of opportunistic and fraudulent behaviour, then goes on to consider their attitudes towards networking and then their political lobbying stance. Conclusions argue that the analytical framework developed in the paper is well supported by historical evidence, showing that accounting theory can deepen our understanding of significant events, such as the British Industrial Revolution and offer useful commentary on other social phenomena, such as the role of entrepreneurs in ‘dynamic’ economies.

Possible pingos and a periglacial landscape in northwest Utopia Planitia

Hydrostatic (closed-system) pingos are small, elongate to circular, ice-cored mounds that are perennial features of some periglacial landscapes. The growth and development of hydrostatic pingos is contingent upon the presence of surface water, freezing processes and of deep, continuous, ice-cemented permafrost. Other cold-climate landforms such as small-sized, polygonal patterned ground also may occur in the areas where pingos are found. On Mars, landscapes comprising small, elongate to circular mounds and other possible periglacial features have been identified in various areas, including Utopia Planitia, where water is thought to have played an important role in landscape evolution. Despite the importance of the martian mounds as possible markers of water, most accounts of them in the planetary science literature have been brief and/or based upon Viking imagery. We use a high-resolution Mars Orbiter Camera image (EO300299) and superposed Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter data tracks to describe and characterise a crater-floor landscape in northwest Utopia Planitia (64.8° N/292.7° W). The landscape comprises an assemblage of landforms that is consistent with the past presence of water and of periglacial processes. This geomorphological assemblage may have formed as recently as the last episode of high obliquity. A similar assemblage of landforms is found in the Tuktoyaktuk peninsula of northern Canada and other terrestrial cold-climate landscapes. We point to the similarity of the two assemblages and suggest that the small, roughly circular mounds on the floor of the impact crater in northwest Utopia Planitia are hydrostatic pingos. Like the hydrostatic pingos of the Tuktoyaktuk peninsula, the origin of the crater-floor mounds could be tied to the loss of ponded, local water, permafrost aggradation and the evolution of a sub-surface ice core.

Origin of shore‐normal channels from the shoreface of Sable Island, Canada

A suite of modern, shore‐normal channels was discovered on the southern shoreface of Sable Island, Canada. Repetitive multibeam and side scan surveys of these features, as well as box coring and sampling, showed that the depressions were perennial features of the shoreface. They occurred in fine and medium sand and were most abundant in‐depths less than 20 m. They were up to 1 m deep and 50 m wide, increased in size seawards, and generally followed the seabed slope. The channels dominated the inner shoreface becoming wider and deeper seawards to depths in excess of 40 m. There is a continuum of scales in width and depth of these channels, the smallest of which are equated with gutters preserved in the geological record. The internal structure of the shoreface sediments where the gutters are found is characterized by normally graded tempestites composed of cut‐and‐fill structures overlying an erosion surface. Thus, the environmental setting, internal structure, and scale are similar to ancient counterparts. Gutters have been interpreted to result from downwelling over palaeo‐shorefaces during ancient storms [Myrow, 1992b]. The composition of gutter infill, as well as the stability, evolution, associated bed forms, and hydrodynamic conditions under which they formed, were examined to verify genetic interpretations of the ancient counterparts. The multisensor benthic lander RALPH was deployed within a field of shore normal channels for 17 days during late winter 1998. RALPH burst‐sampled flow at hourly intervals while imaging the seabed. Resulting sequential imagery revealed the genesis of a group of five gutters during storm spin‐down that was coincident with the formation of large‐scale wave ripples. This was followed by infilling of the gutters and wave ripple destruction within 20 hours by longshore sand transport. The gutters were located within, and parallel to, a larger channel (50 m wide and 0.50 m deep). They were formed by coastal set‐up and subsequent downwelling that was triggered by the rotation of storm winds from seawards (onshore wind) to landwards (offshore wind). The gutters formed within 2–3 hours during spin‐down of a winter storm under “live‐bed” conditions of sand transport. Wave height and mean tidal flows were well below those of the storm peak and so they were not directly responsible for creating the gutters. The mechanism we propose for the evolution of gutters supports the geological interpretations; that is, a storm‐driven, downwelling event as described by Swift and Niedoroda [1985]. However, the downwelling event appeared to take place suddenly (rapid acceleration in flow), briefly (few hours duration), and within narrow corridors guided by wider and deeper channels of the shoreface. High turbidity during the time of gutter formation leads us to believe that the phenomenon of inner shelf turbidity currents [as suggested by Walker, 1985] exists and may be instrumental in channel formation.

FORUM

Current Criticism of APSA Is Nothing NewOver the several decades of my professional career, complaints about APSR and petitions to change the structure of APSA have been perennial features of life among political scientists. To a remarkable extent the agenda of concerns has remained quite constant, focusing on issues of allegedly excessive emphasis on technique and method, the representativeness of the Review, and the APSA's governing structures. Over the years the Association has tired to address these concerns, sometimes with a degree of success, but rarely enough to satisfy or silence the critics. In part, the problem lies in the supposed incompatibility of the ostensible polarities; teaching versus research, technique versus substance, real world politics versus theoretically driven research. Of course, these are not either/or choices but questions of degree, and the appropriate balance may vary considerably across both time and the spectra of subject matter and professional career paths. Moreover, though we may give it more lip service than true commitment, the principle of interdependence really does operate on each of these dimensions of our disputes. As that splendid scholar and wise man, V.O. Key, Jr., said in his presidential address 40-odd years ago, “Method without substance may be sterile, but substance without method is only fortuitously substantial” (1958, 967).

FROM NEGLECT TO ‘VIRTUAL ENGAGEMENT’: THE UNITED STATES AND ITS NEW PARADIGM FOR AFRICA

The promotion of a new American relationship with Africa is one of the Clinton Administration's most visible initiatives in the foreign policy sphere. From the White House summit on Africa to the highly publicized presidential tour of the continent, the US government has sought to demonstrate its commitment to reversing the pattern of neglect that characterized relations in the post-colonial period. The new interest in Africa expressed by Washington is complemented by the concurrent launching of a domestic initiative that targets the development of a 'new constituency for Africa' aimed at linking local American interest groups with foreign policy concerns. Taken together, these initiatives purport to lay the foundation for an enduring partnership with commercial and political depth that will ensure that African issues become a perennial feature of the American political landscape. However, in spite of this overt commitment to activism, there is much in the formation of the new relationship that is suggestive of the continued limits of American interests in the continent. THIS ARTICLE WILL INVESTIGATE the changing dynamics of the United States' policy towards Africa in the post-Cold War period as seen, in the main, from a South African perspective. It will do so by providing an overview of the post-Cold War construction of American foreign policy; an examination of the particulars of the Clinton Administration's foreign policy initiatives towards Africa and their relationship to domestic concerns; and, in conclusion, an analysis of the content and implications of this refilrbished relationship. Forging a nezv foreign policy tozoards Africa The historic relationship between the United States and Africa is one characterized in the main by indifference and neglect, punctuated by flurries of interest and action.l The absence of colonial ties during the Dr Chris Alden is a Lecturer in the Department of International Relations at the London School of Economics. From 1990 to 1999 he taught at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. The author would like to chank an anonymous reviewer for helpful comments. 1. Peter Schraeder, United States Foreign Policy Toward Africa: Incrementalism, crisis and change (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1994), pp. 5-8; Sanford Ungar, 'US policy toward Africa', in Robert Art and Seyom Brown (eds), US Foreign Policy: The search for a new role (Macmillan, Basingstoke, 1993), pp. 383-4.

Fitness Responses of a Carnivorous Plant in Contrasting Ecological Scenarios

This paper reports the results of a two-year field experiment on the determinants of fitness responses in Pinguicula vallisneriifolia (Lentibulariaceae), an endemic carnivorous plant of southeastern Spain. For the first time, in this experiment, we have considered irradiance as a factor, in combination with animal prey, for an array of natural field conditions. The goal was to determine how carnivory translates to fitness within different radiation regimes. For this, it was necessary to quantify an array of plant responses, such as survival, growth, reproduction (sexual and vegetative reproduction), as well as responses related to carnivory investment (leaf shape and mucilage secretion). Both irradiance and animal food supply proved to be important limiting factors for P. vallisneriifolia under field conditions. Plants clearly decreased in performance from the sunny habitat to the deep-shade one, with plants growing in the least irradiance registering the lowest values for all variables analyzed. The clearest response to prey was the production of axillary buds. Most vegetative and reproductive responses depended heavily on the initial biomass of the plant before the experiments, the largest plants bearing the most leaves, flowers, stolons, and axillary buds. A gradient from less to more mucilage secretion appeared from deep-shade to sunny habitat, and within each habitat from prey exclusion to prey addition levels. Trapped prey stimulated digestive secretions in a positive feedback (the more prey, the more mucilage secretion) under all irradiance conditions. The curled, more secretory leaves of the sunny plants, in comparison with the nearly flattened, less secretory leaves of the deep-shade plants, illustrate the constraints imposed by differing scenarios on the capture of both prey and photons. With nonlimiting water availability, more irradiance and prey results in more survival, growth, and sexual and vegetative reproduction. Nevertheless, it is not usual to find an optimum combination of resources (i.e., irradiance, prey, and water) available in the same microhabitat during the Mediterranean summer. The spatial uncoupling of limiting resources progressively increased towards the extremes of the irradiance gradient (sunny and deep-shade habitats, respectively), and therefore the dual photosynthetic and carnivore functions of P. vallisneriifolia leaves were not equally efficient in all habitats. These opposing resource gradients determined all vegetative and reproductive plant responses. The perennial character of this endemic plant, together with its vegetative form of propagation, allows the possibility of resisting extinction even in the absence of seedling recruitment or when vegetative growth is strongly limited.

El effecto del microambiente en la conductividad estomática de Buddleia cordata H. B. K., en la Reserva del Pedregal de San Ángel

La estacionalidad de la precipitación y el substrato en el Pedregal de San Ángel deben jugar un papel importante en el estado hídrico de las plantas que en él habitan. Por lo tanto, se realizaron mediciones de conductividad estomática (g), potencial hídrico foliar (? h), densidad de flujo fotónico fotosintético (Q), temperatura del aire (Ta) y la diferencia de presión de vapor entre la hoja y el aire (DPV) en Buddleia cordata H.B.K., por ser una especie perennifolia y dominante del estrato arbóreo. Las mediciones se llevaron a cabo durante las estaciones seca y húmeda en el Pedregal de San Angel que es una comunidad que se desarrolla en un substrato de lava. Las conductividades que se registraron fueron de hasta 330 mmol m-2 s-1 durante la época húmeda, mientras que en la época seca se redujeron hasta cerca de un 54%. Se realizaron dos tipos de análisis, el de la curva envolvente y el de regresión múltiple. Ambos análisis mostraron un efecto significativo de Q, Ta y DPV sobre g tanto en cada una de las épocas como anualmente y los estomas fueron más sensibles a estas variables en la época húmeda que en la seca. El efecto de ? h, no fue significativo en los análisis por época, pero sí en un análisis anual. Los resultados de este tipo de análisis pueden ser una herramienta muy efectiva en la formulación de modelos matemáticos que simulen o pronostiquen la conductividad estomática.

Citizenship in a fragile world

Chapter 1 Acknowledgments Chapter 2 Points of Departure Chapter 3 The Twentieth-Century Debate about Citizenship Chapter 4 The Political Agent Chapter 5 The Domain of Politics Chapter 6 Citizenship: Perennial Features Chapter 7 Complex Citizenship Chapter 8 Education and Competent Citizenship Chapter 9 Citizens and Foreigners Chapter 10 Conclusion Chapter 11 Endnotes Chapter 12 Bibliography Chapter 13 Index

Participation in the State of the Ordinary

The relationship between the media and politics is often negatively described as being in a state of confusion and turmoil in which new standards of public media performance are eroded by viewer ratings, commercialism and trans-nationalism. In this article, I will give examples from the Swedish setting to show how the relationship between media and politics is generally conceived, by indicating how media-workers and politicians become idealised in stereotypical roles of bad vs. good. “The State of the Ordinary” is what we refer to as a tendency toward everyday practices of “ordinariness” in language use and in the general rule of authenticity in the media, making room for a new kind of politician who claims to be not a “politician” but simply “him or herself” as a politician. Being “yourself” as a representative is a perennial feature of the attempt to legitimise dominant roles at the top of the hierarchy of power distribution.

Ethical Community Without Communitarianism

The Rationale For The Renewed Turn To Ethical Community In both theory and practice, controversy over framing conduct and institutions has increasingly revolved around the idea of ethical community. Advanced more and more frequently under the banner of communitarianism, this idea has cast an alluring spell. However vaguely it be drawn, ethical community is widely entertained as a practical alternative to the alienations and anomies of modern life, where instrumental rationality and atomistic self-interest have allegedly supplanted tradition without supplying any new bonds of intrinsic worth. And just as commonly, the concept of ethical community is appealed to as a remedy to the complementary dilemmas of the two leading competitors in contemporary ethical theory, teleological and procedural ethics. On both fronts, a turn to ethical community has taken center stage. If this turn sometimes has a nostalgic air, yearning for the faded spirit of ancient assemblies, town meetings, and village commons, it equally reflects the perennial character of the underlying issues, as much in dispute when Plato and Aristotle argued for the polis in opposition to the natural bonds of tribal association and the instrumental association of social contract, as when Hegel defended the ethical life of family, civil society, and state against the advocates of restoration and the contractarians of his day. Although we can take advantage of the experience of past ages that have grappled with ethical community in theory and practice, the worth of their achievements can only be known by first independently certifying the valid content of ethical community and the place it should command in the conception and reality of conduct. The current rehabilitation of ethical community, comprising the communitarian turn in ethics, has its own lessons for reconstructing theory and practice provided one rethinks its formulations with the same critical autonomy. Above all, what the communitarian turn uncovers of the inherent logic of ethical community must be distinguished from what it ignores and perverts. To its credit, the communitarian appeal to ethical community is grounded in an understanding of the complementary limitations of teleological and procedural ethics. Admittedly, teleological ethics adopts a plausible strategy by seeking the legitimacy of conduct in the given nature of its ends, transforming ethics into a science of a highest good. Yet every candidate for a highest good is subject to the skeptical doubt that its particular content is devoid of universal validity. Since any putative ultimate end, be it happiness or human perfection, cannot retain its normative primacy if any other factor grounds its Archimedean role, its authority must reside in its own immediate givenness. However, every particular content can be ascribed an immediate givenness, especially when no higher tribunal can be relied upon without undermining the primacy of the end it is intended to sanction. Hence, teleological ethics remains caught in the bind of rooting conduct in a particular content, whose universality remains doubtful. By contrast, procedural ethics falls into a precisely inverse dilemma. Abandoning any attempt to found normativity in privileged ends, procedural ethics instead appeals to a privileged form of willing, involving a principle that determines conduct independently of any particular end. Right hereby precedes the good, insofar as what makes conduct valid is conformity to an antecedently prescribed formal requirement that first allows an end to qualify as good. Yet, because the privileged form of willing is prior to all particular ends and actual conduct requires that something particular be willed, this content must derive from some other source. But no further law can mandate how to decide which extraneous end should be chosen as the goal of action in conformity with the privileged procedure, since the procedure has exclusive normative primacy. …

A critique of Kellehear's transcendent society

Allan Kellehear argued that the otherworld society envisioned in near-death experiences (NDEs) is similar to utopian societies. However, his cultural analysis, based on 9 Mormon NDEs, did not reflect the diversity of near-death visions from other cultures. I suggest that these Mormon NDEs were neither as utopian as Kellehear assumed nor representative of contemporary NDE reports, and that a more complete analysis would reveal a variety of NDEs and otherworld visions reflecting the experiencers' sociocultural back-ground. Robert Bellah's model of religious evolution provides a model for charting the NDE's change over time and cultures, and allows us to differentiate the perennial features of the NDE from the transient culturally-determined ones — a first step in understanding the role of NDEs in the quest for an ideal society.

Effect of harvest methods on the second flush yield of short-duration pigeonpea (Cajanus cajari)

Short-duration pigeonpea can give up to three harvests in environments with mild winters (e.g. minimum temperature above 10 °C) such as those prevailing in peninsular India (Sharma, Saxena & Green. 1978; Chauhan, Venkataratnam & Sheldrake, 1984). This is mainly due to the short time (about 120 days) taken to produce the first flush, and the strong perennial character of pigeonpea. The seed yield of short-duration pigeonpea in this multiple-harvest system may reach 5·2 t/ha (Chauhan et al. 1984).

Estimation of Snow-Melt Run-Off During Pre-Monsoon Months in Beas Sub-Basin using Satellite Imagery (Abstract)

The increasing demand for water, coupled with the construction of multi-purpose reservoirs to control and regulate snow-melt run-off, requires accurate strearm-flow forecast. For making an accurate prediction of spring run-off, information on the amount of snow accumulation in winter is necessary; this may be achieved through remote-sensing techniques in any inaccessible region.This paper outlines the snow-melt run-off study carried out in a part of Beas basin, India, using Landsat imagery for the years 1973, 1975, 1976, and 1977. The Beas basin lies between long. 76°56' to 77°52'E. and lat. 31°30' to 32°25'N., covering an area about 4900 km2, of which 1400 km2 is permanently covered by snow. The gradual melting of snow accumulated over the catchment area during the winter months is responsible for the perennial character of the Beas River.Photohydrological investigation of the part of the Beas basin up-stream of Barji was carried out and a study was made for the estimation of the snow-melt run-off during the pre-monsoon period in the sub-basin up-stream of Manali. For this purpose, the sub-basin has been divided into permanent and temporary snow-covered zones. The degree-day method and the melt due to rainfall on snow have been used to estimate snow-melt run-off. The routing of snow-melt, after accounting for losses as well as the run-off from the excess rainfall from the permanent and temporary snow-covered areas, has also been done taking the recession coefficient K as 0.90, and the excess rain from the non-snow-covered areas has been assumed to contribute directly to the run-off for that day. Run-off coefficients of 0.595 for rainfall on the snow-covered areas and 0.278 for rainfall on the non-snow-covered areas have been determined.Reference can be made to similar work in India and Pakistan to establish the relationship between the snow cover and the cumulative discharges for the months of March, April, and May of the years 1973, 1975, 1976, and 1977, and an exponential trend was observed with the help of Landsat Imagery. Furthermore, the snow-covered areas as determined from bands 5 and 7 of the Landsat imagery, for the same day, showed a linear trend.The analysis of the results shows that remote-sensing data used in conjunction with conventional methods are likely to improve the accuracy of the snow-melt forecasts in remote areas like the Himalayan catchments.

Estimation of Snow-Melt Run-Off During Pre-Monsoon Months in Beas Sub-Basin using Satellite Imagery (Abstract)

The increasing demand for water, coupled with the construction of multi-purpose reservoirs to control and regulate snow-melt run-off, requires accurate strearm-flow forecast. For making an accurate prediction of spring run-off, information on the amount of snow accumulation in winter is necessary; this may be achieved through remote-sensing techniques in any inaccessible region. This paper outlines the snow-melt run-off study carried out in a part of Beas basin, India, using Landsat imagery for the years 1973, 1975, 1976, and 1977. The Beas basin lies between long. 76°56' to 77°52'E. and lat. 31°30' to 32°25'N., covering an area about 4900 km2, of which 1400 km2 is permanently covered by snow. The gradual melting of snow accumulated over the catchment area during the winter months is responsible for the perennial character of the Beas River. Photohydrological investigation of the part of the Beas basin up-stream of Barji was carried out and a study was made for the estimation of the snow-melt run-off during the pre-monsoon period in the sub-basin up-stream of Manali. For this purpose, the sub-basin has been divided into permanent and temporary snow-covered zones. The degree-day method and the melt due to rainfall on snow have been used to estimate snow-melt run-off. The routing of snow-melt, after accounting for losses as well as the run-off from the excess rainfall from the permanent and temporary snow-covered areas, has also been done taking the recession coefficient K as 0.90, and the excess rain from the non-snow-covered areas has been assumed to contribute directly to the run-off for that day. Run-off coefficients of 0.595 for rainfall on the snow-covered areas and 0.278 for rainfall on the non-snow-covered areas have been determined. Reference can be made to similar work in India and Pakistan to establish the relationship between the snow cover and the cumulative discharges for the months of March, April, and May of the years 1973, 1975, 1976, and 1977, and an exponential trend was observed with the help of Landsat Imagery. Furthermore, the snow-covered areas as determined from bands 5 and 7 of the Landsat imagery, for the same day, showed a linear trend. The analysis of the results shows that remote-sensing data used in conjunction with conventional methods are likely to improve the accuracy of the snow-melt forecasts in remote areas like the Himalayan catchments.

Habitat Components for Desert Bighorn Sheep in the Harquahala Mountains, Arizona

Desert bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis mexicana) habitat was quantified in the Harquahala* Mountains, Arizona, in 1984. We compared measurements of perennial vegetation and topographic features on 300 plots in areas frequently used by bighorn sheep with measurements from 300 plots on an adjacent area not used by sheep. A 10-variable discriminant function model was 88.3% correct in differentiating areas used by sheep. Bighorn sheep habitat is farther from permanent water and bajadas (gentle slopes); has less large boulders, sheetrock, false-mesquite calliandra (Calliandra eriophylla), snakeweed (Gutierrezia spp.), needlegrass (Stipa spp.), and California jojoba (Simmondsia chinensis); and more basketgrass (Nolina texana), big galleta (Hilaria rigida), and propeller-bush (Janusia gracilus) than areas not used by sheep. J. WILDL. MANAGE. 50(3):504-508 It is important that managers understand habitat requirements of desert bighorn sheep, which have declined in numbers. Desert bighorn sheep do not thrive in the presence of livestock (Albrechtsen and Reese 1970, Wilson et al. 1980) or human activities (Bates and Workman 1983). The most important factors in wild ungulate management are conservation and use and development of adequate habitat (Scotter 1980). Habitat requirements of desert bighorn sheep are not well understood. However, the general characteristics of bighorn sheep habitat include forage, escape cover, bedding, lambing and rutting areas, thermal protection, and water (Ferrier and Bradley 1970, Shannon et al. 1975, Wilson et al. 1980, Tilton and Willard 1982). Desert bighorn sheep do not necessarily increase in direct proportion to the amount of available habitat because of variation in habitat quality (Holl 1982). We studied desert bighorn sheep movements and distribution patterns in the Harquahala Mountains of western Arizona from 1979 to 1984. To answer questions related to habitat selection we discovered that ?20% of the range was not used by sheep; the unused range visually appeared to have all the necessary habitat components important to sheep. Our objective in this study was to determine what specific habitat components were important to sheep. This study was funded by the U.S. Bur. Reclamation and the U.S. Fish and Wildl. Serv. M. R. and J. L. Cashman, T. L. Steel, D. W. Cramer, and D. R. and B. H. Smith assisted with the data collection. J. R. Alldredge and M. Trosset reviewed earlier drafts of the paper. Their efforts are appreciated. STUDY AREA The Harquahala Mountains, La Paz and Maricopa counties, are 147 km west of Phoenix and cover approximately 311 km2. Elevations range from 580 to 1,732 m. Topography varies from rolling hills to rugged cliffs. The northeast end of the range is bisected by Sunset Canyon and is not used by bighorn sheep. The sheep population is estimated at 35-50 individuals (Krausman 1985). Although the Harquahala Mountains are classified into 11 vegetative associations, there are only 2 basic vegetative formations: (1) the desertscrub formation, between 580 and 1,646 m, and (2) the chaparral formation, between 1,036 and 1,732 m (Lowe 1964:11). Average annual precipitation is 22 cm. Average seasonal temperatures range from 14 C in winter to 28 C in summer. Daily temperatures >45 C are

American Art Museums: Sanctuary or Free-For-All?

The conflict between elitism and populism in the development of American art museums is analyzed in the light of the gap between intention and accomplishment with regard to their public education mission. In the course of examining the origins and changing character of these institutions, it is suggested that although a public mission was adduced to justify their existence and gain access to public subsidy, in fact, art museums were never really designed to be democratic. Almost in spite of this, however, they are reaching a far broader public than their founders could have imagined. In the process, the nature of the art viewing experience has changed, as have the definitions of what constitutes Art. The conflict between elitism and populism is a perennial feature of American art museums. Proponents of populism, or the democratization of access to the fine arts for the many, identify the public education function of art museums as their most important role. Elitists, on the other hand, consider collecting, preserving, and studying art works to be the museum's central purpose. Yet public education has been claimed as a basic function by American art museums since their founding. Almost all explicitly assume this obligation in their charters, reiterate the goal in public statements, and most have actually undertaken activities which they defined as educational. Nevertheless, until recently very few have systematically pursued this aim if it meant sacrificing the others. This essay looks at why museum people talk so much about their responsibility to a public about whom they remain deeply ambivalent. To understand the nature of this ambivalence it is not enough to recognize that art museums have other interests, though this is central to understanding the gap between the stated purpose and its realization. Neither is it sufficient to explain the outcomes in terms of intentions, real or imputed to important actors. Rather, it is important to examine the American art museum both as a *Address correspondence to the author, Graduate Faculty, New School for Social Research, 65 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10003. ?D 1984 The University of North Carolina Press

Morphological and agronomic description of selectedCuphea germplasm

Forty Cupheaspecies, recently collected in mid- and southern Mexico, are described in terms of their main morphological and agronomic characteristics. In some species, dormancy, slow germination, sticky hairs, and perennial character, as well as poor flowering and low seed yield limit their agronomic potential. However, some species of the section Heterodon show good crop potential. Among these, C. wrightii, C. glossostoma,and C. laminuligeraseem to be the best lauric acid-synthesizing species. Of the capric acid species, C. paucipetala, C. lanceolata,and C. procumbenshave the best growing potential in humid climates, whereas C. leptopodaand C. inflataare well adapted to arid growing conditions. All Cupheaspecies show seed shattering caused by flower zygomorphy. This zygomorphy not only causes different petal shape and a bilateral symmetry of the calyx tube, but also dispersal of the seeds. It represents the main taxonomic trait for characterizing the genus. Flowering and seed setting continue over a period of several weeks due to indeterminate growth. Multiple harvests with vacuum picking systems that do not damage the plants maximize recovered yields.

War as a Species Disorder

The species-destructive potential of nuclear arms has lead to the growing perspective that the human race is suffering from some major disorder. Growing evidence suggests that all war is a type of species disorder. Contrary to the popular idea that war is rooted in our animal past and a perennial feature of human behavior, there are compelling reasons to believe that war is a dramatic deviation from the behavior of pre-human life forms, and that even within human evolution it is a relatively new development. This article suggests that war may be seen as a side effect of the development of the human cortex, producing a capacity for abstract, ideological meanings to override survival concerns. Various studies of personalities high in support of military behavior have found a tendency toward greater rigidity in cognitive processes, suggesting that such rigidity may play a role in overriding survival concerns. Certain paradigm shifts in Western culture are explored as having a corrective potential by emphasizing non-absolute and globalistic perspectives.

Maintenance of Clonal Plant Germplasm

Abstract Rubus parviflorus Nutt., the thimbleberry, shown in bloom on the cover, is a common native of the Pacific Coast region of North America. It and an associated species, R. spectabilis Pursh, the salmonberry, have a raspberry-type fruit. The R. parviflorus fruit has many small drupelets and is a dark-red color, while R. spectabilis has fewer, larger drupelets and is a light-orange color. Both species are unusual in that they are semishrubs with perennial rather than biennial canes. The mode of inheritance of this perennial character, also present in a few other species, has not been studied, although some crosses to cultivated species have been made. The perennial cane character may provide a useful alternative to the current labor-intensive biennial type.

Food shortage in West Bengal — crisis or chronic?

This note deals with the food distress in rural West Bengal as observed during a brief visit to the state in early November, in the wake of drought and flood devastation. There, as elsewhere, widespread hoarding and blackmarketing or failure of the procurement drives, on top of depletion of buffer stocks and inadequate imports, and the inexorable population spiral are part of the picture. In human terms, it all adds up to under-eating on the part of many, outright hunger among considerable numbers, reported death from starvation or prolonged malnutrition in numbers which are both overstated and understated depending upon the source of information, occasional suicides, desertion of children, greater crowding of cities, and sale.of land by smallholders to meet the immediate food needs. With the exception of the certainty of rising population numbers, the cited consequences cannot be , quantified; the best one can say is that there is a large element of truth in all of them. It is unquestionable, however, that in the light of total food availability millions must contend with very short rations. The statement of the Relief Minister of West Bengal that 15 million people out of a total population of 45 million are in a state of semi-starvation is what made the state a centre of attention in a year when a number of other states have not escaped somewhat similar predicaments. One of the scarcity features of West Bengal, as of other states with large urban centres, is the sharp difference between food conditions in the latter and in the hinterland. The urban centres leave one with the impression that while belt-tightening has been the order of the day, in the main they are provided with basic rations chiefly because the food distribution policy dictates that they and industrial centres have first priority on available supplies provided from the central pool. controlled by the Central Government. This explains why a casual visitor to a city like Calcutta might be left with no thought of special food problems. while in reality the state of West Bengal has achieved great notoriety as one of the worst afflicted by devastating floods and drought. Our observations support both propositions, and it is not in Calcutta but in the countryside where one runs into critical food problems. Yet, it must be stated at the outset that those who write about West Bengal under such headlines as ‘1943 Being Re-Enacted’ exaggerate the current difficulties, which are grave enough. In that year an estimated 2.5 to 3 million people perished from starvation; in 1974 a few hundred and possibly a couple of thousand shared the same fate. This comparison, however, in no way minimizes the fact that the people of many parts of rural West Bengal have been undergoing extreme privation on a scale not experienced for many years. Moreover, under-consumption is a perennial feature of the state but harsher and more visible in 1974. What follows is an attempt to pinpoint some of the principal aspects of this state of affairs. West Bengal is a deficit state even in good years, the deficit ranging from 1.5 to 2 million tons. The gap is mostly covered from the central food pool and is utilized to feed the distribution system of Calcutta and one or two smaller urban enclaves. In politically volatile Calcutta, to keep it fed is the main concern of whatever party is in power. Part of the distribution policy is that the countryside with its 50% or more of the people under the poverty line is considered ‘self-sufficient’ in food, the fallacious theory being that the, village provides for its own. Besides, under-consumption (some call it hunger) is a life-long experience of this group of people between crops even when the crops are good. And there certainly has been no reason to worry about the middle and upper class rural groups who profit also in years of shortages when prices are high and