Unambiguous Reference Research Articles

Science and Fiction: Analysing the Concept of Fiction in Science and its Limits

A recent and growing discussion in philosophy addresses the construction of models and their use in scientific reasoning by comparison with fiction. This comparison helps to explore the problem of mediated observation and, hence, the lack of an unambiguous reference of representations. Examining the usefulness of the concept of fiction for a comparison with non-denoting elements in science, the aim of this paper is to present reasonable grounds for drawing a distinction between these two kinds of representation. In particular, my account will suggest a demarcation between fictional and non-fictional discourse as involving two different ways of interpreting representations. This demarcation, leading me to distinguish between fictional and non-fictional forms of enquiry, will provide a useful tool to explore to what extent the descriptions given by a model can be justified as making claims about the world and to what degree they are a consequence of the model’s particular construction.

The Study of Military Conceptual Model Based on Tactical Decision-Making Simulation

The military conceptual model (MCM) provides an unambiguous and credible reference for the development of the combat simulation system. According to the characteristics and regularities of the tactical decision-making (TDM) process, this process is divided into five abstract stages, which analyze the modeling method of the simulated military conceptual model in detail. This method reduces the common attributes and action of the TDM entity to that of a super one, which avoids the appearance of a multi-inheritable complex construction. Then the super TDM entity is analyzed so as to obtain a description of its properties and action. By summing up the functions of the TDM simulation entity, it can point out that this modeling method has very strong feasibility.

Association of environmental traits with the geographic ranges of ticks (Acari: Ixodidae) of medical and veterinary importance in the western Palearctic. A digital data set.

We compiled information on the distribution of ticks in the western Palearctic (11°W, 45°E; 29°N, 71°N), published during 1970–2010. The literature search was filtered by the tick’s species name and an unambiguous reference to the point of capture. Records from some curated collections were included. We focused on tick species of importance to human and animal health, in particular: Ixodes ricinus, Dermacentor marginatus, D. reticulatus, Haemaphysalis punctata, H. sulcata, Hyalomma marginatum, Hy. lusitanicum, Rhipicephalus annulatus, R. bursa, and the R. sanguineus group. A few records of other species (I. canisuga, I. hexagonus, Hy. impeltatum, Hy. anatolicum, Hy. excavatum, Hy. scupense) were also included. A total of 10,280 records was included in the data set. Almost 42 % of published references are not adequately referenced (and not included in the data set), host is reported for only 61 % of records and a reference to time of collection is missed for 84 % of published records. Ixodes ricinus accounted for 44.3 % of total records, with H. marginatum and D. marginatus accounting for 7.1 and 8.1 % of records, respectively. The lack of homogeneity of the references and potential pitfalls in the compilation were addressed to create a digital data set of the records of the ticks. We attached to every record a coherent set of quantitative descriptors for the site of reporting, namely gridded interpolated monthly climate and remotely sensed data on vegetation (NDVI). We also attached categorical descriptors of the habitat: a standard classification of land biomes and an ad hoc classification of the target territory from remotely sensed temperature and NDVI data. A descriptive analysis of the data revealed that a principal components reduction of the environmental (temperature and NDVI) variables described the distribution of the species in the target territory. However, categorical descriptors of the habitat were less effective. We stressed the importance of building reliable collections of ticks with specific references as to collection point, host and date of capture. The data set is freely downloadable.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s10493-012-9600-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

The Digital Integrated Stratigraphy Project (DISP)

The Digital Integrated Stratigraphy Project (DISP) aims to eliminate the stratigraphical ambiguity associated with sample position within a stratigraphical section. For example, it is often impractical or impossible to compare one author’s measured section and data precisely against another author’s geographically identical measured section and data due to discrepancies in the measured thicknesses of units, variations in the assignments of litho- and chronostratigraphical terms, and/or the precise line of measured sections between authors. The DISP will provide a solution to this problem by producing a precise 3-D digital rendering of the exposure using Terrestrial Laser Scanning (TLS) LiDAR, Real-Time Kinematic (RTK) Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), overlain digital photography, and GIS software to produce a cm to mm-scale accurate digital version of a given exposure. Once available online as a permanent web-based digital resource for stratigraphy, researchers will be able to access the program and digital models of scanned exposures where they will have the means to log their sample positions directly onto the digital exposure while in the field, thus allowing unambiguous stratigraphical reference for future comparison. The Digital Integrated Stratigraphy Project represents the next generation of stratigraphical standard and can serve as the protocol for the future of high-resolution Palaeozoic Earth history research.

Reference simulations of noncanonical nucleic acids with different χ variants of the AMBER force field: quadruplex DNA, quadruplex RNA and Z-DNA.

Refinement of empirical force fields for nucleic acids requires their extensive testing using as wide range of systems as possible. However, finding unambiguous reference data is not easy. In this paper, we analyze four systems which we suggest should be included in standard portfolio of molecules to test nucleic acids force fields, namely, parallel and antiparallel stranded DNA guanine quadruplex stems, RNA quadruplex stem, and Z-DNA. We highlight parameters that should be monitored to assess the force field performance. The work is primarily based on 8.4 μs of 100-250 ns trajectories analyzed in detail followed by 9.6 μs of additional selected back up trajectories that were monitored to verify that the results of the initial analyses are correct. Four versions of the Cornell et al. AMBER force field are tested, including an entirely new parmχ(OL4) variant with χ dihedral specifically reparametrized for DNA molecules containing syn nucleotides. We test also different water models and ion conditions. While improvement for DNA quadruplexes is visible, the force fields still do not fully represent the intricate Z-DNA backbone conformation.

Automated validation of genetic variants from large databases: ensuring that variant references refer to the same genomic locations

Summary: Accurate annotations of genomic variants are necessary to achieve full-genome clinical interpretations that are scientifically sound and medically relevant. Many disease associations, especially those reported before the completion of the HGP, are limited in applicability because of potential inconsistencies with our current standards for genomic coordinates, nomenclature and gene structure. In an effort to validate and link variants from the medical genetics literature to an unambiguous reference for each variant, we developed a software pipeline and reviewed 68 641 single amino acid mutations from Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man (OMIM), Human Gene Mutation Database (HGMD) and dbSNP. The frequency of unresolved mutation annotations varied widely among the databases, ranging from 4 to 23%. A taxonomy of primary causes for unresolved mutations was produced.Availability: This program is freely available from the web site (http://safegene.hms.harvard.edu/aa2nt/).Contact: mt153@hms.harvard.edu; mark_tong2009@yahoo.comSupplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

Foundations for a realist ontology of mental disease.

While classifications of mental disorders have existed for over one hundred years, it still remains unspecified what terms such as 'mental disorder', 'disease' and 'illness' might actually denote. While ontologies have been called in aid to address this shortfall since the GALEN project of the early 1990s, most attempts thus far have sought to provide a formal description of the structure of some pre-existing terminology or classification, rather than of the corresponding structures and processes on the side of the patient.We here present a view of mental disease that is based on ontological realism and which follows the principles embodied in Basic Formal Ontology (BFO) and in the application of BFO in the Ontology of General Medical Science (OGMS). We analyzed statements about what counts as a mental disease provided (1) in the research agenda for the DSM-V, and (2) in Pies' model. The results were used to assess whether the representational units of BFO and OGMS were adequate as foundations for a formal representation of the entities in reality that these statements attempt to describe. We then analyzed the representational units specific to mental disease and provided corresponding definitions.Our key contributions lie in the identification of confusions and conflations in the existing terminology of mental disease and in providing what we believe is a framework for the sort of clear and unambiguous reference to entities on the side of the patient that is needed in order to avoid these confusions in the future.

Modular Sustainability within the Landscape

This study will examine the ecological and creative potential of sustainable traditional and contemporary hard landscaping materials within the corporate, civic and domestic environment. It will focus on the commonalities and shared design issues which link the architect, landscape architect and the enthusiastic amateur, and how their collective response to sustainability are fundamentally interdependent. Satellite and aerial imagery of the earth reveal patterns of humanity in the form of structural fingerprints on the earth’s surface. At the click of a mouse one is able to zoom in on cities, intersecting highways, parks and factories etc and identify one’s own particular module in the global matrix. This is an unambiguous identifiable visual reference of our significance to the greater blueprint. The sustainability of materials is an intrinsic issue in the process of designing and planning urban landscapes and environments. Embodied energy and remanufactured materials are as significant to the design brief as aesthetic and commercial considerations. There is an array of inevitable practical and procedural concerns that affect both complicated and banal construction and design processes when sustainable materials are recognized and utilized. Car parking for example is an issue that connects the public in more ways than just the obvious. The effect of carpeting of the landscape with asphalt and the direct association with drainage and flooding have an impact on developments ranging from commercial complexes to domestic driveways. These common motifs are applicable to architects, designers and planners, in short, most constituents of property owning societies. The option of turning green to grey on the global blueprint is no longer credible. Complacency is the enemy of creativity. Through a selection of comparative case studies, examples of innovative initiatives and analysis of the role of education and community, the creative potential of restrictive and (paradoxically) liberating sustainable landscaping practices are recognized and discussed.

A systematic review on quality indicators for tight glycaemic control in critically ill patients: need for an unambiguous indicator reference subset

IntroductionThe objectives of this study were to systematically identify and summarize quality indicators of tight glycaemic control in critically ill patients, and to inspect the applicability of their definitions.MethodsWe searched in MEDLINE® for all studies evaluating a tight glycaemic control protocol and/or quality of glucose control that reported original data from a clinical trial or observational study on critically ill adult patients.ResultsForty-nine studies met the inclusion criteria; 30 different indicators were extracted and categorized into four nonorthogonal categories: blood glucose zones (for example, 'hypoglycaemia'); blood glucose levels (for example, 'mean blood glucose level'); time intervals (for example, 'time to occurrence of an event'); and protocol characteristics (for example, 'blood glucose sampling frequency'). Hypoglycaemia-related indicators were used in 43 out of 49 studies, acting as a proxy for safety, but they employed many different definitions. Blood glucose level summaries were used in 41 out of 49 studies, reported as means and/or medians during the study period or at a certain time point (for example, the morning blood glucose level or blood glucose level upon starting insulin therapy). Time spent in the predefined blood glucose level range, time needed to reach the defined blood glucose level target, hyperglycaemia-related indicators and protocol-related indicators were other frequently used indicators. Most indicators differ in their definitions even when they are meant to measure the same underlying concept. More importantly, many definitions are not precise, prohibiting their applicability and hence the reproducibility and comparability of research results.ConclusionsAn unambiguous indicator reference subset is necessary. The result of this systematic review can be used as a starting point from which to develop a standard list of well defined indicators that are associated with clinical outcomes or that concur with clinicians' subjective views on the quality of the regulatory process.

From the Holy to the Most Holy Place: The Period of Hebrews 9:6-10 and the Day of Atonement as a Metaphor of Transition

(ProQuest Information and Learning: ... denotes formulae omitted.) (ProQuest Information and Learning: ... denotes non-USASCII text omitted.) The Day of Atonement is one of most conspicuous OT rituals to be referenced in central section of Letter to Hebrews (8:1-10:18) and plays, certainly, an important role in it.1 Almost scholars agree that imagery of Day of Atonement is used in typological fashion to explain Jesus's death on cross as a sacrifice that provides forgiveness. Paul Ellingworth, for example, comments that Hebrews' author concentrates in Day of Atonement all his thinking about sin and forgiveness under old covenant.2 Nevertheless, Harold W. Attridge has warned that the application of model of Kippur ritual to death of Christ in Hebrews is a complex and subtle hermeneutical effort.3 The difficulties include, in first place, an incomplete typology. For example, Azazel is not mentioned.4 Affliction of soul, an important element of celebration of Kippur, is also absent; instead, atmosphere that surrounds Jesus's entrance is that of feasting and rejoicing.5 It is argued that this absence is because Hebrews focuses on ritual of Day of Atonement and not whole feast. However, Jesus's sacrifice is also described in terms inconsistent with that ritual. First, author departs from language of LXX to describe manipulation of by high priest on Day of Atonement: is not sprinkled on sanctuary but (9:7).6 Second, when sprinkling of is mentioned, it has to do not with Day of Atonement but with inauguration of (9:15-23).7 Third, sacrifices of ... (male goats) were not offered on Day of Atonement.8 Fourth, purification of sins is effected before Christ's entrance into most holy place (e.g., Heb 1:3; 9:7), which turns upside down Leviticus 16, where entry is precondition for purification sprinkling.9 Fifth, when Jesus's death is described as a purification offering (Heb 9:11-23), author of Hebrews follows a typology that conflates Yom Kippur (Leviticus 16), Red Heifer (Numbers 19), institution of (Exodus 24), and ordination of priests (Leviticus 8).10 Finally, in this and subsequent sections, author of Hebrews does not use Day of Atonement as primary typology for Jesus's death; instead, it is ratification of that plays that role (Heb 9:15-23).n In fact, Jesus is described mainly as mediator of a new (7:22; 8:6; 9:15), and his sacrifice is referred to primarily as blood of covenant (10:29; 12:24; 13:20). The question is, then, how do we explain, on one hand, pervasive nature of imagery of Day of Atonement in this central section of Hebrews but, on other hand, account for inconsistencies in Day of Atonement typology for Jesus's death on cross? I suggest that in Heb 9:6-10, by means of a period as a rhetorical device, author of Hebrews defines role that imagery of Day of Atonement will play in his argument. In other words, this passage functions as a programmatic statement. The exegetical difficulties of this passage have distracted scholars from giving due weight to rhetorical function of this long period for rest of argument.12 It is concluded that Hebrews' author primarily intended Day of Atonement not as a typology of Jesus's death but as a parable or illustration of transition from current and its old into age to come and its new covenant. This, I hope, will make possible a new assessment of imagery of Day of Atonement and Jesus's sacrificial death in Hebrews 8-10. I. THE DAY OF ATONEMENT AND THE PERIOD OF HEBREWS 9:6-10 The Period as a Rhetorical Device The first unambiguous reference to ritual of Day of Atonement in Hebrews is found in 9:7. …

SHORT TAXONOMIC GUIDE TO THE GENUS ‘CANDIDATUS PHYTOPLASMA’

The category of Candidatus was introduced to allow unambiguous reference to organisms that could not be cultivated in vitro. In plant pathology, a major impact of this novel taxonomic concept was to enable the classification of the diverse group of organisms, morphologically similar to the mycoplasmas, known by the trivial name of phytoplasmas. These plant pathogens were originally named according to the disease they caused. Later, extensive sequence analysis of the ribosomal RNA genes allowed the development of an evolutionbased classification and the grouping of the phytoplasmas into phylogenetically distinct clades. Unfortunately, the phytopathological and the phylogenetic classification did not match and had striking contradictions. With the adoption of the category Candidatus, the description of the genus ‘Ca. Phytoplasma’ and several ‘Ca. Phytoplasma’ species, the scientific community is now attempting to provide a classification that takes into account both the phylogenetic and the biological/ ecological characteristics of the organisms. Here we provide an outline of the characteristics and composition of the genus ‘Ca. Phytoplasma’.

Antimima aristulata comb. nov. (Mesembryanthemaceae Fenzl); a heterophyllous succulent from Cape Town, South Africa

The nomenclatural history of a heterophyllous shrubby succulent mesemb, known from granite outcrops on the Cape Peninsula, South Africa, is discussed. Based on available information the name Ruschia pulchella (Haw.) Schwantes is considered as insufficiently known. The new combination Antimima aristulata (Sond.) Chesselet & G.F.Sm. is made to accommodate and provide an unambiguous reference for this mesemb species.

Jerusalem in the Qur'a¯n

The focus of this article is Jerusalem and its status in Islam through the verses of the Qur'a¯ n (the holiest text in Islam), hadi¯th literature, and early Islamic history. The importance of this study is two-fold. First, it deals with all the Qur'a¯ nic verses which include either unambiguous references to Jerusalem and al-Masjid al-Aqsa¯ (the Furthest Mosque), or those that imply ambiguous but likely references to the same, or else those that imply ambiguous but unlikely references. Second, it shows why Jerusalem is so intrinsically important to Muslim beliefs and mentality. Therefore, it tries to help readers at large to understand the Muslim attitude in relation to this city. This article is divided into an introduction, four major sections and a conclusion. In the Introduction, the article tries to explain the status of Jerusalem in Islam and why it is regarded as holy by the one billion Muslims now living on earth. The first section illustrates the merits of Jerusalem in Islam through the Qur'a¯ n, hadi¯th literature, and early Islamic history. It also discusses the construction and the purposes behind building the Dome of the Rock. The second section illustrates and discusses the Qur'a¯ nic verses which imply unambiguous reference to Jerusalem. The third section deals with the verses which imply ambiguous, but likely, references to the same. The fourth section deals with the verses that imply ambiguous, but unlikely, references. It was found that there are about 70 places in the Qur'a¯ n which fall into these two last categories. These places are scattered through 21 s u¯ ras . In order to discover and explain the verses related to Jerusalem, I have relied on various sources of exegeses, hadi¯th , history and geography. Further, contrary opinions about the interpretation of any verse have been addressed and a sort of balance between them has been provided. Finally, in the conclusion, the writer of this article expresses a desire for justice without which a comprehensive peace cannot be established in this holy city, so that all the followers of the three religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, will have their rights equally.

Naming the groups: developing a stable and efficient nomenclature

SummaryMcNeill, J.: Naming the groups: developing a stable and efficient nomenclature. – Taxon 49: 705–720. – ISSN 0040‐0262.The binomial system of botanical nomenclature has existed for almost 250 years, the principle of a taxon having a single correct name determined on the basis of priority of publication was formalized almost 150 years ago, and the type method for the application of scientific names of plants has had international acceptance for almost 75 years. In this historic time‐frame, the achievements of the past 50 years are outlined and the question posed as to whether the next 50 years hold any prospect of change, and indeed whether any change is possible or even desirable. The requirement of botanical nomenclature to provide a stable, unambiguous reference system for plant information implies an inherent conservatism of rules and procedures—even the smallest change to the Code, however beneficial it may be in general, is virtually certain to have some destabilizing effect. Despite this truism, it is suggested that the next few years will see quite major change. One of the least of these may be the development of a separate specialist nomenclature for communication about major phyletic lineages, not so dissimilar in practice from the specialist nomenclature currently in existence for the micro‐variants important in cultivated plants. Bionomenclature provides the mechanism for communication about the elements of taxonomy—elements that generally seek to reflect the greatest information on patterns of biodiversity. It will continue to communicate the general information content of taxa effectively, only if it evolves to take fuller advantage of the opportunities of the electronic age. The historical tendency to improve the rules of nomenclature by continuous “tinkering” with the Code needs to give way to a recognition that stability and simplicity are key requirements of users of names (amongst whom professional biologists are a relatively small minority), and that web access to authoritative lists will generally be their preferred approach to answering the nomenclatural questions that arise in study and use of plants, animals and micro‐organisms. To remain relevant, the botanical Code, like the bacteriological, and now, to a degree, the zoological, must provide mechanisms for the endorsement of nomenclatural lists that represent the products of sound scholarship.

Rereading the Book in Henry James's The Ambassadors

This essay argues that in Henry James's The Ambassadors (1903) Mrs. Newsome, who appears to be merely a representative of everything un-Jamesian, particularly a lack of moral and aesthetic imagination, should not be so quickly dismissed. Post-structuralist critics do not hesitate to denounce her. They typically identify Mrs. Newsome's "book" of expectations for Strether, her emissary, and for Chad, her successor, with the closed book of logocentric tyranny; both are said to rely on unambiguous reference and to enforce the cold rationality of linear causation. Derridean readers of The Ambassadors unmistakably prefer Madame de Vionnet's Paris, embodying as it apparently does their own essentially skeptical doctrines about representation. James, however, plays a more subtle game of balance and synthesis, suggesting that while Newsome's book is firm against new impressions, expecting experience to submit utterly to preconceived plans and moralistic evaluations, it also successfully asserts against Parisian representational openness and mystery the viability of reasonable explanation. Her book is vindicated insofar as it stands for the persistent relevance of linear causality and for the nonabsolute grounding of speculation in the concrete world of events and consequences. Newsome's extreme rationalism is in fact denied full authority early in the novel, whose true subject is located when extreme skepticism seems to dominate and explanation seems irrelevant. During the course of the story, time's subtle order slowly reemerges, and James the realist steps forward from behind the post-structuralist veil.

Double-Surnames And Gender Equality: A Proposition And The Spanish Case

INTRODUCTION - Hillary Rodham, speaking to Bill Clinton about changing her to his before his 1982 campaign for Governor of Arkansas. (Bruck, 1994: 64) Women have long seen their identities subsumed by family life; a woman's loss of her maiden name in marriage is a symbol of this self-effacement (Spender, 1980: 25). With a rise in their social and economic status, it is now somewhat more common for women in our culture to keep their own surnames. This means that more couples now must choose their children's last names. Recent cartoons in The New Yorker explore this dilemma for a high income, highly educated audience. In one, a woman in evening dress is visibly pregnant. Actually, the first was easy, she tells her dinner companions. It's her last we're battling about. (September II, 1995: 81). In another, a woman is trying to console her crestfallen suitor: do love you Ross, but I'm not ready to hyphenate yet. (March 25, 1994: 71) A classified in the San Francisco Bay Guardian sought advice: Help Us Name Our Baby! Dad has his last name, Mom has hers. What do we the baby? What did you do? His? Hers? Hyphen? Anagrams? Ideas, please. Write Baby... This ad is reproduced in a book on the subject by Sharon Lebell (1988), Naming Ourselves. Naming Our Children. Lebell's advice is to give male children their father's and female children their mother's. Many would object to siblings not having the same last name, but is a better compromise available? The argument of this note is that there is. I first offer a simple logical proposition. This proposition proves that surnames meet certain desiderata of identity, egalitarianism, and feasibility if and only if they are double-names with a sex-based rule on which gets dropped by future generations. I then examine some empirical evidence on these in the Spanish tradition of naming, descent, and gender relations. Actual descent systems and gender relations are of course not logically derived from any particular naming system, nor do they imply any. Thus does reality intrude on the simplicity of a formal model. If the model is useful, however, it will highlight certain regularities. Kinship terms are important to anthropologists, but they have made little study of this two-name dilemma. This is odd, since many great anthropologists themselves bear hyphenated names: Evans-Pritchard, Levi-Strauss, Levy-Bruhl, Pitt-Rivers, Radcliffe-Brown, and Maybury-Lewis. No other academic tribe seems to have so many double names, even my own largely English tribe of economists. The English tradition of double-barreled names is usually explained by a maiden-name too important to be lost at marriage. In the US for example, many Kennedy descendants bear double surnames. What kind of system, however, would accord such an importance to everyone's name? A PROPOSITION ON NAMING Consider the following six desiderata of a naming system: (1) Identity: Everyone should keep the same surname throughout his or her life. (2) Parents: Children and parents should have a surname in common. (3) Siblings: Siblings should all bear the same surname. (4) Genealogy: A surname should provide some unambiguous genealogical reference: e.g., it tells us who is this girl's maternal grandmother. (5) Equal Continuity: Husband and wife should have equal chances of passing their surnames to future generations. (6) Feasibility: The number of names included in a surname should not grow with each generation. If the above are accepted, it can be shown that there is only one general solution: double- surnames in a fixed order, and with a sex-based rule on which is dropped. To illustrate, say the ordering is (mother's name)-(father's name). Then the children of Mary Brown-Jones and John White-Smith could have the surname Brown-Smith, combining their mother's maternal and father's paternal surnames, while dropping the surnames of their mother's father and father's mother to maintain feasibility. …

The Relation Between Averroes' Middle and long commentaries on theDe Anima

Where Averroes' commentaries on Aristotle can be dated, the Middle Commentary on a given work can be seen to predate the Long Commentary. As an accompaniment to his fine edition of Averroes' Middle Commentary on theDe anima, A. Ivry has maintained that in this instance matters are reversed and the Middle Commentary on the De anima is “an abridged and revised version” of the Long Commentary on the same work. Ivry develops his thesis most fully inArabic Sciences and Philosophy5. There he argues that two passages in the Middle Commentary on theDe animarefer to the Long Commentary by name, that a third passage alludes to the Long Commentary, and that in other passages the Middle and Long Commentaries use similar phraseology and the former can be seen to have abridged the latter. The present article replies as follows: The pair of passages in the Middle Commentary which Ivry reads as referring explicitly to the Long Commentary can plausibly be read as cross-references within the Middle Commentary itself. The passage that he takes as alluding to the Long Commentary does not in fact allude to that work, but is an unambiguous reference to a later section of the Middle Commentary. And there is no justification for regarding the passages in the Middle Commentary cited by Ivry which use phraseology similar to that of the Long Commentary as borrowings from the latter. In the course of his arguments, Ivry refers to Averroes' position on the nature of the human material intellect, the issue that gave Averroes the most trouble in his commentaries on Aristotle'sDe animaand that has most intrigued students of Averroes ever since. The present article points out that on the subject of the human material intellect, neither the Middle nor the Long Commentary on theDe animaborrows from the other, for the conceptions of the material intellect which they espouse are different and incompatible.

Syrrhopodon mauritianus (Musci: Calymperaceae): An Enigma

Syrrhopodon mauritianus Angstrom, a rare species ofeastern Africa and the Malagasy- Mascarene region, is unique in the Calymperaceae in that its gemmae are composed largely of a series of transverse tiers of four equal cells and its costae are longitudinally lamellose ad- and abaxially. The strongly dimorphic leaves and yellowish leaf bases of S. mauritianus suggest that it is most closely related to the S. circinatus-hornschuchii-rigidus complex of the American tropics. The occurrence in a single species of two features unique at the family level presents an enigma. Syrrhopodon mauritianus J. Angstr6m occurs sparingly in the mountains of Tanzania and in the Malagasay-Mascarene region. The original material was collected in 1853 on the island of Mauritius by N. J. Andersson, who collected from the frigate Eu- genie. Andersson's bryophyte specimens went to J. Angstrim (Stockholm) for study, and in 1872 the latter began a series of publications on the collec- tions. Angstrim misidentified Andersson's speci- men of S. mauritianus and reported it in 1873 (p. 141) without comment under the name Syrrhopo- don malouinensis C. Miiller, (-S. incompletus var. berteroanus (Bridel) Reese), a moss described as from the Islas Malvinas (but doubtfully from there, but rather from the American tropics; Reese 1977). In an addendum to a later article (1876, p. 54), Angs- tr6m referred to his previous publication on An- dersson's mosses, and wrote pag. 141. Syrrhopo- don malouinensis est Syrrhopodon mauritianus C. Miill. mscr. This was followed by a Latin descrip- tion of the moss, including reference to the gemmae on the leaf tips. This is the type description of S. mauritianus, and the two Andersson specimens in Angstrijm's herbarium, both bearing the name Syr- rhopodon malouinensis, are the type material for S. mauritianus. Presumably, Miiller saw a specimen of Andersson's moss, corrected Angstr6m's deter- mination of it, and suggested the name Syrrhopodon mauritianus. Although Angstr6m did not mention a specimen in his description of S. mauritianus, his citation of the name Syrrhopodon malouinensis as published on page 141 in his previous report is an unambiguous reference to the Andersson material from Mauritius.

Measuring inhibition and facilitation from pronouns

Two cross-modal experiments investigated changes in activation levels for pronominal referents and nonreferents. Subjects heard sentences with and without pronouns and responded to visual probe words that appeared at variable intervals during sentence presentation. The gender of potential referents was controlled in Experiment 1 so that the pronoun unambiguously referred to one sentence participant, and Experiment 2 contained both unambiguous and ambiguous reference conditions. In both experiments, responses to probes corresponding to nonreferents were slower in the presence of an unambiguous pronoun compared to the no-pronoun condition, suggesting that pronous inhibit nonreferents. Responses to referents were speeded by unambiguous pronouns compared to the no-pronoun condition in Experiment 2. Neither of these effects appeared at probe positions immediately after the pronoun, indicating that assignment of a referent to an unambiguous pronoun took a measurable amount of time, and a substantially longer amount for an ambiguous pronoun. An additional probe condition in Experiment 1 indicated that these effects were not due to differences in overall processing load. These results were interpreted in light of discourse shifts from establishment of pronominal reference, and in terms of the sensitivity of probe response tasks to a variety of influences.

Theories of the Mind: Science or Literature?

It is no news that distinctions between fact and fiction are disappearing a little bit every day, and before century is out, they may be gone for good. Libraries and best-seller lists still have separate sections for two categories, but they may be among last holdouts. Princeton provides a course by John McPhee on literature of fact, and Hayden White in Tropics of Discourse speaks of the fictions of factual representation (1978). In a recent interview, Stephen Hawking, Cambridge cosmologist, was asked if he was a regular reader of science fiction. He answered, read a fair amount of science fiction in my teens. Now I write it, only I like to think it is science fact. If distinctions between fact and fiction are rapidly becoming more arbitrary, similar worries surround difference between theory and make-believe. Facts, it would seem, are rarely transparent; theory is never entirely data-driven; and observations are almost always theoryladen. Theories, of course, claim to be about something real, but aside from that important proviso, there is often little else to distinguish them from fiction. In some respects, to complicate picture, terms of fiction make more precise reference to real world than do terms of science, just opposite of our traditional beliefs. Whereas we used to think that theoretical terms within a science can refer to real world events with sufficient precision that propositions in which such terms are featured can be subjected to empirical assessment (Gergen and Gergen 1986: 23), we now realize that unambiguous reference is not all that easy to establish.