The Capability Approach

The Capability Approach 

By: Flavio Comim, Mozaffar Qizilbash and Sabina Alkire

Amartya Sen’s capability approach has generated remarkable interest in recent years. This volume brings together a selection of papers initially presented at an international conference on the capability approach (CA) held at St Edmund’s College, Cambridgein 2001. This conference marked an important turning point in research on the capability approach. It brought together many young scholars who were interested in the approach as well as others who had been working on it for some time. The conference was initially motivated by issues relating to the usefulness of the approach in the particular contexts of poverty and injustice. However, conference papers covered a wide range of topics relating to concepts, measurement and other applications. In this volume, the papers are categorised in terms of these broad and overlapping areas. [download]

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The Risk Modeling

The Risk Modeling 

By: Greg N. Gregoriou and Christian Hoppe

Financial engineers should study past crises and model breakdowns rather than simply extrapolate from recent successes. The first part of this chapter reviews the 2008 disaster in convertible bonds and convertible arbitrage. Next, activity in nineteenth-century option markets is examined to explore the importance of modern theory in pricing derivatives. The final section reviews the linkage between theory and practice in bridge building. The particularly interesting analogy is the constructive direction taken by engineers after the highly visible, catastrophic failure of the Tacoma Narrows Bridgein Washingtonin 1940. Engineers were reminded that highly realistic models may increase the likelihood of failure if they reduce the buffer against factors ignored by the model. Afterward, they focused efforts on making bridges robust enough to withstand eventualities they did not fully understand and could not forecast with accuracy. [download]

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Critical Practices in International Theory

Critical Practices in International Theory 

By: James Der Derian 

I have done my best over the course of a chequered academic career not to force a logical order upon a resistant past or to trim my ideas to fit a disciplinary conformity. Having now collected a diverse mix of journal articles, magazine essays, op-ed pieces, a book review and a one-act play, to be published under the pretense that works produced over the course of two decades might possibly add up to a coherent whole, I cannot help but feel complicit in a literary felony  and compelled to provide a defense. Adequate justification is hampered by the need to explain why these essays were written in the first place, entailing a shot-gun marriage of retrospection and introspection that I fear, like dream interpretation, would be much more convincing to the dreamer than the interpreter. [download]

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Science in The Ancient World

Science in The Ancient World 

By: Russell M. Lawson

Ancient science strove to understand the origins and workings of nature and humanity. Science has encompassed many methods and varied disciplines over time, occupying human thought for millennia. The questions that scientists ask tend to remain constant even as the answers differ according to time and culture.The strange and sometimes simple explanations that the ancient Greeks and Romans gave for natural phenomena appearless absurd to us when we consider that the answers of today may appear ridiculous to observers a thousand years from now.Among ancient scientists from Mesopotamia, Persia, India, China, Egypt, Greece, and Rome the Greeks were by far the leaders in scientific inquiry because they asked the most penetrating questions, many of which still elude complete answers. [download]

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Introduction to Systems Biology

Introduction to Systems Biology

By: Sangdun Choi, Ph.D.

Systems biology aims at a system-level understanding of biological systems (1,2). The investigation of biological systems at the system level is not a new concept. It can be traced back to homeostasis by Canon (3), cybernetics by Norbert Weiner (4), and general systems theory by von Bertalanffy (5). Also, several approaches in physiology have taken a systemic view of the biological subjects. The reason why “systems biology” is gaining renewed interest today is, in my view, due to emerging opportunities to solidly connect system-level understanding to molecular-level understanding, as well as the possibility of establishing well-founded theory at the system level. This is only possible today because of the progress of molecular biology, genomics, computer science, modern control theory, nonlinear dynamics theory, and other relevant fields, which had not sufficiently matured at the time of early attempts. [download]

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Harmonic Measure

Harmonic Measure

By: John B. Garnett and Donald E. Marshal

Several surprising new results about harmonic measure on plane domains have been proved during the last two decades. The most famous of these results are Makarov’s theorems that harmonic measure on any simply connected domain is singular to Hausdorff measure _α for all α > 1 but absolutely continuous to _α for all α < 1. Also surprising was the extension by Jones and Wolff of Makarov’s α > 1 theorem to all plane domains. Further important new results include thework of Carleson, Jones andWolff, and others on harmonicmeasure for complements of Cantor sets; the work by Carleson and Makarov, Bertilsson, Pommerenke, and others on Brennan’s tantalizing conjecture that for univalent functions__|ϕ_|2−pdxdy < ∞ if 4 3 < p < 4; several new geometric conditions that guarantee the existence of angular derivatives; and the Jones square sum characterization of subsets of rectifiable curves and its applications by Bishop and Jones to a variety of problems in function theory. [download]

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Foundations of Mathematical and Computational Economics

Foundations of Mathematical and Computational Economics 

By: Kamran Dadkhah

Many believe that mathematics is one of the most beautiful creations of humankind, second only to music. The word creation, however, may be disputed. Have humans created something called mathematics? Then how is it that we increasingly discover that the world, and indeed the universe around us, obey one or another mathematical law? Perhaps to the faithful, the answer is clear: A higher power is the greatest mathematician of all. A worldly answer may be that humans discovered, rather than created, mathematics. Thus, wherever we look, we see mathematical laws at work. Whether humans created mathematics and it just so happened that the world seems to be mathematical, or the universe is a giant math problem and human beings are discovering it, we cannot deny that mathematics is extremely useful in every branch of science and technology, and even in everyday life. [download]

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Econometric Analysis

Econometric Analysis 

By: William H. Greene 

In the first issue of Econometrica, the Econometric Society stated that its main object shall be to promote studies that aim at a unification of the theoretical-quantitative and the empirical quantitative approach to economic problems and that are penetrated by constructive and rigorous thinking similar to that which has come to dominate the natural sciences. But there are several aspects of the quantitative approach to economics, and no single one of these aspects taken by itself, should be confounded with econometrics. Thus, econometrics is by no means the same as economic statistics. Nor is it identical with what we call general economic theory, although a considerable portion of this theory has a definitely quantitative character. Nor should econometrics be taken as synonomous [sic] with the application of mathematics to economics. [download]

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Science and Risk Regulation in International Law

Science and Risk Regulation in International Law 

By: Jacquelien Peel 

Environmental and health risks are today a subject of great debate and concern in many countries, as well as at the global level. Risks of climate change, ozone depletion, the spread of disease and loss of species, among many others, have become central issues of policy and legal development preoccupying national governments and international organisations. The language of ‘risk’ is used in discussing these issues because, in many cases, available information is inadequate or incomplete. Enough is known to suspect or predict that a threat exists, but the full outcomes for human health and the environment, including for future generations, may not be well understood. This uncertainty, together with the complexity of the ecological systems and processes at issue, encourages a proliferation of plausible perspectives on risk problems and the best way to manage them. [download]

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Style and Sociolinguistic Variation

Style and Sociolinguistic Variation

By: Penelope Eckerd and John R. Rickford

Style is a pivotal construct in the study of sociolinguistic variation. Stylistic variability in speech affords us the possibility of observing linguistic change in progress (Labov 1966). Moreover, since all individuals and social groups have stylistic repertoires, the styles in which they are recorded must be taken into account when comparing them (Rickford and McNair-Knox 1994:265). Finally, style is the locus of the individual’s internalization of broader social distributions of variation (Eckert 2000). In spite of the centrality of style, the concerted attention that has been paid to the relation of variation to social categorizations and configurations has not been equaled by any continuous focus on style. In other words, we have focused on the relation between variation and the speaker’s place in the world, at the expense of the speaker’s strategies with respect to this place. [download]

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Practical Guide to Evidence

Practical Guide to Evidence 

By: Christopher Allen 

Law cannot be properly understood without some knowledge of the context in which it operates. Just as the student of commercial law needs to understand something of what is involved in ordinary commercial transactions, so the student of evidence needs some understanding of what is involved in ordinary processes of proof. Those processes will therefore be my first concern in this chapter. I shall then turn to a more traditional topic: the definition of ‘evidence’. This will be followed by a section which covers the concepts of relevance, admissibility and weight. These are fundamental to the consideration of all aspects of our subject. The fourth section contains a short glossary of some of the technical terms commonly encountered in studying evidence. [download]

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Governing Risk in GM Agriculture

Governing Risk in GM Agriculture 

By: Michael Baram and Mathilde Bourrier

Biotechnology is generating the knowledge and skills for modifying all forms of life plant, animal, human, and microbial. It is enabling researchers to map the genetic composition of organisms and identify the functions of their genes, and to determine the roles that selected genes play in creating proteins that, in turn, establish the physical and biological traits of the organisms. With this knowledge, researchers are then able to conceptualize modified versions of selected organisms that would be endowed with new traits, such as various species of plants, and undertake a process that subsequently involves splicing new genetic material into the genomes of the plants to modify their genetic composition and proteins. If successful, the redesigned plants will have the new intended characteristics. Thus, the scientific approach to agriculture pioneered by Mendel and others in the nineteenth century is dramatically amplified by biotechnology. [download]

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Critical Point Theory and Its Applications

Critical Point Theory and Its Applications

By: Wenming Zou

Since the birth of the Calculus of Variations, it has been realized that when they apply, variational methods can obtain better results than most other methods. Moreover, they apply in a very large number of situations. It was realized many years ago that the solutions of a great number of problems are in effect critical points of functionals. In this volume we present some of the latest research in the area of critical point theory. Many new results have been recently obtained by researchers using this approach, and in most cases comparable results have not been obtained by other methods. We describe these methods and present the newest applications. In a typical application, one first establishes that the solution of a given problem is a critical point of a functional G{u) on an appropriate space, i.e., a “point” in the space where G\u) = 0. Finding the points where the derivatives vanish is tantamount to solving the problem. The main difficulty is finding candidates. [download]
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Convergence of Productivity

Convergence of Productivity 

By: William J. Boumol, Richard R. Nelson and Edward N. Wolff 

This collection of essays reviews the current state of knowledge of the convergence hypothesis, which asserts that at least a fairly restricted set of countries, the members of the “convergence club,” are undergoing a process that brings their levels of productivity and living standards increasingly close to one another. The book summarizes the available empirical information and contributes a considerable amount of new evidence. It examines the patterns exhibited by individual industries in particular countries as well as the behavior of the aggregate economies of those countries and their manufacturing sectors. It reports evidence, old and new, on the influences underlying the degree of convergence that appears in fact to have occurred. It studies the role that convergence has played and promises to play in the future of the newly industrialized countries and the less developed countries. [download]

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Age of Dinosaurs

Age of Dinosaurs 

By: John P. Rafferty

It was a time of huge “thunder lizards” roaming steamy fern jungles; of “mammal-reptiles” walking the land of Laurasia; of continental movements, mountain building, and massive volcanoes; and a time of the most horrific, earth-shattering extinctions that ever occurred on this planet. It was the middle times of what is called the Phanerozoic Eon, a geologic interval lasting almost a half billion years. It was the time of the dinosaurs…and much, much more. We call this time the Mesozoic Era. Dinosaurs. The word itself immediately calls to mind large, predatory reptiles stalking the Earth. As young and old alike experience such visual, visceral responses to the word, it is difficult to believe that a mere 200 years ago, no one had any idea that these creatures had ever existed. [download]

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Ageing with A Lifelong Disability

Ageing with A Lifelong Disability 

By: Christine Bigby

Ageing with a lifelong disability is a relatively new phenomenon which is illustrated by the dramatic changes in life expectancy for people with intellectual disabilities from about 20 years in 1930 to 70 years in 1993 (Carter and Jancar 1983; Strauss and Eyman 1996). The current cohort of older people with lifelong disabilities is the first sizeable group to have survived into later life. Ageing throws up new opportunities and challenges not for only individuals and their families but also for the helping professions and human service systems. Research on the characteristics, needs and aspirations of older people with a lifelong disability and related policy and service developments are of recent origin. Prior to the 1980s there was little debate about this matter. In the context of ageing populations in Australia, Europe and the USA, people with a lifelong disability are one of the fastest growing but smallest groups of older people. [download]

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Energy Risk

Energy Risk 

By: Dragana Pilipovic

. . . until it starts hurting. As a little girl perhaps I did not know very much about the world at large, but I knew that I did not like going to the dentist. One of my teeth started hurting. I did not like it, I did not enjoy it, but I was going to stand it for as long as I could. I was going to pretend that it was not happening, assume everything was fine just to avoid the dreaded dentist. In the end, the tooth caught up with me. Once the pain got so bad that I could no longer run out to play, I had to tell my mother. Sure enough, the visit to the dentist was not a pleasant one; the baby tooth was at this point so far gone that it could not be saved, and had to be pulled. The moral of the story is not that you should go to the dentist (although you should!), but rather, that the truth will catch up to you, sooner or later, like it or not. [download]

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Septuagint and Reception

Septuagint and Reception

By: Johann Cook 

There are basically two aspects to the collection of Greek texts that goes under the name of Septuagint. The Septuagint originated, for the most part, as a translation of a source text. As such it represents a link and a very important one in the reception history of the Hebrew Aramaic scriptures. But the Septuagint very soon turned into a literary and religious reference in its own right. It was quoted as scripture and subjected to commentary. The Septuagint itself now became the starting point for a new reception history. In the workshops of La Bible d’Alexandrie a lot of energy is expended on this latter aspect of the Greek Bible.1 The works of Philo, the New Testament and Patristic literature are scrutinised in order to determine how the Septuagint was read and interpreted in antiquity. [download]

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Great Extinctions of The Past

Great Extinctions of The Past 

By: Randi Mehling

Here is no advance warning. Without alarms, bells, or screams, a giant asteroid races at 40,000 miles (64,000 kilometers) per hour toward Earth. The asteroid, the length of more than 100 football fields, crashes near the Yucatán Pennisula in northern Mexico. The explosion is far greater than if every nuclear bomb in every country on the planet exploded at the same time. The meteor leaves a hole in the ground more than 150 miles (240 km) wide. Its effects are immediate and devastating. The heat from this smoldering extraterrestrial rock instantly melts sand into tiny beads of glass. The crash sets fire to plants and grinds soil and rock into powder. An immense cloud blankets the Earth, as winds carry thick dust around the planet. Earthquakes crack open the land, shoving the ocean waters in all directions. [download]

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The Paradox of Scientific Authority

The Paradox of Scientific Authority

By: Wiebe W. Bijker, Roland Bal, and Ruud Hendriks

We live in paradoxical times. Scientific advice is asked for all serious problems, whether they concern new health threats such as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) or new opportunities such as genetically modified food and crops. But as soon as advice is given, citizens, politicians, and non governmental organizations comment on, criticize, or lend additional support to the scientists’ report. The cases in which scientific advice is asked most urgently are those in which the authority of science is questioned most thoroughly. In other cases the authority of science seems unaffected by the decrease in the social esteem of the scientists, and the institution of science is often called upon in political disputes. As Peter Weingart (1999) has put it, science becomes politicized when it is called upon in political matters. [download]

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