Another Waltz? Methodological rhetoric and practice in theory of international politics

Although Theory of International Politics is a standard-bearer for explanatory theory in international relations (IR), Waltz’s methodology has been subject to numerous quite disparate analyses. One reason why it has proved hard to pin down is that too little attention has been paid to how, in practice, Waltz approaches real-world problems. Despite his neopositivist rhetoric, Waltz applies neorealism in a notably loose, even indeterminate, fashion. There is therefore a disjunction between what he says and what he does. This is partly explained by his unsatisfactory attempt to reconcile his avowed neopositivism with his belief that international politics is characterized by organized complexity. The inconsistencies thus created also help to make sense of why competing interpretations of his methodology have emerged. Some aspects of his work do point beyond these particular methodological travails in ways that will continue to be of interest to IR theorists, but its most enduring methodological lesson may be that rhetoric and practice do not necessarily fit harmoniously together.

High-throughput root phenotyping screens identify genetic loci associated with root architectural traits in Brassica napus under contrasting phosphate availabilities

Background and Aims: Phosphate (Pi) deficiency in soils is a major limiting factor for crop growth worldwide. Plant growth under low Pi conditions correlates with root architectural traits and it may therefore be possible to select these traits for crop improvement. The aim of this study was to characterize root architectural traits, and to test quantitative trait loci (QTL) associated with these traits, under low Pi (LP) and high Pi (HP) availability in Brassica napus. Methods: Root architectural traits were characterized in seedlings of a double haploid (DH) mapping population (n = 190) of B. napus 'Tapidor' x 'Ningyou 7' (TNDH) using high-throughput phenotyping methods. Primary root length (PRL), lateral root length (LRL), lateral root number (LRN), lateral root density (LRD) and biomass traits were measured 12 d post-germination in agar at LP and HP. Key Results: In general, root and biomass traits were highly correlated under LP and HP conditions. 'Ningyou 7' had greater LRL, LRN and LRD than 'Tapidor', at both LP and HP availability, but smaller PRL. A cluster of highly significant QTL for LRN, LRD and biomass traits at LP availability were identified on chromosome A03; QTL for PRL were identified on chromosomes A07 and C06. Conclusions: High-throughput phenotyping of Brassica can be used to identify root architectural traits which correlate with shoot biomass. It is feasible that these traits could be used in crop improvement strategies. The identification of QTL linked to root traits under LP and HP conditions provides further insights on the genetic basis of plant tolerance to P deficiency, and these QTL warrant further dissection.

Participatory scenarios as a tool to link science and policy on food security under climate change in East Africa

How effective are multi-stakeholder scenarios building processes to bring diverse actors together and create a policy-making tool to support sustainable development and promote food security in the developing world under climate change? The effectiveness of a participatory scenario development process highlights the importance of ‘boundary work’ that links actors and organizations involved in generating knowledge on the one hand, and practitioners and policymakers who take actions based on that knowledge on the other. This study reports on the application of criteria for effective boundary work to a multi-stakeholder scenarios process in East Africa that brought together a range of regional agriculture and food systems actors. This analysis has enabled us to evaluate the extent to which these scenarios were seen by the different actors as credible, legitimate and salient, and thus more likely to be useful. The analysis has shown gaps and opportunities for improvement on these criteria, such as the quantification of scenarios, attention to translating and communicating the results through various channels and new approaches to enable a more inclusive and diverse group of participants. We conclude that applying boundary work criteria to multi-stakeholder scenarios processes can do much to increase the likelihood of developing sustainable development and food security policies that are more appropriate.

Interaction between vitamin D receptor gene polymorphisms and 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations on metabolic and cardiovascular disease outcomes

AIM: 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25OHD) concentrations have been shown to be associated with major clinical outcomes, with a suggestion that individual risk may vary according to common genetic differences in the vitamin D receptor (VDR) gene. Hence, we tested for the interactions between two previously studied VDR polymorphisms and 25OHD on metabolic and cardiovascular disease-related outcomes in a large population-based study. METHODS: Interactions between two previously studied VDR polymorphisms (rs7968585 and rs2239179) and 25OHD concentrations on metabolic and cardiovascular disease-related outcomes such as obesity- (body mass index, waist circumference, waist-hip ratio (WHR)), cardiovascular- (systolic and diastolic blood pressure), lipid- (high- and low-density lipoprotein, triglycerides, total cholesterol), inflammatory- (C-reactive protein, fibrinogen, insulin growth factor-1, tissue plasminogen activator) and diabetes- (glycated haemoglobin) related markers were examined in the 1958 British Birth cohort (n up to 5160). Interactions between each SNP and 25OHD concentrations were assessed using linear regression and the likelihood ratio test. RESULTS: After Bonferroni correction, none of the interactions reached statistical significance except for the interaction between the VDR SNP rs2239179 and 25OHD concentrations on waist-hip ratio (WHR) (P=0.03). For every 1nmol/L higher 25OHD concentrations, the association with WHR was stronger among those with two major alleles (-4.0%, P=6.26e-24) compared to those with either one or no major alleles (-2.3%, P≤8.201e-07, for both) of the VDR SNP rs2239179. CONCLUSION: We found no evidence for VDR polymorphisms acting as major modifiers of the association between 25OHD concentrations and cardio-metabolic risk. Interaction between VDR SNP rs2239179 and 25OHD on WHR warrants further confirmation.

The spaces of the Wednesday Play (BBC TV 1964–1970): production, technology and style

The BBC television drama anthology The Wednesday Play, broadcast from 1964-70 on the BBC1 channel, was high-profile and often controversial in its time and has since been central to accounts of British television’s ‘golden age’. This article demonstrates that production technologies and methods were more diverse at that time than is now acknowledged, and that The Wednesday Play dramas drew both approving but also very critical responses from contemporary viewers and professional reviewers. This article analyses the ways that the physical spaces of production for different dramas in the series, and the different technologies of shooting and recording that were adopted in these production spaces, are associated with but do not determine aesthetic style. The adoption of single-camera location filming rather than the established production method of multi-camera studio videotaping in some of the dramas in the series has been important to The Wednesday Play’s significance, but each production method was used in different ways. The dramas drew their dramatic forms and aesthetic emphases from both theatre and cinema, as well as connecting with debates about the nature of drama for television. Institutional and regulatory frameworks such as control over staff working away from base, budgetary considerations and union agreements also impacted on decisions about how programmes were made. The article makes use of records from the BBC Written Archives Centre, as well as published scholarship. By placing The Wednesday Play in a range of overlapping historical contexts, its identity can be understood as transitional, differentiated and contested.

Large-scale fields and flows in the magnetosphere-ionosphere system

Advances in our understanding of the large-scale electric and magnetic fields in the coupled magnetosphere-ionosphere system are reviewed. The literature appearing in the period January 1991–June 1993 is sorted into 8 general areas of study. The phenomenon of substorms receives the most attention in this literature, with the location of onset being the single most discussed issue. However, if the magnetic topology in substorm phases was widely debated, less attention was paid to the relationship of convection to the substorm cycle. A significantly new consensus view of substorm expansion and recovery phases emerged, which was termed the ‘Kiruna Conjecture’ after the conference at which it gained widespread acceptance. The second largest area of interest was dayside transient events, both near the magnetopause and the ionosphere. It became apparent that these phenomena include at least two classes of events, probably due to transient reconnection bursts and sudden solar wind dynamic pressure changes. The contribution of both types of event to convection is controversial. The realisation that induction effects decouple electric fields in the magnetosphere and ionosphere, on time scales shorter than several substorm cycles, calls for broadening of the range of measurement techniques in both the ionosphere and at the magnetopause. Several new techniques were introduced including ionospheric observations which yield reconnection rate as a function of time. The magnetospheric and ionospheric behaviour due to various quasi-steady interplanetary conditions was studied using magnetic cloud events. For northward IMF conditions, reverse convection in the polar cap was found to be predominantly a summer hemisphere phenomenon and even for extremely rare prolonged southward IMF conditions, the magnetosphere was observed to oscillate through various substorm cycles rather than forming a steady-state convection bay.

ERA-Interim/Land: a global land surface reanalysis data set

ERA-Interim/Land is a global land surface reanalysis data set covering the period 1979–2010. It describes the evolution of soil moisture, soil temperature and snowpack. ERA-Interim/Land is the result of a single 32-year simulation with the latest ECMWF (European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts) land surface model driven by meteorological forcing from the ERA-Interim atmospheric reanalysis and precipitation adjustments based on monthly GPCP v2.1 (Global Precipitation Climatology Project). The horizontal resolution is about 80 km and the time frequency is 3-hourly. ERA-Interim/Land includes a number of parameterization improvements in the land surface scheme with respect to the original ERA-Interim data set, which makes it more suitable for climate studies involving land water resources. The quality of ERA-Interim/Land is assessed by comparing with ground-based and remote sensing observations. In particular, estimates of soil moisture, snow depth, surface albedo, turbulent latent and sensible fluxes, and river discharges are verified against a large number of site measurements. ERA-Interim/Land provides a global integrated and coherent estimate of soil moisture and snow water equivalent, which can also be used for the initialization of numerical weather prediction and climate models.

Memory for allergies and health foods: how younger and older adults strategically remember critical health information

Objectives. While older adults often display memory deficits, with practice they can sometimes selectively remember valuable information at the expense of less value information. We examined age-related differences and similarities in memory for health-related information under conditions where some information was critical to remember. Method. In Experiment 1, participants studied three lists of allergens, ranging in severity from 0 (not a health risk) to 10 (potentially fatal), with the instruction that it was particularly important to remember items to which a fictional relative was most severely allergic. After each list, participants received feedback regarding their recall of the high-value allergens. Experiment 2 examined memory for health benefits, presenting foods that were potentially beneficial to the relative’s immune system. Results. While younger adults exhibited better overall memory for the allergens, both age groups in Experiment 1 developed improved selectivity across the lists, with no evident age differences in severe allergen recall by List 2. Selectivity also developed in Experiment 2, although age differences for items of high health benefit were present. Discussion. The results have implications for models of selective memory in older age, and for how aging influences the ability to strategically remember important information within health-related contexts.

Heat treatment enhances the antimicrobial activity of (+)-Catechin when combined with copper sulphate

The aim of the study was to compare the antimicrobial activities of freshly-made, heat-treated (HT), and 14 d stored (+)-Catechin solutions with (+)-catechin flavanol isomers in the presence of copper sulphate. (+)-Catechin activity was investigated when combined with different ratios of Cu2+; 100°C heat treatment; autoclaving; and 14 d storage against Staphylococcus aureus. Cu2+-(+)-Catechin complexation, isomer structure-activity relationships, and H2O2 generation were also investigated. Freshly-made, HT, and 14d stored flavanols showed no activity. Whilst combined Cu2+-autoclaved (+)-Catechin and -HT(+)-Catechin activities were similar, HT(+)-Catechin was more active than either freshly-made (+)-catechin (generating more H2O2) or (-)-Epicatechin (though it generated less H2O2) or 14d-(+)-Catechin (which had similar activity to Cu2+ controls - though it generated more H2O2). When combined with Cu2+, in terms of rates of activity, HT(+)-Catechin was lower than (-)-Epigallocatechin gallate and greater than freshly-made (+)-Catechin. Freshly-made and HT(+)-Catechin formed acidic complexes with Cu2+ as indicated by pH and UV-vis measurements although pH changes did not account for antimicrobial activity. Freshly-made and HT(+)-Catechin both formed Cu2+ complexes. The HT(+)-Catechin complex generated more H2O2 which could explain its higher antimicrobial activity.

Visual processing of optic flow and motor control in the human posterior cingulate sulcus

Previous studies have shown that the human posterior cingulate contains a visual processing area selective for optic flow (CSv). However, other studies performed in both humans and monkeys have identified a somatotopic motor region at the same location (CMA). Taken together, these findings suggested the possibility that the posterior cingulate contains a single visuomotor integration region. To test this idea we used fMRI to identify both visual and motor areas of the posterior cingulate in the same brains and to test the activity of those regions during a visuomotor task. Results indicated that rather than a single visuomotor region the posterior cingulate contains adjacent but separate motor and visual regions. CSv lies in the fundus of the cingulate sulcus, while CMA lies in the dorsal bank of the sulcus, slightly superior in terms of stereotaxic coordinates. A surprising and novel finding was that activity in CSv was suppressed during the visuomotor task, despite the visual stimulus being identical to that used to localize the region. This may provide an important clue to the specific role played by this region in the utilization of optic flow to control self-motion.

A study of the chemical and physical properties of cashew nut shell ash for use in cement materials.

A study of the chemical and physical properties of cashew nut shell ash for use in cement materials. Ash occupies a prominent place among agro-industrial wastes, as it is derived from energy generation processes. Several types of ash have pozzolanic reactivity, and might be used as replacement material for cement, resulting in less energy waste and lower cost. This work aimed to investigate the physical and chemical properties of the cashew nut shell ash (CNSA), by performing the following measurement tests: chemical analysis, bulk density, specific mass, leaching and solubilization process, X-ray diffraction (XrD), specific surface area (BET) and pozzolanicity analysis with cement and lime. The results indicate a low reactivity of CNSA and the presence of heavy metals, alkalis and phenol.