Various Attempts (various + attempt)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


Substantial Change and Spatiotemporal Coincidence

RATIO, Issue 2 2003
E. J. Lowe
Substantial change occurs when a persisting object of some kind either begins or ceases to exist. Typically, this happens when one or more persisting objects of another kind or kinds are subjected to appropriate varieties of qualitative or relational change, as when the particles composing a lump of bronze are rearranged so as to create a statue. However, such transformations also seem to result, very often, in cases of spatiotemporal coincidence, in which two numerically distinct objects of different kinds exist in exactly the same place at the same time, such as a statue and a lump of bronze. Various attempts to resist this way of describing the results of such transformations are examined and found wanting and objections to the possibility of cases of spatiotemporal coincidence are rebutted. [source]


Radical Geography and its Critical Standpoints: Embracing the Normative

ANTIPODE, Issue 1 2009
Elizabeth Olson
Abstract:, This paper throws down a challenge to radical geography and invites a selection of leading geographers to respond. It proposes that radical or critical geography cannot escape normative foundations in terms of some conception of the human good or flourishing, and that this is not necessarily at odds with the descriptive and explanatory aims of social science. Various attempts to define and justify critical thought without such a conception are shown to be deficient, and incapable of distinguishing oppression from well-being. Objections that such a project will be subjective, ethnocentric, essentialist and implicitly authoritarian are discussed and rejected. Normative thinking needs to go beyond liberal concern with freedom, to address what Sen and Nussbaum term "capabilities",the range of things people need to be able to have and do to flourish. The power of this kind of normative thinking is illustrated by reference to examples from development studies. The paper concludes with some basic questions for radical geographers. [source]


Phenological description of natural vegetation in southern Africa using remotely-sensed vegetation data

APPLIED VEGETATION SCIENCE, Issue 1 2004
David Hoare
Abstract. Various attempts have been made to describe and map the vegetation of southern Africa with recent efforts having an increasingly ecologi cal context. Vegetation classification is usually based on vegetation physiognomy and floristic composition, but phenology is useful source of information which is rarely used, although it can contribute functional information on ecosystems. The objectives of this study were to identify a suite of variables derived from time-series NDVI data that best describe the phenological phenomena of vegetation in southern Africa and, secondly, to assess a classification of pixels of the study area based on NDVI variables using a preexisting map of the biomes that was delimited on the basis of life forms and climate. A number of variables were derived from the satellite data for describing phenological phenomena, which were analysed by multivariate techniques to determine which variables best explained the variation in the satellite data. This set of variables was used to produce a phenological classification of the vegetation of southern Africa, the results of which are discussed in relation to their concordance with the existing biome boundaries. [source]


Curing The Dutch Disease?

INTERNATIONAL SOCIAL SECURITY REVIEW, Issue 4 2000
Sickness Absence, Work Disability in The Netherlands
The purpose of the current paper is to provide an overview and evaluation, covering the past decade, of developments and experiences in the Netherlands with respect to the prevention and reduction of sickness absence and work disability. The government has made various attempts to restrict expenditure in this area by increasing the (financial) responsibility of employers. It is concluded that the legislative changes do not seem to have long-lasting effects on sickness absence and work disability rates and have not worked out in practice as well as was foreseen. Employers , particularly small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), often buy minimum service packages from occupational health services (OHSs), show risk-avoiding behaviour, and primarily undertake procedural and person-oriented measures. Some lessons may be learned from the Netherlands' approach, concerning (1) the principle of self-regulation; (2) the position of SMEs; (3) the privatizing of OHSs; (4) examples of good practice. [source]


Production of polyhydroxyalkanoates: the future green materials of choice

JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL TECHNOLOGY & BIOTECHNOLOGY, Issue 6 2010
Everest Akaraonye
Abstract Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) have recently been the focus of attention as a biodegradable and biocompatible substitute for conventional non degradable plastics. The cost of large-scale production of these polymers has inhibited its widespread use. Thus, economical, large-scale production of PHAs is currently being studied intensively. Various bacterial strains, either wild-type or recombinant have been utilized with a wide spectrum of utilizable carbon sources. New fermentation strategies have been developed for the efficient production of PHAs at high concentration and productivity. With the current advances, PHAs can now be produced to a concentration of 80 g L,1 with productivities greater than 4 g PHA L,1 h,1. These advances will further lower the production cost of PHAs and allow this family of polymers to become a leading biodegradable polymer in the near future. This review describes the properties of PHAs, their uses, the various attempts towards the production of PHAs, focusing on the utilization of cheap substrates and the development of different fermentation strategies for the production of these polymers, an essential step forward towards their widespread use. Copyright © 2010 Society of Chemical Industry [source]


Zymomonas mobilis: an alternative ethanol producer

JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL TECHNOLOGY & BIOTECHNOLOGY, Issue 4 2006
Parmjit S Panesar
Abstract Zymomonas mobilis is a unique bacterium in the microbial world, and offers a number of advantages over the existing ethanol-producing microorganisms. Being a prokaryote, it is more amenable to genetic manipulations. Thus, it has attracted great attention in the ethanol production world and efforts have been made to commercialize its application for the purpose. Despite the various efforts made worldwide, none of the processes using this microbe has been commercialized owing to certain bottlenecks. To circumvent the hindrances currently associated with a Zymomonas process, researchers have made various attempts to improve the technology using different techniques. This paper reviews the different substrates and the genetic improvement techniques with special emphasis on mutagenesis and recombinant DNA technology used for ethanol production by Zymomonas strains. Copyright © 2006 Society of Chemical Industry [source]


Scepticism about the virtue ethics approach to nursing ethics

NURSING PHILOSOPHY, Issue 3 2010
D.Phil, Stephen Holland MA (Oxon)
Abstract Nursing ethics centres on how nurses ought to respond to the moral situations that arise in their professional contexts. Nursing ethicists invoke normative approaches from moral philosophy. Specifically, it is increasingly common for nursing ethicists to apply virtue ethics to moral problems encountered by nurses. The point of this article is to argue for scepticism about this approach. First, the research question is motivated by showing that requirements on nurses such as to be kind, do not suffice to establish virtue ethics in nursing because normative rivals (such as utilitarians) can say as much; and the teleology distinctive of virtue ethics does not transpose to a professional context, such as nursing. Next, scepticism is argued for by responding to various attempts to secure a role for virtue ethics in nursing. The upshot is that virtue ethics is best left where it belongs , in personal moral life, not professional ethics , and nursing ethics is best done by taking other approaches. [source]


Russell, His Paradoxes, and Cantor's Theorem: Part II

PHILOSOPHY COMPASS (ELECTRONIC), Issue 1 2010
Kevin C. Klement
Sequel to Part I. In these articles, I describe Cantor's power-class theorem, as well as a number of logical and philosophical paradoxes that stem from it, many of which were discovered or considered (implicitly or explicitly) in Bertrand Russell's work. These include Russell's paradox of the class of all classes not members of themselves, as well as others involving properties, propositions, descriptive senses, class-intensions and equivalence classes of coextensional properties. Part II addresses Russell's own various attempts to solve these paradoxes, including strategies that he considered and rejected (limitation of size, the zigzag theory, etc.), as well as his own final views whereupon many purported entities that, if reified, lead to these contradictions, must not be genuine entities, but ,logical fictions' or ,logical constructions' instead. [source]


Mammalian cell expression, purification, crystallization and microcrystal data collection of autotaxin/ENPP2, a secreted mammalian glycoprotein

ACTA CRYSTALLOGRAPHICA SECTION F (ELECTRONIC), Issue 9 2010
Jens Hausmann
Autotaxin (ATX or ENPP2) is a secreted glycosylated mammalian enzyme that exhibits lysophospholipase D activity, hydrolyzing lysophosphatidylcholine to the signalling lipid lysophosphatidic acid. ATX is an ,100,kDa multi-domain protein encompassing two N-terminal somatomedin B-like domains, a central catalytic phosphodiesterase domain and a C-terminal nuclease-like domain. Protocols for the efficient expression of ATX from stably transfected mammalian HEK293 cells in amounts sufficient for crystallographic studies are reported. Purification resulted in protein that crystallized readily, but various attempts to grow crystals suitable in size for routine crystallographic structure determination were not successful. However, the available micrometre-thick plates diffracted X-rays beyond 2.0,Å resolution and allowed the collection of complete diffraction data to about 2.6,Å resolution. The problems encountered and the current advantages and limitations of diffraction data collection from thin crystal plates are discussed. [source]