Supererogatory Spandrels

Standing in San Marco Cathedral in Venice, you immediately notice the exquisitely decorated spandrels: the triangular spaces bounded on either side by adjoining arches and by the dome above. You would be forgiven for seeing them as the starting point from which to understand the surrounding architecture. To do so would, however, be a mistake. It is a similar mistaken inference that evolutionary biologists have been accused of making in assuming a special adaptive purpose for such biological features as fingerprints and chins. I argue that a mistake of just this sort is being made by ethicists who appeal to the intrinsic value of supererogatory acts in their efforts to make space for supererogation in ethical theory. Many cases of supererogatory action are simply spandrels: by-products of uncontroversial commitments elsewhere in our moral thought. This is not to downplay their value but rather to show that their value need not be the justification for making room for the supererogatory. I demonstrate this by examining two areas: rights and the distribution of burdens among a group. My argument has significance for those who take themselves to be defends of the possibility of supererogatory actions, as well as those who are committed to the contrary and those who believe themselves to be indifferent on the matter

Changes in the Ownership and Governance of Securities Exchanges: Causes and Consequences

Over the past five years we have witnessed substantial changes in the ownership and governance structures of securities exchanges, particularly in Europe. Recent surveys indicate that a substantial majority of the world’s exchanges would like to “demutualize” in the coming years. The concept of demutualization remains a hazy one, however, along multiple dimensions: the factors that distinguish a demutualized from a mutualized exchange, the factors that motivate demutualization, and the implications of demutualization for the way in which exchanges are regulated. In seeking to clarify the meaning of demutualization, we hope as well to clarify the sources of conflict between the role of an exchange as a commercial enterprise acting in the interests of its owners and its role as a quasi-regulatory body. Government regulators around the world have expressed concern about the effect of exchange ownership and governance reforms on the ability of exchanges to meet the self-regulatory obligations devolved to them. Mutuality and self-regulation in the public interest are typically seen as going hand-in-hand. As we discuss in some detail, it is this misapprehension that lies at the heart of many concerns directed at demutualization. Regulatory failures are inevitable any time self-regulatory obligations imposed on an exchange conflict with the commercial interests of the exchange’s owners. Such commercial interests are no less powerful for a mutualized exchange than for a demutualized one.

Gradient matching methods for computational inference in mechanistic models for systems biology: a review and comparative analysis

Parameter inference in mathematical models of biological pathways, expressed as coupled ordinary differential equations (ODEs), is a challenging problem in contemporary systems biology. Conventional methods involve repeatedly solving the ODEs by numerical integration, which is computationally onerous and does not scale up to complex systems. Aimed at reducing the computational costs, new concepts based on gradient matching have recently been proposed in the computational statistics and machine learning literature. In a preliminary smoothing step, the time series data are interpolated; then, in a second step, the parameters of the ODEs are optimised so as to minimise some metric measuring the difference between the slopes of the tangents to the interpolants, and the time derivatives from the ODEs. In this way, the ODEs never have to be solved explicitly. This review provides a concise methodological overview of the current state-of-the-art methods for gradient matching in ODEs, followed by an empirical comparative evaluation based on a set of widely used and representative benchmark data

Improving the dynamics of aid : towards more predictable budget support

This paper considers approaches towards improving the predictability of aid to low income countries, with a special focus on budget support. In order to accelerate progress towards the Millennium Development Goals, the donor community is increasing aid flows while pushing for more coordination and tighter performance-based selectivity. However, these factors may increase the unpredictability of aid from current levels, which are already high enough to impose significant costs. Predictability is a particular challenge in the area of budget support, which will continue to increase in importance as aid is sought to underpin longer-term recurrent spending commitments. Budget support reduces transactions costs and drains on capacity, but it tends to be more vulnerable to fluctuations than multi-year project support. Poor predictability raises the threat of a low-level equilibrium: countries, budgeting prudently within a medium-term fiscal framework, will discount commitments; donors will see few funding gaps, so pledges will fall. With some countries discounting aid commitments in formulating budgets, some already see signs of this happening. To improve predictability, donors must extend their funding horizons. However, even if this can be done, several major issues will remainat country level. First, how can countries deal with residual short-run volatility of disbursements relative to commitments? Second, can donors lengthen commitment horizons to individual developing countries without excessive risk of misallocating aid? Third, within a country's overall aid envelope, how should donors set the shares of project aid and budget support? Finally, the paper considers the other main approach to budget support, the output or outcome-driven approach of the European Union. The paper concludes that many of these issues can be addressed. Simple spending and savings rules built around a buffer reserve fund of 2-4 months of imports can help smooth public spending. Aid can be pre-committed several years ahead with only small efficiency losses, using a strategy of"flexible pre-commitment."Guidelines can be set to limit the volatility of budget support while keeping it performance-based, and past experience can be used more systematically to develop"outcome"norms to better guide aid allocation.Development Economics&Aid Effectiveness,School Health,Economic Theory&Research,Markets and Market Access,Country Strategy&Performance

Claim your space: re-placing spaces to better meet the needs of the net generation

The challenge for the Reid Library at The University of Western Australia was the transformation of a 1960s building into a welcoming space with services and facilities appropriate for a more technologically demanding generation. A key issue was how to balance the continuing need for access to physical collections with the rapidly expanding demand for new kinds of learning spaces and facilities oriented towards on-line and collaborative learning and research. This paper outlines the approach taken to identify client needs (both physical and virtual), define and propose new service models, and transform learning spaces while maintaining access to physical collections

Adaptive optics at the WHT

The WHT is unusually well-placed for exploitation of adaptive-optics (AO) technology. The site seeing is excellent (median 0.7 arcsec), dome seeing is negligible, and preliminary studies indicate that most of the atmospheric seeing originates in a well-defined layer at low altitude, which bodes well for future laser-guide-star AO. The Durham group have built up extensive experience with natural-guide-star adaptive-optics experiments at the GHRIL Nasmyth focus, and the NAOMI common-user AO facility is due to be commissioned at this focus early in 2000. NAOMI will provide near-diffraction-limited imaging in the IR (Strehl ~ 0.6, FWHM ~ 0.15 arcsec in K) and is expected to give significant correction in the optical (poorer Strehl, but similar FWHM). NAOMI will perform better at short wavelengths than AO systems on other telescopes, and observers will require instrumentation that can exploit this crucial advantage.Comment: 5 pages, from `Instrumentation at the ING - the next decade' (Sheffield 1999), accepted for publication in New Astronomy Review

Hidden symmetry in the presence of fluxes

We derive the most general first order symmetry operator for the Dirac equation coupled to arbitrary fluxes. Such an operator is given in terms of an inhomogenous form omega which is a solution to a coupled system of first order partial differential equations which we call the generalized conformal Killing-Yano system. Except trivial fluxes, solutions of this system are subject to additional constraints. We discuss various special cases of physical interest. In particular, we demonstrate that in the case of a Dirac operator coupled to the skew symmetric torsion and U(1) field, the system of generalized conformal Killing-Yano equations decouples into the homogenous conformal Killing-Yano equations with torsion introduced in [arXiv:0905.0722] and the symmetry operator is essentially the one derived in [arXiv:1002.3616]. We also discuss the Dirac field coupled to a scalar potential and in the presence of 5-form and 7-form fluxes.Comment: 13 pages, no figure

To You

This poem is a collection of dedications to poems that did not quite articulate the true feelings of the author. The dedications capture a loss of words and an inability to say the “right thing” to student affairs. This poem speaks to more than just the field of student affairs; it speaks to anyone who is in need of hope. To you