Revisiting the ‘Reformed Objection’ to Natural Theology

In the present paper I address two significant and prevalent errors concerning to natural theology within the Reformed theological tradition. First, contrary to Alvin Plantinga, I argue that the idea of properly basic theistic belief has not motivated or otherwise grounded opposition to natural theology within the Reformed tradition. There is, in fact, a Reformed endorsement of natural theology grounded in the notion that theistic belief can be properly basic. Secondly, I argue that late nineteenth- and twentieth-century Reformed criticisms of natural theology do not constitute an objection to natural theology as such but rather an objection to natural theology construed in a particular way. I explore the nature of this objection and its compatibility with an alternative understanding of natural theology

Where the Wild Wind Blows: Genetically Altered Seed and Neighboring Farmers

In March 2001, agro-business giant Monsanto won a victory in Canadian Federal Court over Saskatchewan farmer Percy Schmeiser. This case sets international precedent for appropriated seed cases and illustrates the primary concerns American courts must face as they consider Monsanto\u27s prosecution of 22 cases against American farmers

Strategic logic of elite purges in dictatorships

Why do some leaders eliminate rivals from authoritarian regimes and therefore diminish elites' capabilities to remove them via coups, while others do not? By examining both dictators' incentives and opportunities to weaken regime elites, I show that dictators are more likely to eliminate rivals when elites' capabilities to oust dictators via coup is temporarily low. Thus, somewhat paradoxically, my theory predicts that dictators are more likely to weaken elites' capabilities as the threat of coup decreases rather than when coup risk is high. Furthermore, I argue that successful coups that put new dictators in power temporarily diminish elites' capabilities to remove dictators and, thus, provide a window of opportunity for the dictators to take steps to consolidate power. Empirical results using a new dataset on purges of militaries from 1969 to 2003 provide strong evidence for my hypotheses

Coup risk, coup-proofing strategy and leader survival

Under what conditions do political leaders take strategies that allow them to reduce militaries' capabilities to successfully organize a coup? There is a broad consensus among previous studies that political leaders who face a high risk of coup will employ "coup-proofing" strategies. A closer look at their theory and empirical analyses, however, suggests that the presumed relationship between coup risk and coup-proofing should be reexamined. Drawing on insights from formal studies on authoritarian power-sharing, this article proposes that political leaders are less likely to undertake coup-proofing efforts as the coup risk they face increases because militaries can deter leaders from weakening them by threatening a coup. The statistical models in this article estimate a latent coup risk by properly aggregating multiple indicators that capture militaries' willingness and ability to organize a coup. The empirical results strongly support the proposition: Coup-proofing efforts taken by leaders decrease in coup risk

Military purges and the recurrence of civil conflict

Literature on coup-proofing often suggests that such activities reduce military effectiveness, which could provide an environment ripe for civil conflict. However, if coupproofing is so dangerous, why do we observe leaders engaging in these strategies? We argue that a specific type of coup-proofing–purges–deters domestic unrest by demonstrating the strength of the regime via the removal of powerful but undesirable individuals from office. The strategic and intentional nature of purges signals to opposition forces that the regime is capable of not only identifying its enemies but also eliminating these threats. Furthermore, the removal of high-profile officers often leads to their elimination from forums in which they could join existing rebel groups or mount new resistance to the regime, additionally decreasing the risk of renewed fighting. We use original data on military purges in non-democracies from 1969-2003 to assess quantitatively how this type of coup-proofing activity affects the likelihood of civil conflict recurrence. We find support for our expectation that military purges of high-ranking officials do in fact help the regime to avoid further civil conflict. Purges appear to provide real benefits to dictators seeking to preserve stability, at least in post-conflict environments

The causes and outcomes of coup during civil war

Though approximately one in four coup attempts takes place during an ongoing civil war, scholars have not yet analyzed how the incidence of civil war affects coup attempts and outcomes. We conduct the first empirical analysis of the relationship between ongoing civil war and coup activity, finding (1) war increases the risk of a coup attempt, though (2) war-time coup attempts are significantly less likely to be successful, and (3) the risk of war-time coup is much higher when states face stronger rebel groups that pose greater threats to the political survival of the incumbent government. We attribute these findings to the pernicious effect of ongoing war on the welfare of the military elites and soldiers who have the greatest capacity to execute a coup attempt. As war diminishes their welfare and creates uncertainty about the future of the state, potential plotters become more willing to accept riskier coup attempts than they might plot during peace-time. Coup motivations are greatest when incumbents are more likely to lose their wars, and this causes coup plotters to attempt more and riskier coups when rebels are relatively strong

Evaluation of Phosphate Ion-Selective Membranes for Real-time Soil Nutrient Sensing

A real-time soil nutrient sensor would allow the efficient collection of data with a fine spatial resolution, to accurately characterize within-field variability for site-specific nutrient application. Our goal was to evaluate the applicability of a phosphate membrane to the measurement of phosphate levels in soil extractants and to determine how previously developed nitrate and potassium membranes would be affected by the presence of phosphate. A type of PVC-based phosphate membrane containing an organotin compound, bis(p-chlorobenzyl)tin dichloride, was evaluated, along with the nitrate and potassium membranes, in pH 7 Tris buffer solution and Kelowna soil extractant for sensitivity and long-term stability. The phosphate membranes in the Tris buffer solution of pH 7 exhibited a response over a range of 10-5 to 10-1 mol/L phosphate concentrations with an average slope of -28.2 +1.5 mV per activity decade of dibasic phosphate. The response speed of tested electrodes containing phosphate, nitrate and potassium membranes was rapid, reaching an equilibrium response in less than 15 s. However, the phosphate membrane in the Kelowna solution of pH 8.5 was almost insensitive to different phosphate levels from 10-6 to 10-2 mol/L due to the presence of a high concentration of fluoride in the solution. In addition, the tin compound-based phosphate membranes had limited lifetimes of less than 14 days. It is not expected that the tested phosphate membranes could be used for phosphate detection in other soil extractants, such as Bray P1 and Mehlich III solutions, because they also contain high concentrations of fluoride

Evaluation of Phosphate Ion-Selective Membranes and Cobalt-Based Electrodes for Soil Nutrient Sensing

A real-time soil nutrient sensor would allow efficient collection of data with a fine spatial resolution to accurately characterize within-field variability for site-specific nutrient application. Ion-selective electrodes are promising candidates because they have rapid response, directly measure the analyte, and are small and portable. Our goal was to investigate the ability of three different phosphate ion-selective electrodes (two fabricated with organotin compound-based PVC membranes, and one fabricated from a cobalt rod) used in conjunction with Kelowna soil extractant to determine phosphorus over the typical range of soil concentrations. Electrodes using organotin compound-based PVC membranes containing bis(p-chlorobenzyl)tin dichloride as an ionophore exhibited sensitive responses to HPO42- over a range of 10-4 to 10-1 mol/L in Tris buffer at pH 7. They were nearly insensitive to phosphate when using Kelowna soil extractant as the base solution, perhaps because of the high concentration of fluoride (0.015 mol/L) in the Kelowna solution. In addition, the life of the membranes was less than 14 days. Electrodes using another tin-compound-based PVC membrane containing tributyltin chloride as an ionophore also provided unsatisfactory results, showing much less sensitivity to H2PO4- than previously reported. The cobalt rod-based electrodes exhibited sensitive responses to H2PO4- over a range from 10-5 to 10-1 mol/L total phosphate concentration with a detection limit of 10-5 mol/L in the Kelowna solution. This detection range would encompass the typical range of soil phosphorus concentrations measured in agricultural fields. The selectivity of the cobalt electrodes was satisfactory for measuring phosphates in the presence of each of six interfering ions, i.e., HCO3-, Cl -, Br -, NO3-, Ac -, and F -, with the electrodes being 47 to 1072 times more responsive to phosphate than to the tested interfering ions

Statistical and Neural Methods for Site-Specific Yield Prediction

Understanding the relationships between yield and soil properties and topographic characteristics is of critical importance in precision agriculture. A necessary first step is to identify techniques to reliably quantify the relationships between soil and topographic characteristics and crop yield. Stepwise multiple linear regression (SMLR), projection pursuit regression (PPR), and several types of supervised feed–forward neural networks were investigated in an attempt to identify methods able to relate soil properties and grain yields on a point–by–point basis within ten individual site–years. To avoid overfitting, evaluations were based on predictive ability using a 5–fold cross–validation technique. The neural techniques consistently outperformed both SMLR and PPR and provided minimal prediction errors in every site–year. However, in site–years with relatively fewer observations and in site–years where a single, overriding factor was not apparent, the improvements achieved by neural networks over both SMLR and PPR were small. A second phase of the experiment involved estimation of crop yield across multiple site–years by including climatological data. The ten site–years of data were appended with climatological variables, and prediction errors were computed. The results showed that significant overfitting had occurred and indicated that a much larger number of climatologically unique site–years would be required in this type of analysis

Environmental Implications of Increased Bioenergy Production on Midwest Soil Landscapes [abstract]

Only abstract of poster available.Track III: Energy InfrastructurePrairie soil landscapes encompass over 16 million acres in Missouri and surrounding states. Much of this area has been degraded by erosion but is still used for grain production. Erosion has caused variable topsoil depth within fields which in turn has resulted in greater within-field variability of crop yield, magnified the drought-prone nature of these soils, and lowered the overall soil productivity and ecosystem function. In recent years, pressure on these sensitive soils has risen due to higher demand for grain production, in part for ethanol and biodiesel. In some areas, highly erodible fields which were historically managed as CRP and pasture are being turned into grain crop acres. Thus as new and fluctuating feed and bioenergy markets develop, land management practices will also shift, resulting in changes in soil and water quality of watersheds. This presentation will explore the likely environmental implications of different types of bioenergy production on the soil resource. Further, the positive benefits of potential changes in land use will be in explored. For example, one alternative for sensitive soils is production of perennial grass as a feedstock for coal co-burning plants and for potential future use in cellulosic ethanol production. Perennial grass yields are likely to be less variable than grain yields, both year-to-year and within fields, primarily because of greater resistance to drought. Grass production systems also provide environmental services not obtained from annual grain crops. We will also discuss our work on developing ways to target the most appropriate places in the landscape for grain or perennial production so as to enhance ecosystem services and improve soil and water quality