Massimo Pigliucci
Science, Religion and Culture
...ovement (2013). Here I endeavor to counter Stenger’s note and highlight several of the ways in which it goes astray. To begin with, however, let me summarize the main points of my earlier paper....
Keith Ward
Science, Religion and Culture
...ew (‘Philosophy is dead’, he announces on p. 13, even though the whole book is an exercise in scientifically informed philosophy). But there is something very odd about this. Nowhere in the book does he mention consciousness, value, or thought. In fact he finally gives the game away on p. 228 by saying, ‘we human beings ...are ourselves mere collections of fundamental particles’. That is a philosophical view if ever there was one! It is...
Joseph Andrew Bracken
Metaphysics for a World in Evolution
... nature. Their aim is to deal, not with things in themselves (the Kantian noumena) but with their empirical manifestation (Kantian phenomena) via tentative hypotheses subject to empirical verification. In the humanities, there is deep suspicion of so-called “meta-narratives” that offer a comprehensive vision of reality on the grounds that their authors are consciously or unconsciously trying to control the thinking and behavior of others. Yet, as C...
David N. Livingstone, Dealing with Darwin. Place, Politics, and Rhetoric in Religious Engagements with Evolution, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2014, 265 pp., ISBN 13: 978-1-4214-1326-6
Reviewed by Francisco J. Ayala, University Professor & Donald Bren Professor of Biological Sciences, University of California, Irvine, email: fjayala@uci.edu
Science, Religion and Culture
Stephen Kershnar
...jections to its central ideas. In particular, I argue that Metz fails to show that there is meaning in life and that, even if there is, his theory likely fails to capture it....
H. Bruce Rinker
...synthesis of scientific ideas around the 17th century CE marked the emergence of modern science that later accelerated especially with the emergence of ecology and evolutionary thinking. However, the strict determinism and mechanistic assumptions inherent in the physical sciences delayed unification and, thereby, contributed inadvertently to the present-day scourges of fragmentation such as human-accelerated climate change and biodepletion. A philosophia prima...
Mark Zelcer
...osely connected chapters dealing with a plethora of interesting themes, the book is principally a polemic against inserting metaphysical assumptions into mathematics, science, and religion. The book focuses on the metaphysical worldviews of philosophers, scientists, mathematicians, and religious thinkers. Though for reasons I elaborate on later, I would not recommend this to experts in those fields, but rather to non-professionals....
Michael R. Molnar
...room for widely varying ideas. As the Star involves Christian faith, there are valid suspicions that some explanations may have taken liberties to support religious beliefs. That idea is central to one of the more recent publications on this subject. Aaron Adair promotes his book, “The Star of Bethlehem: A Skeptical View,” with the claim that no one can ex- plain the Star. The Star, he says, has no historical bas...
Simon Mwangi Kihu1*, George Chege Gitao1, Lily Caroline Bebora1, Njenga Munene John1, Gidraph Gachunga Wairire2, Ndichu Maingi1, Raphael Githaiga Wahome1, Davis Njuguna Karanja1, Julius Otieno Oyugi3, Ernest Lutomia3
...ted nostrils and finally death. Clinical outcome, gross lesions and histological observations were suggestive of PPRV infection, which were confirmed by the application of a reverse transcription–polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). Collectively, results indicate the continuous persistence of PPRV in Kenya....
Yashab Tur
Science, Religion and Culture, Vol. 2, Iss. 2
...ccompanied by a host of ideas about the emergence and propagation of life on earth which, to the lay believer, seemed outright un-Godly. Marwa Elshakry, now an Associate Professor of History at Columbia University, explores the encounter of the Arab world with these and many other Western technologies and ideas in her wide-ranging Reading Darwin in Arabic through a panoramic lens, which then zooms in to focus on specific ind...
Thomas J. Coleman III
Science, Religion and Culture, Vol. 2, Iss. 2, Pages 39-41
...laim to the man and his ideas, or at least they have often appropriated him in this fashion. However, J. David Pleins’s book The Evolving God endeavors us to carefully rethink this position, as he attempts to reclaim Darwin from the grasp of the New Atheists by charging him with uncovering “[t]he truth about religion.
...
Muhammad Zahid1*, Muhammad Salman2, Shah Alam Khan2, Alamzeb1, Inamullah Khan1
...%) and Swat (40.73%). Bordeaux mixture treatment applied to tree trunks was very effective in reducing the borer infestation during dormant season. After pruning orchards, Nurelle-D 505EC and Triazofos 40EC @ 75ml of each proved to be the best toxicants, which showed synergistic effect in Bordeaux mixture (Copper oxychloride 75g + Lime 3kg + water 10L) in reducing borer infestation (exit holes/ gum points) in the month of Ja...
Hai-Bo Wang, Qiu-Hua Mo, Ze Yang*
Hina Fatima1*, Muhammad Azeem Khan2
...gulation is also needed, dealers often sell fake seed varieties which discourages, the production and use of the original seed, and also the technological development....
Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi
...cial origins, conscious ideals, beliefs, and psychological traits. The findings regarding religiosity have been striking. Academics, especially eminent ones, turn out to be quite irreligious. This is especially striking for academics in the United States, where a culture which is manifestly the most devout among First World nations has produced a sub-culture, which is a mirror image of itself. How can we explain the secularity of academics? Research indicates ...
Amanda Schutz
...essfully raise children, deal with death and heartache, and build communities—basically, how they carry on without supernatural guidance....
Guoyi Li1, Haiyan Tong1, Jiansheng Chen2, Jinliang Wei2, Xiaoming Zhao2, Guoping Zhang2, Zixue Shi2*
E-mail | shizixue@gmail.com
... extensive study of this deadly disease....
Rick Repetti
...hrough conception, life, death, and the after-life, and thus is capable of preservation in alternate bodies. Thus, God could have created us as better beings in a better world, exhibiting grace and avoiding imperfection. Thus, (b) cannot support God’s satisficing. I entertain an objection that God could create souls whose identities vary with their bodies, but reply that He could create souls whose identities do not vary trans-corporeally....
Rehmat Ullah1*, Muhammad Zafarullah Khan1 and Kalim Ullah2
...re information was input dealers followed by Model Farm Services Center. The top learned skills by respondents in MFSC were the agronomic practices whereas there was big gap in horticultural practices. Major constraints identified were less machinery utilization duration, complication in machinery booking process, costly rental prices, out-dated machinery, preference of progressive farmers, no timely availability of Inputs, unviability of crop specific machine...
Behzad Hussain1, 2, Abdullah Iqbal2, Muhammad Abubakar2*
...er (CCHF) is an emerging deadly viral disease in Pakistan and is becoming endemic in many regions. The first case of CCHF was reported in 1976 in Rawalpindi and after that, multiple sporadic cases and outbreaks have occurred in subsequent years and till today. CCHF outbreaks have a case fatality rate of up to 40%, which is alarming. It is a zoonotic disease and the virus is transmitted mainly to the humans through hard tick bite and direct contact with blood o...
Mohammed A. Rohaim1*, Rania F. El Naggar2, Ahmed M. Helal3, Hussein Ahmed Hussein1 and Neil LeBlanc4
...yping, based on the mean death time (86 hours) in eggs and the intracerebral pathogenicity index (1.2), and the amino acid motif, (112KRQKR116), at the cleavage site of the fusion (F) protein indicated the emergence of PPMV-1 in Egypt. Phylogenetic analysis of the F and haemagglutinin-neuraminidase (HN) genes indicated that the isolate clustered with the PPMV-1 strains recently reported from Israel within subgenotype VIb. Our findings report the emergence of P...
Ian von Hegner
...s. The basic democratic idea posits that all of its members have a full and equal status. If this status is generalized to be universally applicable, then it follows that humankind likewise are not second and first class among hypothetical gods. The existence or nonexistence of the gods is here defined as the secondary question, whereas the principal acceptance of hypothetical gods’ right to rule in a democratic context with respect to concepts of freedo...
Mehreen Zaidullah and Hina Fatima
...07-08. Quadratic Almost Ideal Demand System (QUAIDS) is employed to estimate the budget shares and test for these shifts. The results confirm for the significance of the quadratic variables in the model except for the Oils’ group. The presence of these shifts have been proved in Pakistan and hence there are other factors as well like urbanization that causing these shifts in food demand, apart from the changes in expenditures and the relative prices. Hen...
Irfan Ullah and Abbas Ullah Jan
...near Approximate Almost Ideal Demand System model is used to estimate food demand patterns using the Household Integrated Economic Survey of Pakistan for the year 2011-12. Food products are categorized into fourteen groups including milk, meat, fruits, vegetables, sugar, beverages, wheat and wheat flour, rice, other cereals, pulses, oil and fats, tea and coffee, backed products and other food. Economic factors such as food commodities price and household&rsquo...
Atul Sharma, Aruna Chandra Singh, Gautam Bacher, Sunil Bhand
...ation, which makes them ideal candidates for development of new biosensing applications for detection of specific target molecules. In the present review, we concentrate on the recent advances in the development of aptasensors for antibiotics residue analysis based on electrochemical signal generation. Aptamers possesses the strong potential as receptors for the development of biosensors for antibiotics detection; therefore, a specially designed aptamer specif...
Ambreena Hafiz1, Tanzeela Riaz2 and Farah Rauf Shakoori1*
...sceptible population. To deal with stressful condition of exposure to deltamethrin, the insect utilizes its energy reserves to meet the energy requirement of enhanced metabolic activity....
Mostafa A. Abdel-Maksoud1,2, Fathy A. Abdel-Ghaffar2, Azza El-Amir2, Gamal Badr3 and Saleh Al-Quraishy1*
...increased apoptotic cell death in splenic tissue of infected mice. Moreover, infection with live P. chabaudi was accompanied with an increase in NO, H2O2, and MDA levels in splenic tissue of lupus mice in comparison to either control or gamma irradiated P. chabaudi- infected group. Our data reveal that infection of lupus mice with live P. chabaudi has several effects on the splenic tissue on the histological and biochemical levels. Parasite irradiation with ga...
Imed Ben Salem*, Aymen Ben Ibrahim, M’barek Chetoui and Said Nouira
...ican rodents. This study deals with morphs-genetic analysis of eight species viz. Lemniscomys barbarus, L. bellieri, L. griselda, L. limulus, L. macculus, L. rosalia, L. striatus and L. zebra; which have practically similar external morphologies although they spread in completely different geographical areas. The approach adopted was to identify landmarks on the skulls of all specimens using the tpsDig software, and then analyzing them through the program Morp...
Muhammad Shafiq and Tahir Maqsood
... fertilizer B. For this idea, B adsorption isotherm of the soil was developed at the Institute of Soil and Environmental Sciences, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, during 2013-14. Adsorption procedure was done by harmonizing 2.5g soil in 0.01M CaCl2 solution having diverse B doses (0, 0.01, 0.03 , 0.05 , 0.07, 0.09, 0.11, 0.13,0.15 and 0.17 mg B L-1). Freundlich and Langmuir adsorption models were applied to the data to check the sorption of B on sandy c...
Fukuan Du1,2, Yan Li2, Zhixin Wen1, Ruguo Chen1 and Pao Xu2*
...ese genetic markers are ideal molecular markers for the following investigating genetic diversity, constructing genetic maps, and marker assisted selection....
Muhammad Shahzad Ahmed and Dilnawaz Ahmed Gardezi
...to five clusters at Euclidean distance (ED) 7. Cluster analysis revealed that the members of clusters I, cluster III and Cluster V diverse genotypes that should be utilised to initiate breeding program. The genotype HSF-242 was the outlier at ED 8. Out of twenty genotypes tested only five (S-03-US-694, S-05-FSD-307, S-05-FSD-317, S-08-FSD-23 and S-08-FSD-19) are responded flowering and viable fuzz production at new site. More germplasm need to be evaluated for...
Gökhan Kuş1,*, Hatice Mehtap Kutlu2, Djanan Vejselova2 and Emre Comlekci3
... ability to promote cell death in tumor cells when produced endogenously in the cells or applied exogenously. Ceramidases, which are main component of ceramide pathway catalyze metabolism of proapoptotic ceramide to anti-apoptotic sphingosine and other fatty acids. In this study we have evaluated the pro-apoptotic effect of ceranib-2, a human ceramidase inhibitor and of a short-chain C2 ceramide on human lung adenocarcinoma cells, A549 by determining cytotoxic...
Lingtong Ye1, Chao Cao1,2, Bin Tang1,2, Tuo Yao1, Ruixuan Wang1 and Jiangyong Wang1*
...ith Boccardia proboscidea). The intraspecific genetic distances of polydorids examined in the present study ranged from 0.33% to 1.67%, whereas the interspecific distances ranged from 18.88% to 24.79%. Such large barcoding gaps between intra- and inter-specific distances indicate that the COI is a suitable gene marker for molecular identification of polydorid species. Our results demonstrate that not only did all COI sequences from the larvae show great...
Muhammad Afzal1,Naveeda Akhtar Qureshi1,*, Khalid Zamir Rasib2 and Irfan Hussain1
Pinar Oztopcu-Vatan1, Gokhan Kus2, Emine Inan3, Melek Gunindi Korkut3, Selda Kabadere4,* and Ruhi Uyar4
... common causes of cancer death. We tested whether licofelone, an inhibitor of both cyclooxygenase and lipoxygenase pathways of arachidonic acid metabolism, changes the survival rate and induces apoptosis in a hepatoma cell line (H4IIE). We determined in vitro survival rate with MTT assay, the morphological changes with an inverted microscope, apoptosis using flow cytometry and statistical significance with one way analysis of variance followed by Tukey&...
Fermín Lopez-Uriostegui1, Jesús T. Ponce-Palafox2,*, Fabiola Lango-Reynoso1, María del Refugio Castañeda-Chavez1, Virgilio Eugenio Arenas-Fuentes3 and Fernando Vega-Villasante4
...etion rhythms of the caridean shrimp M. americanum and M. tenellum in caged-pond system were studied. A total of 120 caridean shrimp (60 M. americanum and 60 M. tenellum) had their stomach repletion analysis. Samples were taken four-hly over a 24 h cycle. In general it was found that stomach repletion index showed both species feed 24 h, but forage activity differs in intensity in the two species....
Eman M. Farghaly1, Ahmed Samy1,2*, Heba Roshdy
...ntly healthy and freshly dead quails respectively. Bacterial isolation and characterization were performed in accordance with the clinical laboratory standards and confirmed by PCR. In life birds, only E.coli and Salmonella could be recovered from Cloacal swabs, while in freshly dead birds all four pathogens disseminated in various organs with higher incidence of mixed compared to single infection. Different serotypes of E.c...
Cansu Akbulut1,*, Tuğba Kotil2, Burcu Öztürk1 and Nazan Deniz Yön1
...ger paraptotic type cell death in zebrafish ovary.
...
Riffat Sultana*, Waheed Ali Panhwar and Muhammad Saeed Wagan
... 22 genera of Tettigonioidea is provided, with figures, from Pakistan.
...
Xiang Nong1,2,3,*, Yao-jun Yang1,2, Guang-you Yang3, Feng-zheng Chen2, Mei Tang1,2 and Gang Wang2
...phenomenon, that is, the dead state of mites treated with stigmasterol was similar to that of mites of the positive control group treated with fenvalerate. Furthermore, the dead state of mites treated with stigmasterol was different from that of mites of the negative control group. This result confirmed the insecticidal activity of stigmasterol. We conducted a thorough research on the insecticidal molecular mechanism of stig...
Nirbhay Kushwaha, Achuit K Singh, Brotati Chattopadhyay and Supriya Chakraborty
Recent advances in geminivirus detection and future perspectives
... tropics, which provide ideal conditions for the perpetuation of viruses and the insect-vector. Despite concerted efforts to contain begomoviruses and their vectors, menacing disease epidemics caused by newly emerging or reemerging begomoviruses are becoming frequent and appearing even in new regions, previously free from such diseases. Techniques for geminivirus detection include biological indexing, electron microscopy, antibody-based detection, including EL...
Basudeb Dasgupta, Partha Dutta and Srikanta Das
Biological control of foot rot of betelvine (Piper betle L.) caused by Phytophthora parasitica Dastur
... quarterly intervals. Bordeaux mixture (BM) was used to compare the treatments in preventing the intensity of foot rot. The results revealed that minimum foot rot disease occurred where four drenching and eight sprayings of BM at monthly and fortnightly intervals respectively were applied in the 1st year. In the 2nd year, the minimum foot rot disease was recorded in the treatment where four applications of the Trichoderma preparation ha-1 at quarterly interval...
K.N. Ahmed , M.A. Al-Helal, N-E-P. Khanom, S. Bulbul
Control strategies of papaya mealybug, Paracoccus marginatus Williams & Willink infesting vegetable crops in Bangladesh
...mulation of honeydew and death of the host plants. Heavy infestation is capable of making fruits inedible due to the deposition of thick white waxy material by this mealybug. Five biopesticides i.e., tobacco medicine (100 %), tobacco leaf extract (20 % ), mehgoni seed oil (5 % ), castor seed oil (5 % ) and neem seed oil (5 % ) were used to assess their effects on the mortality of P. marginatus . It is evident that tobacco medicine exerted the best result in te...
A. Regupathy and R. Ayyasamy
Initiatives of papain industry by private-public-farmer link-ages in classical biocontrol program for papaya mealybug in Tamil Nadu
...tion of insecticides and dearth of labour for application of insecticides made it difficult for the farmers to maintain the crop and forced many farmers to even abandon papaya crop cultivation altogether. Considering the drastic reduction in the wet latex supply, SPFP has taken up series of initiatives which are summarized in this paper. Initially, a survey made in more than 80 farmers holdings supplying wet latex to the industry to get the first hand informat...
M.A. Pendse, P.P. Karwande and M.N. Limaye
Past, present and future of nematophagous fungi as bio-agent to control plant parasitic nematodes
...ll as probable causes of death. The review traces the shift in the areas of research as well as ups and downs in the interest shown by the researchers. Guide lines for organized, coordinated research to i) screen different strains of NF that are tolerant to antagonism by other fungi, and ii) develop a bioagent based on nematophagous fungi which will show consistent success for the controlling of phytonematodes are also suggested....
Shrinivas Mudigoudra and Shekharappa
Evaluation of plant products aganist sorghum shoot fly, Atherigona soccata Rondani
...0.40egg/plant), per cent dead heart (14.97%) and maximum grain yield of 13.22 q.ha-1 among different plant products. The next best plant product was found to be V. negundo @ 5% in recording less incidence of shoot fly and obtaining higher grain yield. However, both the treatments were found next best only to carbofuran 3 G....
Sadia Munir1a, Asif Nadeem1a*, Maryam Javed1, Masroor Ellahi Babar2, Tanveer Hussain2, Wasim Shehzad1, Rajput Zahid Iqbal3 and Sidra Manzoor1
...ar level i.e. an ideal tool for marker-assisted selection of animals for future breeding programs.
...
1Sitesh Chatterjee, 1Chirasree Gangopadhyay and 2Santosh Kumar Roy
...-field. The incidence of dead heart incidence was found lowest in chlorantraniliprole granule when applied in seedbed followed by spraying of chlorantraniliprole in the main-field or chlorantraniliprole granule application. Chlorantraniliprole granule application along with spraying of same chemical provided the best result against white heads due to stem borer followed by chlorantraniliprole granule application in seedbed or the same granular application in t...
Naimat Ullah Khan1,2, Muhammad Hassan Saleem1, Aneela Zameer Durrani1, Nisar Ahmad3, Ayesha Hassan1, Sultan Ayaz2, Sajid Umar4, Muhammad Luqman Sohail5,*, Muhammad Shafee6, Ikramullah Khan7, Mumtaz Ali Khan1, Azmat Ullah Khan8, Naimat Ullah Malik1 and Abdul Razzaq9
...ies, causing millions of deaths each year. This study was designed to estimate the zoonotic potential of Cryptosporidium in three districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK), i.e. Bannu, Lakki Marwat and Kohat. For this purpose 360 stool samples were collected from the District Headquarter Hospitals of all the three districts and were screened through microscopy. Results yielded an overall prevalence of 11.11%, with significant difference (P<0.05) a...
Yun Wang1,*, Lei Guan1, Jiding Chen1, Yaping Kong1, Lang Si2 and Asif Shah3
... at least be 1500m, and ideally, it should be 2500m.
...
Muhammad Ashfaq,1 Shamim Akhtar,2 Saleem Akhtar2,* and Mariyam Masood2
...erparasitoid, Promuscidea unfasciativentris Girault (Hymenoptera: Aphelinidae: Eriaporinae). Traditionally the detection of hyperparasitoid is done by host-rearing, but that is time-consuming when working with field populations at larger scale. The current study used morphology and DNA sequences from mitochondrial (cytochrome oxidase I) and nuclear (internal transcribed spacer I) genes to identify the hyperparasitoid Promusci...
Noor Islam1, Muhammad Amjad2, Ehsan ul Haq3, Elizabeth Stephen1 and Falak Naz4
... worker brood, number of dead/fallen mites per hive/weekon white formica sheet, percent mite mortality and honey yield per colony was determined before and after the treatments in the experimental colonies. The results revealed that formic acid and the highest concentrations (100%) of tested essential oils caused effective control of Tropilaelaps mites, whereas the infestation reduction percentage with formic acid, lemongrass, thyme, lemon, basil and or...
Muhammad Zafarullah Khan
...ed necessary in order to deal with farmers where a wide range of variations exists in their personalities and habits. A significant difference was reported in required and possessed competencies of preparing training schedules regarding crops followed by timely appointment and issuance of duties to junior staff for effective and efficient work. Results of the study reported that there is utmost need of training in competencies regarding identification of input...
Ali Karabacak1, Senol Celik2, Adile Tatliyer3, Ismail Keskin1, Yakup Erdal Erturk4, Ecevit Eyduran5, Yasir Javed6 and Mohammad Masood Tariq7,*
...reas only CHAID was the ideal tree-based algorithm in the estimation of BW trait. In conclusion, the determination of the best data mining algorithm on the estimation of BW and CCW traits might be utility for further researches linked with characterization of sheep breeds, and sheep breeding in very large flocks.
...
Kulsoom Akhter1, Tahseen Ghous1,2,Saiqa Andleeb3,*, Faiz-ul-Hassan Nasim4, Samina Ejaz5, Zain-ul-Abdin1, Bilal Ahmed Khan1 and Muhammed Naeem Ahmed1
...tify;">The present study deals with isolation, identification and characterization of some indigenous heavy metal resistant bacteria isolated from rhizosphere of Tagetes minuta, growing in soil adjoining automobile workshops to investigate their bioaccumulation capacity for three selected metals Cr(VI), Ni(II) and Cd(II). The plant was selected due to its natural abundance in the climate of Kashmir and also in the area of study. On the basis of morpholo...
Muhammad Amin1*, Khalid Mahmood2, Imran Bodlah3, Muhammad Rahim Khan2
Muhammad Zafarullah Khan*, Shah Saud Ahmad and Asif Nawaz
...ypsum from the concerned dealers. It is concluded that there was a gap in invitation of farmers for general body meeting and participation in elections by FSC members. FSC administration did not fulfill its obligation regarding provision of vegetable seed to its members resultantly they purchased seeds from the open market. Due to effective services of FSCs, farmers were inclined towards the cultivation of vegetables on larger areas and hence achieved signific...
Shantanu Jha1, A. Rama Devi1, Ngalaton Kasar1 and Abhishek Mukherjee2
Umair Talib1*, Ijaz Ashraf1, Khalid Mahmood Chaudhary1, Riaz Ahmad2
...n credit acquisition and dealing with them. Performance of private sector is very poor in provision of information about innovative technologies to farmers. Analysis of satisfaction of farmers with public and private sectors show that farmers are not completely satisfied with extension package of either sector. Therefore, the new strategy proposes changes in working order of both sectors in order to enhance the extension work in the Punjab.
... 
