Arginine-vasotocin and gonadal activity in the lizard,Podarcis s. sicula Raf.

Summary Arginine-vasotocine (AVT) injected into male adult lizards,Podarcis s. sicula Raf., inhibits the last phases of spermatogenesis and the endocrine activity of gonads. In female lizards the substance induces an early interruption of egg deposition.     

Noise and "pedagogic efficiency" in school activities.

A group of 8 pupils born in 1962 and a group of 8 future teachers between 25 and 40 years of age, were submitted in 1975 to two types of tests in the presence of environment noises at various levels (45 to 75 dBa), in order to assess the influence of this nuisance on the pedagogic efficiency. The results show a nocivity threshold for the pupils at around 55 dBA and for the teachers at aroung 65 dBA. Furthermore, backward pupils suffer more in this context from the interference of noise than the advanced ones.     

British Acoustics and its Transformation from the 1860s to the 1910s

Between the 1860s and the 1910s, British acoustics was transformed from an area of empirical research into a mathematically organized field. Musical motives—improving musical scales and temperaments, making better musical instruments, and understanding the nature of musical tones—were among the major driving forces of acoustical researchers in nineteenth-century Britain. The German acoustician, Helmholtz, had a major impact on British acousticians who also had extensive interactions with American and French acousticians. Rayleigh's acoustics, reflecting all these features, bore remarkable fruit in his treatise The Theory of Sound, which successfully subjected empirical acoustics to analytical mathematics. His accomplishments made British acoustics a subfield of physics, thus distinguishing it from the ‘new acoustics’ in early twentieth-century America.     

The subcommissural organ of the lizardLacerta s. sicula raf. ultrastructure during the winter

Summary The secretory activity of the SCO cells ofLacerta s.sicula Raf. is strongly reduced during the winter. Such reduction is documented by the decrease of the number of secretory granules type A and B described in previous papers in the summer SCO cells. Also the sacks of RER filled with electron-dense material (type C secretion) are very few; in their place there are, in the basal region of the cells, large vacuoles. In the distal region of the cells, at the free cell surface, a pronounced increase in the number of microvilli is noticed.     

Studies on the cytochemical localization of adenylate-cyclase activity inDugesia lugubris s.l.

Summary The localization of adenylate-cyclase activity inDugesia lugubris s.l. has been investigated cytochemically using 5-adenylyl-imidodiphosphate as substrate. The enzyme was localized in mucous gland cells, in rhabdite cells, in intercellular spaces and also in nerve endings of this planarian. The presence of adenylate-cyclase on the membrane suggests that it might mediate different stimulus-secretion coupling by increasing cyclic AMP synthesis in specialized areas of the planarian.Supported in part by a grant from Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Rome.Acknowledgments. This work was performed with the technical assistence of the laboratory of Electron Microscopy of the University of Perugia.     

On the equivalence of Goodman’s and Hempel’s paradoxes

Historically, Nelson Goodman’s paradox involving the predicates ‘grue’ and ‘bleen’ has been taken to furnish a serious blow to Carl Hempel’s theory of confirmation in particular and to purely formal theories of confirmation in general. In this paper, I argue that Goodman’s paradox is no more serious of a threat to Hempel’s theory of confirmation than is Hempel’s own paradox of the ravens. I proceed by developing a suggestion from R. D. Rosenkrantz into an argument for the conclusion that these paradoxes are, in fact, equivalent. My argument, if successful, is of both historical and philosophical interest. Goodman himself maintained that Hempel’s theory of confirmation was capable of handling the paradox of the ravens. And Hempel eventually conceded that Goodman’s paradox showed that there could be no adequate, purely syntactical theory of confirmation. The conclusion of my argument entails, by contrast, that Hempel’s theory of confirmation is incapable of handling Goodman’s paradox if and only if it is incapable of handling the paradox of the ravens. It also entails that for any adequate solution to one of these paradoxes, there is a corresponding and equally adequate solution to the other.     

Studies on the cytochemical localization of adenylate-cyclase activity in Dugesia lugubris s.I.

The localization of adenylate-cyclase activity in Dugesia lugubris s.1. has been investigated cytochemically using 5'-adenylyl-imidodiphosphate as substrate. The enzyme was localized in mucous gland cells, in rhabdite cells, in intercellular spaces and also in nerve endings of this planarian. The presence of adenylate-cyclase on the membrane suggests that it might mediate different stimulus-secretion coupling by increasing cyclic AMP synthesis in specialized areas of the planarian.     

Picturing the moon: Hevelius’s and Riccioli’s visual debate

This article investigates the maps of the moon produced in the mid-seventeenth century by Jesuit Giambattista Riccioli (1598-1671) and Johannes Hevelius (1611-1687), whose cartographic projects competed for widespread acceptance. Although Hevelius’s Selenographia (1647) was applauded for its many detailed, self-engraved pictures of the moon, his cartography and proposed nomenclature were supplanted by Riccioli’s as offered in Almagestum novum (1651), in spite of the latter’s simplistic pictures and promotion of geocentric cosmology. Exploring this paradox through pictorial analysis, three types of images common to both Selenographia and Almagestum novum are compared, employing an analytical tool developed by Svetlana Alpers in The art of describing (1983). A focus on this debate exposes the tensions evoked by new technologies of vision and competing cultures of visual epistemology in seventeenth-century astronomy. As both selenographers grappled with questions about the role of representation and what kinds of knowledge could be generated visually, the successes and failures of their competing projects present implications for the course of visual astronomy, as well as for our understanding of the use of ‘visual technologies’ in a period of controversy.     

Newton’s substance monism, distant action, and the nature of Newton’s empiricism: discussion of H. Kochiras “Gravity and Newton’s substance counting problem”

This paper is a critical response to Hylarie Kochiras’ “Gravity and Newton’s substance counting problem,” Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 40 (2009) 267-280. First, the paper argues that Kochiras conflates substances and beings; it proceeds to show that Newton is a substance monist. The paper argues that on methodological grounds Newton has adequate resources to respond to the metaphysical problems diagnosed by Kochiras. Second, the paper argues against the claim that Newton is committed to two speculative doctrines attributed to him by Kochiras and earlier Andrew Janiak: i) the passivity of matter and ii) the principle of local causation. Third, the paper argues that while Kochiras’ (and Janiak’s) arguments about Newton’s metaphysical commitments are mistaken, it qualifies the characterization of Newton as an extreme empiricist as defended by Howard Stein and Rob DiSalle. In particular, the paper shows that Newton’s empiricism was an intellectual and developmental achievement that built on non trivial speculative commitments about the nature of matter and space.