There is no doubt that vitamin D plays a crucial role in the maintenance of musculoskeletal system. But the function of this ancient molecule presumably ranges far beyond hormone-like regulation, as it could be generated by simple unicellular organisms. First, we are going to discuss the role of vitamin D as a global regulator of homeostasis from a historical perspective, but later we will focu...

Yet the Renaissance was more than a "rebirth." It was also an age of new discoveries, both geographical (exploration of the New World) and intellectual. Both kinds of discovery resulted in changes of tremendous importance for Western civilization. In science, for example, Copernicus (1473-1543) attempted to prove that the sun rather than the earth was at the center of the planetary system, thus...

The academic study of sovereignty is undergoing a mini-renaissance. Stimulated by criticisms of classical conceptions of sovereignty in systemic theories of politics, scholars returned to sovereignty as a topic of inquiry in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Their studies are finally bearing fruit. This essay focuses on the new conceptions of sovereignty that are emerging and (1) discusses the fu...

I n the 1950 edition of the Kncyclopedia of Educational Research, H J Oito wrote, "compulsory homework does not result in suffi ciently improved academic accom plishments to justify retention" (Otto 1950, p 380) Eighteen years later, PR Wildman went a step further, stating that "whenever homework crowds out Sr recreation, and creative activities, and whenever it usurps...