There is growing evidence that the somewhat apocalyptic nature of the commentary on page 1 164 is being considered most seriously by the present administration in the United States and by most of the other nations in the world. John Cairns, the titular spokesperson for ecology in Environmental Health Perspectives since the inception of the monthly journal in April 1993, delivers a tough message...

The essay concentrates on a master narrative strategy presiding over the early emergence of modernity in the area in which contemporary Romania is situated. This narrative strategy richly illustrates the neoByzantine survival strategies of the Greek elites who ruled the Danubian Principalities (Moldova and Valahia) during the earlier stages of Romanian modernization (18th century). Early modem ...

Parental separation has been linked to increased likelihood of reporting psychological distress in adulthood, but relatively little is known about how this association may have changed over time. One hypothesis is that as the experience of separation has become more common, the association with psychological distress will reduce (the ‘reduced effect’ hypothesis). Previous evidence using the Bri...

Mitigation of collapses of structural systems caused by a strong earthquake shaking is crucial to reduce the potential casualties, injuries and economic losses. Hence, accurate risk assessment of structural collapse under seismic excitations is critical in efforts to promote hazard-resilience of the society. This paper summarizes the authors’ recent efforts for accurate prediction of structural...

Dudley and McFee • Special Communication T terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, demonstrated that the United States is no longer isolated from a dangerous world or protected by its geography. Oceans and borders can be readily crossed, making the United States as vulnerable as other nations to acts of terrorism. International unrest and terrorism have become all too familiar to Americans. Al...

In recent years prominent intellectuals have raised ethical concerns about the consequences of artificial intelligence. One concern is that an autonomous agent might modify itself to become ”superintelligent” and, in supremely effective pursuit of poorly specified goals, destroy all of humanity. This paper considers and rejects the possibility of this outcome. We argue that this scenario depend...

We show how to specify an elliptic curve public key, RSA public key and DSA public key all in a single 2048 bit block. The method gives a wide choice of nite elds and curves for use in the ECC system and introduces no known security weaknesses. The method hence allows algorithm type to be decided at run time, rather than at the time the public keys are distributed. However, this is done without...

Population and development generally refers to the study of the consequences of population trends on socioeconomic development, human welfare, and the natural environment. Although there is a long tradition of scholarship on the consequences of population trends, beginning with Malthus, contemporary research on population and development lacks a dominant paradigm and a cumulative research tradi...

Severe forms of protein–energy malnutrition still occur, but they are associated most commonly with devastating natural disasters and civil unrest. With the exception of sub-Saharan Africa, progress in combating chronic undernutrition is also occurring. The prevalence of vitamin and mineral deficiencies has also declined in nearly all countries, although the pace is slow for some micronutrient ...