Despite comprehensive reform (Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act) and recent review (Phillips Review in 2007) of party finance in Britain, public opinion of party finance remains plagued by perceptions of corruption, undue influence from wealthy donors, carefree and wasteful spending and, more generally, from the perception that there is just ‘too much money’ in politics. In this ...

odels of bilateral contracting, such as the canonical holdup model, typically assume that third parties are not available. Given this assumption, the equilibrium outcome is not first-best efficient if contracts can be renegotiated. To be more specific, suppose an architect and a builder must cooperate to build a building. The quality of the building will depend on three things: the quality of t...

—We analyzed diff erences in wing morphology between sexes and among age classes of Western Sandpipers (Calidris mauri) to assess possible relationships with diff erential migration, acrobatic aerial displays, and potential vulnerability to predation, using size-constrained component analysis. Data on wing morphology of all four sex and age classes were available from birds spending the nonbree...

Knives, birds' wings, and mountain slopes are used for certain purposes: cutting, flying, and climbing. A bird's wings have in common with knives that they have been 'designed' for the purpose they serve, which purpose accounts for their existence, whereas mountain slopes have come about by geological processes independently of their uses for climbing. A bird's wings differ from a knife in that...

Scientists long thought they knew what the wings of early birds looked like. But new reconstructions of Archaeopteryx and its kin suggest quite different feather arrangements on their wings with profound implications for the evolution of flight.

Hummingbirds are the only birds that can sustain hovering. This unique flight behaviour comes, however, at high energetic cost. Based on helicopter and aeroplane design theory, we expect that hummingbird wing aspect ratio (AR), which ranges from about 3.0 to 4.5, determines aerodynamic efficacy. Previous quasi-steady experiments with a wing spinner set-up provide no support for this prediction....

For a century, researchers have used the standard lift coefficient C(L) to evaluate the lift, L, generated by fixed wings over an area S against dynamic pressure, ½ρv(2), where v is the effective velocity of the wing. Because the lift coefficient was developed initially for fixed wings in steady flow, its application to other lifting systems requires either simplifying assumptions or complex ad...

Natural and anthropogenic static electric fields are commonly found in the environment and can have both beneficial and harmful effects on many animals. Here, we asked how the fruitfly responds to these fields and what the consequences of exposure are on the levels of biogenic amines in the brain. When given a choice in a Y-tube bioassay Drosophila avoided electric fields, and the greater the f...

A high quality Keck spectrum of the Hα line in NGC 4395 reveals symmetric exponential wings, fv ∝ e, with σ ≃ 500 km s. The wings extend out to > ∼ 2500 km s from the line core, and down to a flux density of < ∼ 10 of the peak flux density. Numerical and analytic calculations indicate that exponential wings are expected for optically thin, isotropic, thermal electron scattering. Such scattering...

By Aditi Kannan, M.S. Washington State University May 2009 Chair: Karen Killinger Poultry is a known source of foodborne pathogens; therefore, processing interventions to reduce pathogens are critical. Washington mobile poultry slaughter operators wanted to identify an antimicrobial rinse alternative to chlorine to assist with product organic labeling and increase consumer appeal. Lab and field...