Ahmed Midhat and Adnan Adivar on history of science and civilizations.

I analyze the contrasting visions of history of science in the works respectively of an Ottoman and a Turkish man of letters, Ahmed Midhat and Adnan Adivar, and claim that they perceived the link between science and cultural identity in different terms. Ahmed Midhat conceived of science as closely tied to its cultural matrix, whereas Adivar settled for a less holistic view. Both authors saw science as the harbinger of a new social existence, but they evaluated the prospects of this existence in rather divergent ways.

Effects of using slurry ice during transportation on the microbiological, chemical, and sensory assessments of aquacultured sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax) stored at 4 degrees C.

Slurry ice, a biphasic system consisting of small spherical ice crystals surrounded by seawater at subzero temperature, was evaluated as a new chilled storage method for whole sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax) a sparidae fish species of remarkable commercial interests. In this study two different group of chilling methods were used during transportation; in slurry ice packaged (Group A), and flake ice packaged (Group B). The effect of this advanced system during transportation on quality losses and the shelf life of aquacultured sea bass was evaluated.

The hazards of underspecified models: the case of symmetry in everyday predictions.

Should one be more confident when predicting the whole (or an event based on a larger sample) from the part (or an event based on a smaller sample) than when predicting the reverse? The relevant literature on judgment under uncertainty argues that such predictions are symmetrical but that, as an empirical matter, people often fail to appreciate this symmetry. The authors show that symmetry in prediction does not necessarily hold. In addition to an empirical study involving predictions about soccer games, they develop a theoretical model showing that, at least for the ranges of numerical values usually found in everyday judgment problems, symmetry in predictions is uncommon when 2 different sample sizes are involved.