Research on deliberative procedures uses normative concepts not only to justify the democratic legitimacy of these procedures but also as analytical tools to understand their empirical effects. This leads to a normativist bias in deliberation research. I argue that deliberative procedures should instead be regarded as a type of opinion-shaping social technology. I introduce a theoretical scheme that helps researchers analyze the interplay between formal and informal aspects of deliberative procedures. The usefulness of the scheme is shown in a case (...) study of the EuroPolis Deliberative Poll. (shrink)

Meiotic recombination in eukaryotic cells requires two homologs of E. coli RecA protein, Rad51 and Dmc1. Until recently, the role of Dmc1 in meiotic recombination was mostly attributed to genetic studies as purified Dmc1 was found to be a much weaker recombinase than Rad51 in the test tube. Now, Sehorn and colleagues1 have reported that, like Rad51, human Dmc1 is an efficient recombinase in vitro. Dmc1 forms helical nucleoprotein filaments—the signature of classical recombinases such as Rad51. These observations reveal a (...) high level of similitude between the Dmc1 and the Rad51 family of recombination enzymes in higher eukaryotes. BioEssays 26:1151–1155, 2004. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (shrink)

Mathematical Essays in Honor of Gian-Carlo Rota, Boston, Basel, Berlin, ... Crapo, H. (1993), On the Anick-Rota Representation of the Bracket Ring of the ...