The representation of historical change poses a challenge for Optimality Theory. On one hand, the basic tenets of Optimality Theory (Prince and Smolensky 1993) urge us to think non-derivationally about synchronic phonology. On the other hand, historical phonological change can be seen as inherently derivational — we have an input (the original form) and an output (the new form), and a mapping b...

Biodiesel is a green fuel produced from renewable resources. It is a clean-burning alternative fuel, which has drawn the attention of energy researchers for the last two decades. This paper presents an experimental investigation on Alexandrian laurel oil as a potential feedstock for biodiesel development. Biodiesel was produced using a two-step esterification–transesterification process. Analys...

Event-related potentials (ERPs) triggered by three different faces (unfamiliar, famous, and the subject's own) were analyzed during passive viewing. A familiarity effect was defined as a significant difference between the two familiar faces as opposed to the unfamiliar face. A degree of familiarity effect was defined as a significant difference between all three conditions. The results show a f...

The thesis we develop in this essay is that all humans are endowed with a moral faculty. The moral faculty enables us to produce moral judgments on the basis of the causes and consequences of actions. As an empirical research program, we follow the framework of modern linguistics. 1 The spirit of the argument dates back at least to the economist Adam Smith (1759/1976) who argued for something a...