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1
Brandes, William F. A feasibility study of assumption of the federal Section 404 program by the state of Tennessee. Knoxville: University of Tennessee, 1985.
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2
Virginia. Department of Environmental Quality. Study of the costs and benefits of state assumption of the federal [section] 404 Clean Water Act permitting program: A report to the honorable Robert F. McDonnell, Governor and the General Assembly of Virginia. Richmond: Commonwealth of Virginia, 2013.
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Waters, Minnesota Division of. State of Minnesota federal Section 404 assumption feasibility study as pursuant to United States Environmental Protection Agency agreement, U.S. EPA grant number x-814966-01-0, federal catalog number 66-505. [St. Paul, Minn.]: Minnesota Dept. of Natural Resources, Division of Waters, 1989.
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4
Samset, Knut, and Gro Holst Volden. Quality Assurance in Megaproject Management. Edited by Bent Flyvbjerg. Oxford University Press, 2017. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198732242.013.17.
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This chapter discusses the Norwegian governance regime for public megaprojects and the lessons learned. Governance regimes for major public investment projects comprise the processes and systems which the financing party must implement to ensure a successful investment. Such regimes typically include a regulatory framework, compliance with agreed objectives, and sound management and resolution of issues that may arise. The challenges in securing quality at entry include identification of a conceptual solution that is economically viable and relevant with respect to the needs and often conflicting priorities in society, avoiding underestimating costs, overestimating utility and making unrealistic and inconsistent assumptions, and securing essential planning data and adequate contract regimes. The Norwegian regime involves external quality assurance of key decision documents, and has given the government greater control over the total cost of its investment project portfolio. It also ensures that decisions regarding the choice of conceptual solution are based on a broad assessment of overall needs and goals, as well as alternative ways of achieving these goals.
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United States. Bureau of Reclamation. Mid-Pacific Regional Office., CH2M Hill inc, and Jones & Stokes Associates., eds. Technical appendix B for the water contracting EISs: Assumptions and criteria utilized in the operations, power, temperature, and water quality models. [Sacramento? Calif.]: U.S. Dept. of the Interior, Bureau of Reclamation, Mid-Pacific Region, 1988.
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6
Lindsay, Keisha. In a Classroom of Their Own. University of Illinois Press, 2018. http://dx.doi.org/10.5622/illinois/9780252041730.001.0001.
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Many supporters of all-black male schools (ABMS) argue that they reduce black boys’ exposure to racist, “overly” feminized teachers. In casting black boys as victims of intersecting racial and gendered oppression, these supporters -- many of whom are black males -- demand an end to racism in the classroom and do so on the sexist assumption that women teachers are emasculating. This rationale for ABMS raises two questions that feminist theory has lost sight of. Why do oppressed groups articulate their experience in ways that challenge and reproduce inequality? Is it possible to build emancipatory political coalitions among groups who make such claims? This book answers these questions by articulating a new politics of experience. It begins by demonstrating that intersectionality is a politically fluid rather than an always feminist analytical framework. It also reveals a dialectical reality in which groups’ experiential claims rest on harmful assumptions and foster emancipatory demands. This book concludes that black male supporters of single-gender schools for black boys can build worthwhile coalitions around this complex reality when they interrogate their own as well as their critics’ assumptions and demands. Doing so enables these supporters to engage in educational advocacy that recognizes the value of public schools while criticizing the quality of such schools available to black boys and black girls.
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Duffy, Brooke Erin. Off the Page. University of Illinois Press, 2017. http://dx.doi.org/10.5406/illinois/9780252037962.003.0007.
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This chapter examines the explicit conventions and implicit assumptions of magazine producers about medium-specific content. It first considers the complexities of media convergence before discussing the tension between medium-specific cultures and the rhetoric of cross-platform branding in women's magazines, leading to theoretical and conceptual questions about medium identity. It then describes how producers' working patterns and assumptions vary across different media (web, magazine, and iPad) in three significant ways: the importance of the editorial voice, quality standards for editorial content, and expectations about the extent of advertiser influence on content. It also highlights the distinctions between print and online; tablet devices, for example, are being positioned as a tool that can elide medium-specific challenges while also serving as a test bed for advertising/editorial relations within digital environments. The chapter suggests that magazine content does not appear to easily flow off the printed page, but goes through many crosscurrents.
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Hemmelgarn, Anthony L., and Charles Glisson. Case Examples Illustrating the Importance of Social Contexts in Human Service Organizations. Oxford University Press, 2018. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190455286.003.0002.
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This chapter provides case examples from the authors’ work within human service organizations that illustrate the importance of addressing OSCs: including culture, climate, and worker attitudes. These examples of the influence of OSC provide the reader with an understanding of how social contexts affect human services quality and outcomes along with implications for improving them. The chapter explains the sensitivity of human service effectiveness to OSC and describes the social processes that explain its influence. Case examples are used to illustrate the influence of shared mindsets and worker attitudes within OSCs. These examples include the influence of shared beliefs, assumptions, and attitudes of service providers on client and staff relationships that affect services quality.
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Bennett, D. Scott. Teaching the Scientific Study of International Processes. Oxford University Press, 2017. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190846626.013.314.
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The Scientific Study of International Processes (SSIP) is an approach aimed at teaching of international politics scientifically. Teaching scientifically means teaching students how to use evidence to support or disprove some particular logical argument or hypothesis that reaches some level of generalization about relationships between concepts. Closely related to simply asking what evidence there is, is teaching students to address the breadth, depth, and quality of that evidence. The scientific approach may also draw attention to the logic of arguments and policies. Are policies, positions, and the arguments behind them logical? Or is some policy or position based on assumptions that are not logically related, or only true if certain auxiliary assumptions hold true? Teaching methods for SSIP include comparative case studies, experiments and surveys, data sets, and game theory and simulation. Instructors also face several challenges when seeking to teach scientifically, and in particular when they try to make time to teach methodology as part of an international politics course. Some problems are relatively easily overcome just by focusing on effective teaching. Other are unique to SSIP and cannot be dealt with quite so easily. Among these are the need to appeal to a broad audience, and dealing with students' negative reactions to the term “science” and the constraint of finite time in a course.
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Luke, Douglas A., Alexandra B. Morshed, Virginia R. McKay, and Todd B. Combs. Systems Science Methods in Dissemination and Implementation Research. Oxford University Press, 2017. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190683214.003.0010.
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As we have seen, numerous analysis and modeling tools that take into account the natural complexity of systems and dissemination and implementation processes are available, and the use of them is increasing over time. This chapter summarizes the characteristics, potential insights, and limitations of each modeling approach. It is important to note that modeling from a systems perspective, like all modeling approaches, requires assumptions about variables to include (or exclude), and hypothesized relationships dictate the quality of the model and the utility of the results. As such, using theory and empirical data to inform model design is paramount. Systems thinking and methods remain underutilized in dissemination and implementation despite demonstrations of the utility of incorporating systems thinking and methods into dissemination and implementation studies.
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Lenard, Patti Tamara, and David Miller. Trust and National Identity. Edited by Eric M. Uslaner. Oxford University Press, 2017. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190274801.013.36.
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This article examines evidence from social psychology and comparative social science on the trust-related effects of having a national identity. The starting hypothesis is that identities provide a foundation for extending trust by permitting those who share them to make assumptions about the motivations and intentions of others. The discussion in the article establishes that this hypothesis is empirically supported, and examines the trust-related effects of national identities in particular. We are attentive to the strength and quality of these identities, which correlate with how inclusive or exclusive they are. We then propose that public policy steers national identities in a culturally civic direction, emphasizing elements that are accessible to newcomers and minorities and downplaying those that are not.
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Reichmann, Werner. The Interactional Foundations of Economic Forecasting. Oxford University Press, 2018. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198820802.003.0005.
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How do economic forecasters produce legitimate and credible predictions of the economic future, despite most of the economy being transmutable and indeterminate? Using data from a case study of economic forecasting institutes in Germany, this chapter argues that the production of credible economic futures depends on an epistemic process embedded in various forms of interaction. This interactional foundation—through ‘foretalk’ and ‘epistemic participation’ in networks of internal and external interlocutors—sharpens economic forecasts in three ways. First, it brings to light new imaginaries of the economic future, allowing forecasters to spot emerging developments they would otherwise have missed. Second, it ensures the forecasts’ social legitimacy. And finally, it increases the forecasts’ epistemic quality by providing decentralized information about the intentions and assumptions of key economic and political actors.
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Abellan, Jose Maria, Carmen Herrero, and Jose Luis Pinto. QALY-Based Cost-Effectiveness Analysis. Edited by Matthew D. Adler and Marc Fleurbaey. Oxford University Press, 2016. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199325818.013.8.
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This chapter introduces the main ideas about the use of quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) in the evaluation of health policies. It starts by explaining the theoretical underpinnings of the QALY model understood as individual utilities. Afterward, it reviews the empirical evidence about the descriptive validity of the main assumptions supporting the model. Then, it explains the main preference elicitation techniques (visual analog scale, time trade-off, and standard gamble). It also shows the practical psychological problems faced by these techniques, such as the existence of context-dependent preferences. The chapter ends by explaining how QALYs are used in priority setting, in particular, the rules governing resources allocation decisions using QALYs, the ethical implications of these rules, and the relationship between cost-benefit analysis and cost-effectiveness analysis.
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Manning, David. Anglican Religious Societies, Organizations, and Missions. Oxford University Press, 2017. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780199644636.003.0022.
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This chapter provides the first critical survey of those societies that worked under the rubric of the Church of England over the course of its ‘long eighteenth century’. Transcending a scholarly focus on the voluntary quality of such groups and challenging more general assumptions about the supposedly areligious nature of ‘enlightened’ sociability and learning, it shows how the Church of England revitalized its authority by utilizing extra-parochial societies to reconstitute its relationship with its national and international communion. As a reference work, the chapter seeks to inform the general reader whilst guiding specialists towards new lines of enquiry. But its insights into societies such as the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge underscore the extent to which ‘Anglican religious societies’ actively shaped the wider history of the English-speaking world.
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Martin, Jeffrey J. Quality of Life. Oxford University Press, 2017. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190638054.003.0029.
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People with disabilities report having a wide range of quality of life. Quality of life is typically determined by life satisfaction, and negative and positive affect. Although people with disabilities face many individual, social, and environmental challenges, they often express a good to excellent quality of life. Having a good quality of life, despite these many challenges, is known as the disability paradox. Similarly, the erroneous assumption by many able-bodied people that individuals with disabilities must have terrible lives is also part of the disability paradox. The purpose of this chapter is to examine research showing how exercise can be an important vehicle to enhance quality of life. An overview of quality of life theories, concepts, measurement, and definitions is presented, followed by a review of the research and the mechanisms behind the association between physical activity and quality of life. For instance, feelings of mastery, increased functional fitness, enhanced social support from group and partner exercise, and biological mechanisms are all plausible mechanisms undergirding the salubrious effects of physical activity.
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Olsen, Jan Abel. What makes the market for healthcare different? Oxford University Press, 2017. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198794837.003.0003.
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The market for healthcare is different from ‘ordinary markets’ for two quite different reasons: first, there are inherent failures in the market for healthcare which create inefficiencies if left unregulated. Second, a large number of countries have a policy objective of equity in access to needed health services, in line with the World Health Organization’s ambition of universal health coverage. This chapter investigates the efficiency reasons for public regulations, explaining what makes healthcare different. The assumptions behind the perfect market model are compared with the real-world imperfect market for healthcare. Asymmetric information between the provider and the consumer calls for protection of healthcare users, through quality control and ethical codes of conduct. The chapter explains the agency relationship between doctors and patients. Another important market failure is that of externalities in healthcare consumption, which calls for various types of regulations.
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Hemmelgarn, Anthony L., and Charles Glisson. The Role of Mental Models in Organizational Change. Oxford University Press, 2018. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190455286.003.0008.
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This chapter describes ARC’s third strategy of employing mental models. This strategy fosters reasoning and thinking that reinforces the use of ARC’s organizational components and that maintains alignment with ARC’s five principles of effective service organizations. Reasoning and thinking are reflected in the mental representations of work experiences service providers hold, and these mental models guide priorities followed when providing services. Case examples are provided to illustrate work with mental models to influence organizational members’ thinking, reasoning, and subsequent actions to improve service quality and outcomes. This chapter reviews the empirical evidence for mental models, including research from social cognition and neuroscience. The description of this strategy highlights several activities and techniques used to explore and alter mental models. These activities foster examination of implicit assumptions and beliefs that help drive reasoning and thinking toward or away from ARC’s key organizational principles, tools, and desired OSCs.
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Robinson, John W., Joshua J. Lounsberry, and Lauren M. Walker. Communicating about sexuality in cancer care. Oxford University Press, 2017. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/med/9780198736134.003.0043.
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Extensive research has shown that cancer, and the treatment thereof, can interfere with healthy sexual functioning. Indeed, sexual dysfunction is frequently cited as one of the top adverse effects of cancer treatment. However, while healthcare professionals routinely discuss quality-of-life issues with cancer patients, the literature suggest that too often this does not include an assessment of sexual concerns. This chapter explains how the responsibility to initiate discussion on sexuality rests with the healthcare professional. Establishing the sexuality information needs of the cancer patient can sometimes be difficult and it becomes more so when healthcare professionals make erroneous assumptions concerning sexuality. Whether or not to assess sexuality is no longer a question, it must be a routine part of cancer care. While there are several different intervention models for patients suffering from sexual difficulties, the PLISSIT model is frequently used in cancer centres and easily adapted to various types of practice.
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Chasiotis, Athanasios. The developmental role of experience-based metacognition for cultural diversity in executive function, motivation, and mindreading. Oxford University Press, 2018. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198789710.003.0007.
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How children obtain an understanding of mental states in others—“mindreading” or “theory of mind” (ToM)—during their cognitive development is a major concern in developmental psychology. There is also much debate about and empirical research on the developmental relationship between ToM and the set of processes that monitor and control thoughts and actions, i.e., executive functioning (EF). Until recently, little was known about the cross-cultural variation of both concepts. This chapter presents empirical findings on these concepts and takes a metacognitive perspective to clarify their relationship. A series of cross-cultural studies have been undertaken to specify the relationship between EF and ToM by verifying assumptions about the quality of conflict inhibition necessary for the development of ToM’s key aspect, false-belief understanding. The main argument is that an experience-based view of the metacognitive mechanisms involved might give a more parsimonious explanation of their relationship and their cultural variations.
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Kabay, Sarah. Access, Quality, and the Global Learning Crisis. Oxford University Press, 2021. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780192896865.001.0001.
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Around the world, 250 million children cannot read, write, or perform basic mathematics. They represent almost 40 percent of all primary school-aged children. This situation has come to be called the “Global Learning Crisis,” and it is one of the most critical challenges facing the world today. Work to address this situation depends on how it is understood. Typically, the Global Learning Crisis and efforts to improve primary education are defined in relation to two terms: access and quality. This book is focused on the connection between them. In a mixed-methods case study, this book provides detailed, contextualized analysis of Ugandan primary education. As one of the first countries in sub-Saharan Africa to enact dramatic and far-reaching primary education policy, Uganda serves as a compelling case study. With both quantitative and qualitative data from over 400 Ugandan schools and communities, the book analyzes grade repetition, private primary schools, and school fees, viewing each issue as an illustration of the connection between access to education and education quality. This analysis finds evidence of a positive association, challenging a key assumption that there is a trade-off or disconnect between efforts to improve access to education and efforts to improve education quality. The book concludes that embracing the complexity of education systems and focusing on dynamics where improvements in access and quality can be mutually reinforcing can be a new approach for improving basic education in contexts around the world.
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Alexandrova, Anna. A Philosophy for the Science of Well-Being. Oxford University Press, 2017. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780199300518.001.0001.
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Well-being, happiness, and quality of life are now established objects of social and medical research. Does this science produce knowledge that is properly about well-being? What sort of well-being? The definition and measurement of these objects rest on assumptions that are partly normative, partly empirical, and partly pragmatic, producing a great diversity of definitions depending on the project and the discipline. This book, written from the perspective of philosophy of science, formulates principles for the responsible production and interpretation of this diverse knowledge. Traditionally, a philosopher’s goal has been a single concept of well-being and a single theory about what it consists in. But for science this goal is both unlikely and unnecessary. Instead the promise and authority of the science depends on it focusing on the well-being of specific kinds of people in specific contexts. Sceptical arguments notwithstanding, this contextual well-being can be measured in a valid and credible way—but only if scientists broaden their methods to make room for normative considerations and address publicly and inclusively the value-based conflicts that inevitably arise when a measure of well-being is adopted. The science of well-being can be normative, empirical, and objective all at once, provided that we line up values to science and science to values.
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Ashton, David, Caroline Lloyd, and Chris Warhurst. Business Strategies and Skills. Edited by John Buchanan, David Finegold, Ken Mayhew, and Chris Warhurst. Oxford University Press, 2017. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199655366.013.15.
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This chapter examines the link between business strategies and skill in the context of the the latter being regarded as key to economic growth and competitive advantage. A high-skilled workforce is viewed both as a driver of this approach and one of its outcomes. A number of countries have attempted to create more high-skilled jobs through raising the qualification levels of their workforces. The idea behind this supply-side intervention is that a high-skilled workforce will attract businesses that wish to or already do compete on quality and/or innovation or will encourage existing organisations to make better use of these skills and improve organisational performance. The problem is increasing evidence of growing levels of over-qualification amongst these workforces as too few high skilled jobs are created. Moreover many firms have remained successful operating with low skilled jobs competing on cost. Drawing on existing research, this chapter explores these developments and issues. It starts by making an important contextual distinction between skill levels and skill use, how they feature in firm business strategies, and their relevance to governments, employers and employees. It then presents the two key theories of skill and business strategies: the HRM Approach and the Institutional/Comparative Approaches. Questioning the determinism of these approaches, the chapter then seeks to move debate beyond assumptions of direct relationships between strategy and skill. The conclusion presents an alternative approach to developing the relationship between business strategies and skill that incorporates managerial agency.
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Willumsen, David M. Theoretical Framework. Oxford University Press, 2017. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198805434.003.0002.
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This chapter sets out the theoretical framework of the book, and develops the hypotheses to be tested. It argues that the attitudes of MPs to party unity will be shaped by the career, electoral, and other political incentives they face, and so reflect the extent to which MPs’ experiences of the expectation to maintain party unity is positive or negative. It then develops three measurements of policy incentives to dissent in floor votes in multiparty legislatures, each corresponding to a different assumption about how MPs approach floor voting. Further, the chapter discusses the case selection and the quality of the data used in the book.
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Bianchi, Marcello, Carmine Di Noia, and Matteo Gargantini. The EU Securities Law Framework for SMEs. Oxford University Press, 2018. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198815815.003.0014.
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This chapter claims that the current EU securities and financial law falls short of delivering a satisfactory equilibrium between investor protection and limitation of issuer costs and may squeeze too many firms out of the market for both debt and equity capital. Based on the assumption that market participants are sometimes better suited to deciding how best to protect their own interests, the chapter submits a set of proposals largely based on optional rules that, we believe, could improve the quality of EU regulation. In contrast with the current regime, those options would be available irrespective of the trading venue where the relevant SME securities are traded, but they should also be allocated in a way that ensures sufficient standardization exists when needed. Matters covered by our proposal include takeovers, major shareholding disclosure, corporate governance statements, ongoing issuer disclosure duties, and prospectuses.
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Schmidt, Christoph, ed. Viability of Alternative Online News Media Organizations in Developing and Transformation Countries. Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, 2019. http://dx.doi.org/10.5771/9783845292045.
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Media development cooperation is based on the assumption that free and independent media are a precondition for good governance and thus the effective functioning of democratic societies. In order to holistically approach the area of media development a concept that combines media sustainability and journalistic quality is needed – this call laid the foundation for the concept of media viability. This publication is one of the firsts that reveals general characteristics that shape, enhance and restrict media viability of online news organizations in developing countries and economies in transition. Further, the comparative approach serves to highlight the challenges and chances alternative online news media face with regard to media viability in the developing world and thus is a first step in the search for clues on how to best promote media viability. This analysis focuses on five countries within different world regions: Ecuador, Uganda, Cambodia, Ukraine and Tunisia.
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Piatkowski, Marcin. What Black Death was to Western Europe, Communism was to Central and Eastern Europe. Oxford University Press, 2018. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198789345.003.0004.
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I argue in this chapter that despite its ultimate social, economic, and moral bankruptcy, communism imposed on Poland after 1945 sowed the seeds of the country’s economic success after 1989. The old, feudal social structures were bulldozed to snap Poland out of growth-inhibiting extractive society equilibrium, creating a classless society, boosting social mobility, and securing good quality of education for all. Forced industrialization and unprecedented labour movements supported solid GDP growth rates in Poland until the 1960s, but low returns on investment, lack of technological progress, and external shocks caused declining growth rates in the 1970s, and economic stagnation in the 1980s. I conclude that the assumption that if Poland had returned to capitalism after 1945, it would have developed as quickly as the West, is simplistic. I show that a capitalist Poland would have faced significant challenges to growth, and convergence with the West would not have been guaranteed.
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Suganami, Hidemi. Hedley Bull and The Anarchical Society Now at 40. Oxford University Press, 2017. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198779605.003.0001.
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A text can be read critically to uncover assumptions and judgements setting a broad limit to what its author can coherently present as its main thesis. But it is also possible to identify spaces in the text’s architecture to manoeuvre it out of its apparent encasement. The Anarchical Society, now at 40, requires, and enables, both these kinds of engagement because of its relatively narrow basis and focus and its aging effects, combined with Bull’s well-known tendency to carefully qualify everything he asserts. There may be more we can read into or out of his book than its central focus, the ‘international society’ perspective. The contributors to this collection, from a variety of backgrounds in their intellectual orientations, academic specializations, and educational, professional, and other life experiences, collectively exhibit wide-ranging ways in which Bull’s text can be approached, as outlined in this introductory essay.
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Casey, Patricia. Treatment of adjustment disorders (DRAFT). Oxford University Press, 2018. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/med/9780198786214.003.0007.
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There are few randomized controlled studies of the treatment of AD. This is due to the transience of the symptoms, the difficulty obtaining a homogeneous population owing to the absence of diagnostic criteria, and the variable nature of the stressor, among others. Clinical guidelines specify that brief psychological interventions are preferred, and these incorporate elements from the many approaches now available on the assumption that their mechanism of action will also be effective in AD. Few have been tested specifically in AD. Low-intensity therapies specific to AD are being developed, such as biblio-therapy and online self-help. Pharmacological interventions have not been tested in quality trials, but despite this, antidepressants continue to be frequently prescribed. A few trials of anxiolytics have found some benefit for all the agents examined, but none used placebo. EMDR was found to be beneficial in a small pilot study and is worthy of further study.
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Başoğlu, Metin. Definition of Torture in US Law. Edited by Metin Başoğlu. Oxford University Press, 2017. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/med/9780199374625.003.0013.
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In the light of the US Senate Intelligence Committee Report on the Central Intelligence Agency’s detention and interrogation program confirming the use of “enhanced interrogation techniques” to induce “learned helplessness” in detainees, this chapter reviews the scientific basis for the US definition of torture and its interpretation in the “Torture Memos.” These memoranda clearly indicate that “enhanced interrogation techniques” are designed for use in combination with specific intent to induce learned helplessness. Abundant research evidence shows that learned helplessness is mental harm that is severe enough to qualify as torture even by US standards. Although the US definition of torture seems to create potential loopholes for impunity, it suffers from certain logical inconsistencies, scientifically unfounded assumptions, and perhaps even “loopholes” that may well render legal cover for use of “enhanced interrogation techniques” difficult, if not impossible—at least not possible in a way that can be justified by logical reasoning or scientific evidence.
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Clarke, Andrew. The Metabolic Theory of Ecology. Oxford University Press, 2017. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780199551668.003.0012.
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The model of West, Brown & Enquist (WBE) is built on the assumption that the metabolic rate of cells is determined by the architecture of the vascular network that supplies them with oxygen and nutrients. For a fractal-like network, and assuming that evolution has minimised cardiovascular costs, the WBE model predicts that s=metabolism should scale with mass with an exponent, b, of 0.75 at infinite size, and ~ 0.8 at realistic larger sizes. Scaling exponents ~ 0.75 for standard or resting metabolic rate are observed widely, but far from universally, including in some invertebrates with cardiovascular systems very different from that assumed in the WBE model. Data for field metabolic rate in vertebrates typically exhibit b ~ 0.8, which matches the WBE prediction. Addition of a simple Boltzmann factor to capture the effects of body temperature on metabolic rate yields the central equation of the Metabolic Theory of Ecology (MTE). The MTE has become an important strand in ecology, and the WBE model is the most widely accepted physical explanation for the scaling of metabolic rate with body mass. Capturing the effect of temperature through a Boltzmann factor is a useful statistical description but too simple to qualify as a complete physical theory of thermal ecology.