Counterfactuals and Explanatory Pluralism

Recent literature on non-causal explanation raises the question as to whether explanatory monism, the thesis that all explanations submit to the same analysis, is true. The leading monist proposal holds that all explanations support change-relating counterfactuals. We provide several objections to this monist position. 1Introduction2Change-Relating Monism's Three Problems3Dependency and Monism: Unhappy Together4Another Challenge: Counterfactual Incidentalism4.1High-grade necessity4.2Unity in diversity5Conclusio

Counterfactuals and Explanatory Pluralism

Recent literature on noncausal explanation raises the question as to whether explanatory monism, the thesis that all explanations submit to the same analysis, is true. The leading monist proposal holds that all explanations support change-relating counterfactuals. We provide several objections to this monist position

Counterfactuals and Explanatory Pluralism

Recent literature on noncausal explanation raises the question as to whether explanatory monism, the thesis that all explanations submit to the same analysis, is true. The leading monist proposal holds that all explanations support change-relating counterfactuals. We provide several objections to this monist position

River-aquifer interactions in a semiarid environment investigated using point and reach measurements

A critical hydrological process is the interaction between rivers and aquifers. However, accurately determining this interaction from one method alone is difficult. At a point, the water exchange in the riverbed can be determined using temperature variations over depth. Over the river reach, differential gauging can be used to determine averaged losses or gains. This study combines these two methods and applies them to a 34 km reach of a semiarid river in eastern Australia under highly transient conditions. It is found that high and low river flows translate into high and low riverbed Darcy fluxes, and that these are strongly losing during high flows, and only slightly losing or gaining for low flows. The spatial variability in riverbed Darcy fluxes may be explained by riverbed heterogeneity, with higher variability at greater spatial scales. Although the river-aquifer gradient is the main driver of riverbed Darcy flux at high flows, considerable uncertainty in both the flux magnitude and direction estimates were found during low flows. The reach-scale results demonstrate that high-flow events account for 64% of the reach loss (or 43% if overbank events are excluded) despite occurring only 11% of the time. By examining the relationship between total flow volume, river stage and duration for in-channel flows, we find the loss ratio (flow loss/total flow) can be greater for smaller flows than larger flows with similar duration. Implications of the study for the modeling and management of connected water resources are also discussed. Key Points Losing riverbed fluxes under high flows and approximately neutral under low flows Event driven riverbed fluxes dominate reach losses Smaller events can have higher loss ratio than larger event

Children behind bars: the lived experiences of adult children with incarcerated parents

This study aims to magnify the lived experiences of adults who grew up in the absence of their incarcerated parents. The researchers explored the thoughts, emotions, and perceptions of their lived experiences. This lead to the creation of the themes and meanings ascribed to these lived experiences. Parental incarceration is a type of separation that significantly affects the child\u27s behavioral and emotional implications, such as coping strategies. Interpretative Phenomenological analysis (IPA) was used as the analytical framework of this study. The researchers used an interview schedule for the 7 participants 5 are children of parents who committed common crimes while 2 are children of Martial Law detainees. The participants are adult children who are at least 18 years old with an incarcerated parent. The analysis reveals 3 super-ordinate themes namely, separation resulting from incarceration, consequences of the separation to the child and outcomes of the separation to the child. Themes were also created under each super-ordinate theme which results from the children\u27s perspectives, socio-emotional development and thoughts. The study captured 3 main points. First, the adult children are able to thrive and to become resilient when social support is present and when they are able to regulate their emotions. Second, external and internal stigmatization is present during the experience. Lastly, the adult children were able to conceptualize justice and morality when they realized that they were a part of a larger society

Capillary and microchip electrophoresis

This important text: Puts the focus on trace evidence and analytical science Contains case studies that illustrate theory in practice Includes contributions from experts on the topics of instrumentation, theory, and case examples Explores ..

A novel path to chronic proprioceptive disability with oxaliplatin: Distortion of sensory encoding

Persistent neurotoxic side effects of Oxaliplatin (OX) chemotherapy, including sensory ataxia, limit the efficacy of treatment and significantly diminish patient quality of life. The common explanation for neurotoxicity is neuropathy, however the degree of neuropathy varies greatly among patients and appears insufficient in some cases to fully account for disability. We recently identified an additional mechanism that might contribute to sensory ataxia following OX treatment. In the present study, we tested whether that mechanism, selective modification of sensory signaling by muscle proprioceptors might result in behavioral deficits in rats. OX was administered once per week for seven weeks (cumulative dose i.p. 70 mg/kg) to adult female Wistar rats. Throughout and for three weeks following treatment, behavioral analysis was performed daily on OX and sham control rats. Compared to controls, OX rats demonstrated errors in placing their hind feet securely and/or correctly during a horizontal ladder rung task. These behavioral deficits occurred together with modification of proprioceptor signaling that eliminated sensory encoding of static muscle position while having little effect on encoding of dynamic changes in muscle length. Selective inability to sustain repetitive firing in response to static muscle stretch led us to hypothesize that OX treatment impairs specific ionic currents, possibly the persistent inward Na currents (NaPIC) that are known to support repetitive firing during static stimulation in several neuron types, including the class of large diameter dorsal root ganglion cells that includes muscle proprioceptors. We tested this hypothesis by determining whether the chronic effects of OX on the firing behavior of muscle proprioceptors in vivo were mimicked by acute injection of NaPIC antagonists. Both riluzole and phenytoin, each having multiple drug actions but having only antagonist action on NaPIC in common, reproduced selective modification of proprioceptor signaling observed in OX rats. Taken together, these findings lead us to propose that OX chemotherapy contributes to movement disability by modifying sensory encoding, possibly via a chronic neurotoxic effect on NaPIC in the sensory terminals of muscle proprioceptors

Mouse models for neurological disease

The mouse has many advantages over human beings for the study of genetics, including the unique property that genetic manipulation can be routinely carried out in the mouse genome. Most importantly, mice and human beings share the same mammalian genes, have many similar biochemical pathways, and have the same diseases. In the minority of cases where these features do not apply, we can still often gain new insights into mouse and human biology. In addition to existing mouse models, several major programmes have been set up to generate new mouse models of disease. Alongside these efforts are new initiatives for the clinical, behavioural, and physiological testing of mice. Molecular genetics has had a major influence on our understanding of the causes of neurological disorders in human beings, and much of this has come from work in mice