Judgement of conceptual identity in monkeys

Baboons (Papio anubis) were tested on categorization tasks at two different conceptual levels. The monkeys showed their ability (1) to judge as identical or different the objects belonging to two categories, on a perceptual basis, and (2) to perform a judgment of conceptual identity—that is, to use the same/different relation between two previously learned categories. This latter experiment represents the first demonstration of judgment of conceptual identity in a monkey specie

Co-ordination of actions, visual perception, and inhibition in human and non-human primate development

The originality of Langer's approach to cognitive development (Langer, 1980, 1986) lies in the study of the pragmatic components (actions, object manipulations) of protologicomathematical and protophysical cognition before the age of 2. This perspective falls in line with Piaget's constructive psychology

The cognitive revolution in Europe: taking the developmental perspective seriously

We can do little but to share Miller’s view [1] that cognitive psychology was born in the 1950s. However, his article distorts the role of psychology in the birth of cognitive science. On two occasions, Miller proposes that psychology could not play a role in the cognitive revolution because of its narrow focus on behaviorism

Genetic instability in cyanobacteria - an elephant in the room?

Many research groups are interested in engineering the metabolism of cyanobacteria with the objective to convert solar energy, CO2, and water (perhaps also N2) into commercially valuable products. Toward this objective, many challenges stand in the way before sustainable production can be realized. One of these challenges, potentially, is genetic instability. Although only a handful of reports of this phenomenon are available in the scientific literature, it does appear to be a real issue that so far has not been studied much in cyanobacteria. With this brief perspective, I wish to raise the awareness of this potential issue and hope to inspire future studies on the topic as I believe it will make an important contribution to enabling sustainable large-scale biotechnology in the future using aquatic photobiological microorganisms

Alasdair MacIntyre as a Marxist and as a critic of Marxism

This essay reconstructs Alasdair MacIntyre's engagement with Marxism with a view both to illuminating the co-ordinates of his mature thought and to outlining a partial critique of that thought. While the critique of Marxism outlined in After Virtue is well known, until recently Marx's profound influence on MacIntyre was obscured by a thoroughly misleading attempt to label him as a communitarian thinker. If this erroneous interpretation of MacIntyre's mature thought is now widely discredited, the fact that he has distanced himself from several of the arguments he previously gave for rejecting Marxism both reduces the theoretical space between his mature thought and his early Marxism and highlights a consistent theme in his critique of Marxism since the 1960s to which this essay is addressed: his dissatisfaction with the ethical dimension of Marxist attempts to theorise the relationship between socialist militants and the working-class movement from below

Avalanche photodiodes and vacuum phototriodes for the electromagnetic calorimeter of the CMS experiment at the large hadron collider

The homogeneous lead tungstate electromagnetic calorimeter for the Compact Muon Solenoid detector at the Large Hadron Collider operates in a challenging radiation environment. The central region of the calorimeter uses large-area avalanche photodiodes to detect the fast blue-violet scintillation light from the crystals. The high hadron fluence in the forward region precludes the use of these photodiodes and vacuum phototriodes are used in this region. The constructional complexity of the calorimeter, which comprises 75848 individual crystals, plus the activation of material make repair during the lifetime of the detector virtually impossible. We describe here the key features and performance of the photodetectors and the quality assurance procedures that were used to ensure that the proportion of photodetectors that fail over the lifetime of CMS will be limited to a fraction of a percent

The production of radiation tolerant vacuum phototriodes and their HV filters for the compact muon solenoid endcap electromagnetic calorimeter

Particle detectors which will operate at the Large Hadron Collider face unprecedented challenges in both the number of active detector elements and in operating without maintenance in a high radiation environment for many years. In the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) detector the scintillating crystal electromagnetic calorimeter uses vacuum photodetectors in the endcap where the lifetime neutron and hadron fluence is too high for the silicon avalanche photodiodes used in the barrel. Over 15000 radiation tolerant vacuum phototriodes (VPT) have been now been produced by industry for the endcap calorimeter. The VPT have to operate in an environment which has both a significant lifetime dose (up to 50 kGy) from electrons and gamma rays and a high neutron fluence (up to nearly 10^15 n.cm^−2 for E > 100 keV). This paper discusses the steps taken during both the development and production of the VPT to ensure that the response to the scintillation light from the lead tungstate scintillator will not be significantly degraded during the operational lifetime of the experiment. Data from the quality assurance procedures and radiation induced degradation of complete VPT devices is presented. Other components of the endcap calorimeter are also exposed to a similarly intense radiation field. The quality assurance procedure used to select the passive components (resistors and capacitors) used in the high-voltage filter cards is described

Does the use of the dynamic system approach really help fill in the gap between human and non human primate language ? Commentary to S. Shanker and B. J. King " the Emergence of a New Paradigm in Ape Language Research"

The highly recommended transposition of the dynamic system approach for tackling the question of apes’ linguistic abilities has clearly not led to a demonstration that these primates have acquired language. Fundamental differences related to functional modalities – namely, use of the declarative and the form of engagement between mother and infant –can be observed in the way humans and apes use their communicatory systems